Friday, November 9, 2007

Never Stick Your Elbow In Cadmium Yellow!


First, even though it's your elbow, you'd be surprised how many places on your body it can actually reach!

Second, because although it is one of the most luscious yellows available in oils (my opinion, but a common one, if just for it's superb clarity and high tinting strength in mixing), it is TOXIC. Which is why one should always wear an over shirt or at least a painter's apron. You really don't want the cadmiums on your bare skin.

Third, it is a Grizzly bear to get out of fabric precisely because of it's tinting power and intensity.

I wasn't even using it very much at present in the portrait I'm working on, except for making small touches of various complementary and reflected greens, but it's very expensive to my budget, so I don't toss even a dab if it's still workable, I just move it to the new palette. It takes a long time to dry, so will often be viable when other colors left out longer than intended between painting sessions are dry all the way though.

Don't ask me how I got my elbow in the very small pile of yellow that was waaaay up in the upper right corner of my palette. I dragged the shirt sleeve through it at some point, then leaned my elbow on my thigh. By the time I noticed it on my jeans, I thought "Oh crap, where's the rest of it?!" All over my favorite painting shirt, which is over sized on me so a bit more prone to this type of studio accident, but I posted my love of this shirt at length in a previous post, so I won't go there.

I took it off, my jeans too, and used my brush cleaning solvent to remove as much as possible, then soaked it in Chlorox 2 and left it for overnight (I'll let you know if it works). That's the one advantage to having a studio space in a laundry room. That may also be part of the problem: my work space is so tight and small that there is not enough room to really manage a larger canvas, and this is not even big, only about 16" x 24". I used to favor 3 by 4 FEET. Those days are over, at least for the time being. As difficult as it is, as much as I was spoiled by "real" studio space over about 35 years, I bless my small area and I am glad to have it. As I downsize all the stuff and bother of my life in a quest for greater simplicity, less overall expense and more peace, thus ending up with less and less material "stuff", I find it's so much easier to be thankful for the smallest of things, which makes the bigger stuff truly awesome!

I went online tonight needing bigger brushes for this particular work, picked out about $80. worth, left it to go paint some more, spot happened, came back up to rework the order, then checked my credit card balance, and decided I couldn't afford it. BUT, I am really grateful I have a computer to go online with to even browse!

So, all two of you reading this, take a moment to count all of your blessings! :~D

3 comments:

Crabby McSlacker said...

Oh, no, not the favorite painting shirt! Hope you get it back into rotation soon.

I hate when I get something on me and don't notice for awhile and have to track it through the house and keep finding it everywhere. (The worst, of course, is when one of the nasty neighbors doesn't pick up after his/her dog (our yard is on a corner and a favorite spot) and I've stepped in it and tracked through the entire house before I realize. Yeechh.)

And the leaf picture is lovely by the way!

TK said...

Hi Crabby!

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. :)

The painting shirt came out great, it has some natural camoflage defenses going for it!
The Levi's not so good, they all seem to prefer holding on to oil color, at least as a faint tint, and there is a light yellow remnant.

Yes, pet deposits tracked through the house must be a necessary rite of passage in this life. Cat poop is even more disgusting (no offense to your lovely feline companion) than dog. DH had tracked some from one end of the house to the other, and it took me an hour of cleaning and trying not to gack up my lunch to get it all. That's when I trained the dog to chase the ginger tomcat (responsible for a year of unburied leavings) out of our yard whenever I caught him there. DH was horrified, as she'd never been a cat chaser and indeed had had here own cat (actually the cat had her). I explained that she would only chase the ginger cat, and she only ever did.

You could blog about how experiences like this are best approached as a way to work out the upper body (wax on, wax off) thus releasing the stress energy rather than becoming upset and stewing. LOL!

John said...

out, out, damn spot!