We have deviated away from painting for a short blog.

Many times I have been asked how I got my website and I know the big black hole feeling this subject creates for those who know nothing about creating a website.

Here is a list in a nut shell of what can be done to start creating your website.

1.  Learn to build your website on WordPress. – free
2.  Register your website name. – you pay
3.  Transfer and park your website in a host’s computer. – you pay
    You now have control of your own website on the World Wide Web.

• Build a site on WordPress. – free   First have a look at  www.wordpress.com to see what it is all about.
  Do not be put off if you do not understand Word Press, it is a learning process and not too complicated just new to you.
  Wordpress is a template where you add your own text and images. Once you learn the basics you can change the shape of the template and colours to get it looking as you wish.
• Let us say your website is going to be called joeblow
  
• Open a new folder on your computer decktop or better still in your personal storage device, call it joeblow, in here you have a notepad page with passwords and 2 folders for big and small images.
  Or at least have a piece of paper to store your passwords.
  Do this first and not after you have half started a website, there is a lot to remember.
• Go to www.wordpress.com and join up and open a free website.
  It will become    http://joeblow.wordpress. com
• Spend time browsing WordPress, it is an endless
  mass of pages so stay with the few pages showing how to start your site.
• Get familiar with the ‘help’ section, it is a bit of a task but very useful.
• If there is a technical word you do not understand, go to Google and look up that word and learn exactly what in means.
  Note, I say go to Google as many sites including WordPress use complicated explanations written by computer geeks.
• Do not try to learn HTML or any other code at this stage.
  You can build your website without learning HTML code.
• Keep your new website simple with 2 or 3 pages till you finish learning.
  You can make mistakes and correct them as you learn.
• Make your home page a post and the rest will be pages.  (WordPress gives you a choice)
  We are building a website not a blog site and posts are for blogs. At this stage our home page needs to be a post to keep the learning simple.
• Register your website name. – you pay
• Transfer and park your website in a host’s computer. – you pay
  When you are happy with your WordPress site then you can transfer your pages to a real website which will be http://joeblow. com or http://joeblow. net or http://joeblow. org or whatever you wish.
  This is called a hosted website and sometimes looks like this http://www.joeblow. Com
• To have a hosted website you need to register the name first then you need to place your website with a host who puts it on his big computer which then sends your site to the World Wide Web.
  A bit like a car. after you register it you then choose where to park it, your website is parked with the host.
• To own a website does cost money, about $10 to register and about $30 for hosting, this amount varies from nothing per year with higher amounts for more services such as bigger storage of videos etc. Do not try for free hosting, shop around and find a reliable host whom will answer the phone when needed and they must support a WordPress type website.
  The host usually has a website name registering service also.

P.S. I use webcity as my host www.webcity.com.au

I do like helping where I can so please feel free to contact me if I can help you.
Len Hend

To get started with your acrylic painting lessons you will need.

• Something to paint on – first choice is prepared artist canvas (prepared means primed ready to go)
  or canvas streched on a frame, or canvas panels (thin canvas in cardboard) or partical board undercoated with white acrylic house paint. sizes:- 9×12, 11×14, 12×16, 14×18 inches are good sizes to start but any size will be ok.
• Paints – plenty of white student quality paint, I like to see beginners start with monocolor which is burnt umber.
  From then we move on to the colors. The minimum colors are blue, warm yellow and crimson. 
  A set of colors is white, phthalo blue, cobalt blue, crimson, warm red, warm yellow, raw sienna, burnt sienna, burnt umber, viridian green,
• Brushes:- No need to buy expensive brushes. – Fan brush (medium size) – About a 1 or 1&1/2 inch common house painting brush - A round hog bristle brush, as big as you can get that is about 1/2 inch ferrel, not the pointed one. – A couple of flat hog bristle brushes, say 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch. – A fine hair brush for little twigs, not too small, about size 5. (Different brands have different sizes but most sizes are useful) – And a cranked painting knife.
• You will also need – rags – water – a pallete – somehow to steady and hold your painting  -
• And don’t forget to wear old cloths, sit or stand comfortably and have good lighting and fresh air,

For a few more tips read the TIPS PAGE.

Bob Ross the Painter and Entertainer

Somebody asked me if I learnt from Bob Ross the famous American TV painter who painted wet on wet with a lot of snow capped mountains in his scenes.

Len Hend the Original SpeedPainter

 I know Bob Ross painted a lot like me and I know Bob Ross was friends with Willian Alexander, another older American TV painter.
But the fact is I was traveling Australia and showing my wet on wet techniques for years before Bob Ross appeared on American television.
My first 6 SpeedPainting lessons were available on VHS video from 1980, well before Bob Ross.
And I had an afro haircut.
So no I did not learn anything from Bob Ross and I firmly believe Bob Ross learnt a lot from my videos.
I can not say how the afro haircut might have inspired Bob because I would have it trimmed before making any movies but many hundreds of thousands of people watched my act over the years.
I would paint all day and play pool at night. Playing pool was a great way to move into the social scene when I was in a different town each month. – I did play well.
Read more about my adventures HERE

Blog – About Painting In Oil and Acrylic

Wet on Wet Painting in Oil or Acrylic

What is wet on wet painting?
Wet-on-wet means you simply paint over wet paint.
It does not mean just wet over wet under coat but wet over any layer of wet paint.
You might paint a sky; then while it is still wet, paint a tree over that sky.
Blending colors is easy with this wet on wet technique, you place one color onto your canvas, then add other colors which will be mixed or ‘blended’ with the brush or knife to the desired tone, this is a very handy method of blending the sky from dark above to pale in the distance or the water from light to dark.(short video)
I call my style of painting ‘Speed Painting’ but it is simply a wet on wet, loose method of painting which I learned to use while demonstrating in shopping centers and festivals around Australia.  I needed to paint fast to hold the attention of the audience.
If I dropped my brush or stopped to squeeze paint from a tube, half my audience would go back to their shopping but if I was skillful and could hold the crowd for a complete painting, then often I could sell or auction that painting before it dried. (One day I must show you how to package a wet painting).
I believe many old masters used the wet on wet techniques, see Claud Monet.
As opposed to wet on wet.
The ‘traditional’ method of painting is still taught by some art teachers and institutions. This usually involves sketching the subject then painting in the different items in accordance with their tone, that being the darkest tones first. (How boring) Often the sky would be added last and each color, and tone of that color, would be mixed on the palette. (So you build your painting from darks to lights).
This also involved waiting for each color to dry before adding the next. A very slow process when using oils.

My First Blog – Amazing.

So many people from all over the world are now using my little web site. Thank You.
I have been building this site for months now, working on it every day. You might have noticed the changes. My old brain is tired but I must go on and get it running smoothly, it is a learning curve all this digital stuff. (I much prefer things that bolt together)
I must be old now for I can still remember the horse and cart days. We lived on Victoria Road Parramatta – a six lane highway now – and I can still remember as a child we would write down the number plate of every car that drove past, just for fun. – Would not have a chance of writing down 1% of them now, more likely get run over than anything.-
Well things have changed and here I am giving art lessons on a screen to people all over the world, – everywhere – America, South America, Germany, Indonesia, Denmark, Spain, UK, plus Australia and many other countries some of which I can’t spell.

I am at our home in Thailand, Chiang Mai, till Mid March 2012 and then back to Australia for the cooler months.
If you see anything missing or wrong with my website please let me know. And if you wish to put a link on your website to http://www.paintwithlen.com please do. I will put a subscribe button on this website when I find out how, then if you wish you can be notified each time I put a new lesson up.
Happy painting
Len