Saturday, January 31, 2009

Your Daily Serving of Protein


Guess what? You don't get to eat this one. This little painting was done with casein paint. I've always joked that casein should be the perfect medium for me, with my Food Science degree, because it's made from the milk protein that gives it its name. I got to study casein (the milk protein, not the paint!) a bit in one of my fourth year courses. I won't enthral you with any of that knowledge right now! This painting is 5 x 7 on gessoed masonite panel. Earlier on in my progress I thought I would go farther than what you see her, but I may just leave it as it is. I kind of like the simplicity, and well, foals are so cute they deserve to be front and centre with as little distraction as possible! (Translation: I'm afraid I'll mess it up!)

I first became aware of casein paint because fellow EAGer Kathi Peters, who works extensively in this medium. Kathi is the Casein Guru ;-) I have a long way to go, that's for sure! Her latest casein WIP was well-timed for me, as I prepped some panels this week in hopes of playing sometime soon. Have a look at her blog to see the pro at work!


In case you're missing the weather report, we've had snow for the last three days. Wednesday was the most significant accumulation, but there has just seemed to be a constant snowfall since then. Apparently it's supposed to warm up tomorrow. None of us are holding our breath! My fellow blogging and artist friend April Jaroka posted a welcome photo of the sun on her blog today. Be sure to visit her painting blog as well for some amazing seascapes...especially if you're sick of all my snow paintings!

3 comments:

April Jarocka said...

Casein? I never heard of that Linda. Thanks for educating me!

Kimberly Kelly Santini said...

so really what did you think of the whole process of working with casein? I found it hard to have the right value mixed and laid down - I'm too used to glazing and pushing my paints.

Linda Shantz said...

Casein is kind of like egg tempera, April...well, you know, except for the egg part!

Kim, I found I worked a lot like the way I do oils, at least when I don't do a full underpainting, and it worked out really well. I sort of start out in the middle and then adjust the values as I get further along. I couldn't blend like I do the oils of course, so I did end up getting a much different end result!