Oil Painting | Water Colours | Drawing
OIL PAINTING
Short cuts, techniques etc.
Top
1. Oil paints can be scratched, scraped, scrapped and re-applied. So freedom is your byword. GO for it!
2. Card, wood, canvas or any other base you can think of will take oil; sometimes a coating of emulsion is wise.
3. You can work from a solid base of any colour or tone between white and black according to how you feel.
4. Buy only a few colours if you are a beginner. Suggestion: white, yellow, cadmium red, alizarin crimson, ultramarine or cobalt blue, burnt sienna. These colours will mix just about anything you want.
5. Practise a still life using each colour singly with white for the tones. Always add white to the colour. You will see the difference if you try it the other way round.
6. Use fairly large brushes, sizes six plus, unless you want a tight tiny photographic painting. This might be necessary if you are doing a commission. Many people look for a "chocolate box" painting and it is as well to find out what they like before embarking on the project. Remember, nevertheless, that brushstrokes are often the signature of an artist.
7. Buy a palette knife. A satisfactory palette knife work uses a lot of paint. It is great fun, like a child playing with mud pies! But be sure you have no mud colours ...
8. Mud colours come if you mix too much of too many together, wrong colours, wrong amounts, BUT
9. A soupson of each tint should be incorporated into every colour you do mix. That way your finished painting will have cohesion.
10. You can use white spirit or turpentine for thinning your paint and for cleaning brushes but wash them in soap and water and between thumbnail and finger frequently to keep them soft and malleable.
11. To keep your colours clean, dip the brush in white spirit or turps and wipe on paper towel or rag between mixes. A paper palette for mixing is easier than a wooden one which needs cleaning every time it is used.
12. Some people like to dip their brush in linseed oil to thin their paints. Try it.
13. Start with thin paint, darker colours. As you add layers they can get thicker with confidence taking more time to dry. The very lightest parts are often the thickest especially the final highlights. You can of course paint alla prima, all at once, no layers!
14. When you choose your subject, see exactly (or imagine and don't forget during the whole painting) the direction from which the light is coming. Shadows, dark and light and contrast, bring the picture to life. Try the shadows in complementary colours. Notice reflected colour.
15. Red is a warm colour and appears to come forward, blue seems to recede. Optical illusion!
Also dark for foreground, pale for distance. Yellow can be warm or cold according to its purity. All the different tints and tones of these can be woven into the tapestry of your work. They are infinite.
Good luck!
Keep looking at your painting from a distance as it grows, because it will look different from where you stand. Look at it in a mirror too. That also changes it and often shows up mistakes.
WATERCOLOURS
can be produced in several styles. Here are two.
Top
1. Wet into wet, which is exciting and difficult to control.
2. Carefully drawing outlines first and skilfully filling in and joining into a cohesive picture, allowing colours to dry as you go along. Use a hair drier.
3. For (2) you will need largish brushes, 6,8,10 and a roomy palette for washes and mixes + a little sponge. Use a knife to scrape highlights and any other inventive marking implement you can think of. Large feathers?
4. For (3) you will need a soft pencil, masking fluid and slightly smaller brushes. You can also get tree shaped brushes and very thin long ones called riggers for winter branches of trees etc.
5. Papers can vary a lot. The thinner ones may need taping down to stop crinkling when wet. Very thick ones do not need this.
6. Suggested colours. A very few. Ultramarine, raw sienna and burnt umber with a red - good for northern landscapes. Use brighter colours for warmer climates.
7. Mud colours come if you mix too much of too many in the wrong amounts, BUT
8. A soupson of each tint should be incorporated into every colour you do mix. That way your finished painting will have cohesion.
9. First practise a still life with only one colour mixed with more or less water for the tones. Start from pale to dark. Leave white paper for the lightest.
10.When you choose your subject, see exactly (or imagine and don't forget during the whole painting) the direction from which the light is coming. Shadows, dark and light and contrast, bring the picture to life. Try the shadows and complementary colours. Notice reflected colour.
11. Red is a warm colour and appears to come forward, blue seems to recede. Optical illusion! Also dark for foreground, pale for distance. Yellow can be warm or cold according to its purity. All the different tints and tones and mixes of these can be woven into the tapestry of your work. They are infinite.
12. In looser watercolours (2) half close your eyes to get the distant effect.
13. For landscapes it is a good idea to wash in the sky, working from top towards foreground.
14. Never be scared of a blank sheet. Just go for it and your own originality will shine through!
DRAWING
Top
1. When you want to draw a subject, look for the pattern, within and as a whole. Squares, circles, triangles or any other repetitive shape.
2. It will help if you notice that lines come from or go to other lines or places of importance. This is almost imperative to achieve the flow in a drawing.
3. Do not rub out mistakes. Redraw where it ought to be, leaving the original mark. This adds to the interest of a study.
4. Hatched shading is cleaner than rubbed although the thumb or fingers are used a lot with charcoal.
5. Hatching small thin lines for shading can be done in the different directions of the subject/object (can become messy) or kept in the same direction throughout the drawing. This is easier for a professional look. More lines or fewer lines give the tones, and a variety of tones is one of the secrets of good drawings.
6. Line drawing is clean and simple. The lines should vary in thickness and thinness and important points need to be accentuated. Bear in mind the sculptural aspect.
7. The paler the line and tone the more the subject will recede, so the foreground needs to be stronger for line drawing.
8. Portrait drawing requires the figure or face to be placed looking into the larger space in the frame. Be careful not to place it dead centre.
9. Remember a head is like an egg and adjust the tones accordingly. Practise drawing an egg to produce that round effect.
10. Every object has weight. Accentuate the base and note the shadows throughout.
Top
|