Info

Watercolor paintings

A watercolor is painted on paper with water-soluble paints. The transparent colors are applied in several layers to create darker shades. Subsequent corrections are only possible to a limited extent, since it is not possible to simply paint over.

Due to the use of water, the image must lie straight on the table during painting. To prevent the paper from making large waves, it must be fixed to a rigid plate before painting.

All this makes the work very demanding, especially in the photorealistic field.

I only use exclusively high quality, partly handmade watercolor papers, as well as the highest quality watercolor paints.

Because of their light, vibrant colors, watercolors can be an excellent choice for rooms with lots of natural light. Caution is advised, however, as the colors can fade over time if exposed to a lot of sunlight without protection. Frames with glazing are always recommended for protection from moisture and sunlight. If exposed to more sunlight, the use of high quality museum glass should be considered.

A slight waviness of the image in the final result is normal.

Acrylic paintings

Acrylic paints are the medium of choice of most art painters today, because they are characterized by easy handling, while the appearance is similar to classic oil paints. Because the colors are opaque and dry quickly, a high pace of work can be achieved and mistakes can be corrected quickly.

Acrylic paintings can also last a long time without fading or yellowing.

So there are many advantages over oil, while there are no substantial disadvantages. Compared to watercolor painting, the painting can stand on end when painted, which makes it easier to work, especially on large-scale works.

Acrylic paintings are usually painted on a canvas, which is a linen fabric stretched on a stretcher frame.

With a variety of available colors and other effect materials, acrylic paintings can be used to create very different types of images. They offer a high degree of artistic freedom and are often used for experimental and abstract painting.

Also because good acrylic paints are already available for a moderate price, acrylic paintings are comparatively inexpensive to produce overall.

Oil paintings

Pictures painted with oil are often almost indistinguishable from acrylic paintings. They are also usually applied to a canvas. The colors are opaque and texture such as depth can be created with them. However, painting with oil is quite demanding and much more difficult than with acrylic paints.

The drying time of the paints lasts from a few hours to several days. Oil paints can be painted in a modern “wet-on-wet” technique, which is popular for a particular style of landscape painting, for example. However, in the classic oil painting technique, several layers are usually painted “wet-on-dry” and so there are inevitably long waiting times. Thus, the production of an oil painting can take a long time and even after completion, for example, before a necessary transport, the picture must dry out sufficiently over several days. Caution is still required afterwards, as it can take several months in total until the painting is completely dry.

Because of the solvents used, the work should be done only in well-ventilated rooms.

Oil paintings are significantly more expensive than acrylic paintings for these reasons, and because of the costly materials. However, they offer excellent quality, and in particular the durability is so good that it is not uncommon for the paintings to last for centuries.

By the impression of very old oil paintings, which may be dark and yellowed, or even have a “craquelure” (small cracks), you should not be deterred, because a newly painted (as well as a freshly restored picture) can have a very lively character.

Digital art, scans and prints

Digital art is very diverse and made with the help of computer programs.

For example, with the goal of aesthetic embellishment, a photo can be altered so that the result looks like a luminous watercolor painting. With a professional eye, manual editing usually produces a much better result than is possible via a simple photo filter you may have on your smartphone.

Another form of digitally processed art are clip-arts: small illustrations that can be used, for example, to design your own invitation cards. Clip-arts are offered by me as affordable download products. The basis of many of my clip-arts are hand-painted images.

Especially for commissioned work in smaller formats, I also offer professional scans and prints as additional services. In this way, analog images can additionally be made available as digital image files in best quality. The production of high-quality art prints makes it possible to get digital images in artist quality on paper, or to duplicate images.

Commission a work

A commissioned work is usually done by me on the basis of photos that you send me in advance.

An artistic work, quite naturally, has some deviations from the original. These result, for example, from the materials used, the chosen painting technique and from my own aesthetic assessment. Here on my website, as well as in my linked online stores, I do my best to provide you with helpful knowledge and some examples of my work, so that you can better imagine the result of a commissioned work in advance.

There is no satisfaction guarantee with an artist commission. However, I strive to achieve the best result for the client in every single commission, even if that means some subsequent adjustments to the image. It is extremely rare for me that a client is not satisfied in the end.

For people to be painted (e.g. portraits), please note the following when commissioning:

• The smaller a face needs to be painted, the more difficult it is to create sufficient recognition value. Therefore, please select the photo or the cutout and the target format in such a way that each face to be depicted then has a diameter of at least approx. 3 cm (1.2 in).
• Please pay particular attention to whether a person in a photo actually looks the way you would typically know and recognize him or her. If you are not sure about this, feel free to send me more photos of that person for reference.

Formats are generally available in any size:

• For small pictures, the following applies: for pictures from about A4 and smaller, depending on the motif, these are not necessarily cheaper if ordered even smaller, since miniature painting is difficult and time-consuming (and the difference in material costs, on the other hand, does not make much difference).
• For large paintings, of course there is a limit, but no one has ever asked for a format that is too large. So for large formats, feel free to ask. Large pictures that are painted on linen are rolled up by arrangement and optionally sent without a stretcher frame.

I generally do not offer picture frames. However, if you need help in choosing a suitable picture frame, please feel free to ask me about it.