The Drawing Board The Foundation for a Great Drawing Drawing Boards are great supports for doing solid drawings. You can go to an art store to and purchase one for 10.00 – 25.00 or you can save a little money and have the board cut to any size you want. Almost all drawing boards are made of masonite or MDF a compressed wood product. Thanks to the convenience of Home Depot you can purchase a 2′ x 4′ or 48″ x 24″…
The Chroma Scale Chroma is an important aspect of Color. Remember chroma and intensity mean the same thing, it is how bright or dull a color appears. By having a variety of intensities with your colors you increase the the depth of your color relationships in your paintings. You seldom hear mention of the chroma or intensity scale so let’s explore what it means. The Chroma wheel shows the primary colors decreasing in intensity or chroma down threw the chroma scale to a…
Color and It’s Multiple Personalities Color is has three very distinct personalities or characteristics. This is why color has so much complexity however by understanding these aspects of color and how to identify them you can better understand the colors you are seeing. Understanding is more than half the battle in the world of color mixing. The three aspects of color are hue, value and chroma. With the exception of black and white every color has these three aspects. So let’s shed…
Mixing Grays with Triadic Colors Control your mixtures with a better understanding of the color wheel Grayed or colors of lower intensity are important way of controlling you color. The more intense colors catch more attention when they are surrounded by colors with lower intensity. 80% percent of you colors in representational painting will contain colors of lower intensity or chroma another words “grayed” colors. Now when I say “grayed” I am not talking about battle ship grey. I am talking about any…
Creating Depth in Your Artwork Looking at many of the paintings of the great masters, I am amazed at the feeling of depth. Rembrandt painted scenes which appear as if you could reach right into them, or step inside and wander the countryside. Many artists have tried to discover the secret of painting pictures with that kind of depth. They pour over books looking for the secret recipes, just the right technique, or paint pigments. There is no big secret; it all comes…
Plein Air and Outdoor Painting Approaches My Outdoor Painting Palette There are many great painting palettes. Certain palettes favor earth tones, others favor warm or cool color mixtures. I have used many different palettes, but the palette I have come to use most over the years is a warm and cool primary color palette. I mix secondary and tertiary colors from the primary colors. With this, I find I can achieve the widest range of colors. I can mix color schemes that lean…
This Will Help Keep Your Brushes in Good Condition When painting in oil always dip you brush into medium or thinner first before dipping into your oil paint that will keep you brushes from getting built up oil paint in the ferrule of the brush which will keep your brushes in great condition for years. After painting clean up with thinner and soap and water.
Quick Tips: Drawing Papers To preserve the life of your drawing be sure to use papers that are 100% cotton rag. Most of these types of papers will be watercolor and printmaking papers. I prefer 90lb to 140lb papers. Papers come in different textures and are sized differently. (Sized means how absorbent or non absorbent the paper fibers are. Gelatin sizing is used to control paper absorbency). Paper textures vary, starting with plate (smoothest), hot pressed (slight texture), rough (more texture), cold pressed…
Choosing the Art Workshop that’s Right for You When I was a student in college, I took two very different workshops. Both were taught by established, talented artists and I learned something from both instructors. One of the workshops, however, stood out from the other. The artist conducting this workshop was not only a professional painter but an amazing teacher. He connected with us as students; it wasn’t just about him. He lectured, of course, but more importantly he gave personalized instruction, along…