Bockingford paper is a highly versatile watercolor paper and one ideally suited for the art beginner. There is no real need to stretch paper. Watercolour paper will expand when wet and all you really need do is with masking tape on each corner attach it to your board. When it expands simply pull it tighter at each corner. After you finish the painting you can also spray the reverse side of the watercolour paper with water and then weighted down place between a sandwich of clean dry paper.
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Humans express themselves in order to reveal themselves. Expression and creativity can be personally very satisfying but as all professional artists know all to well can equally be a unsettling experience - one that can subdue us in face this enormity. Art schools are the perfect environment for the art student to learn from balanced criticism and protected from the dangers of withdrawal from the experiment. Basically keep them on their toes!! Artists are always testing the ground between the danger of the unknown and the comfort and security of the known. It is important that you seek out criticism and take it on board. Become your own critic too. Why not test yourself by critcal scrutiny of your favourite canvas painting or drawing. Be as cruelly honest as you can, then try to work out ways in which you could improve on the weakness you observe. Also how could you learn from and maybe incorporate in your own work the positives. See also canvas art prints, british contemporary art and art student
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Art is an experiment in how to experiment and also how to avoid falling headlong into the "pit" of aesthetic imitation and predictability! Whatever you are painting, try to imagine that it is the first time you have seen it and you should be taken to unexpected places where magic lives!
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The greatness of a drawing is not judged by its accuracy alone but also by the manner in which you can make the drawing visually sing. Through disciplined drawing practice you will become better at representing what you see with quickly executed lines, lines that capture and communicate emotion rather than describe.
Exercise one.
Drawing pedestrians in the street is a good exercise. A window seat in a coffee shop makes a prime location. Drawing from the television is also a great exercise. Try to capture poetic movements, watch for rhythms, draw speed, draw slowness, draw awkwardness, draw age, youth, happiness, leaps, slips, running, skipping, and all the time working as quickly and spontaneously as you can. Leonard da Vinci (Italian Renaissance artist 1452-1519) suggested an oval for the head and bent lines for both the arms and legs. View also canvas art prints, art influence and the world is flat
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Regardless if your working method is spontaneous or methodical always try to have materials ready at hand. Nothing more disruptive to the creative mind than the break in concentration and inspiration caused by having to buy or prepare your materials on the spot.
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How can we learn from our mistakes if we pretend they never occurred by erasing their tracks with a artists rubber? As an art teacher there is nothing more satisfying than to see a students finished drawing with all the corrections and re-adjustments still evident. There are numerous examples of this in the drawing repertoires of many a great master so always try to work out and improve your drawings without reaching for a new sheet of paper.
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Colour relationships
When staring a painting on a stark white canvas you may find it a good practice to first set in with washes of thinned oil paint the overall color relationships. You may have developed a technique to exploit the white canvas but remember that white will be the lightest light in your painting and it will act on all its color and tonal relationships. Artists often create a sort of middle tone into which they can later add the lightest lights and darks as they wish. See also drawing techniques, artist color and silhouette
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All water-based paints, such as acrylic, gouache and watercolour, can happily be used together in a painting both by mixing them together and also laying them in successive layers. Oil based paints can also be used in combination with water-based paints so long as the water-based paint is laid down first. The quick drying time of acrylic can be used to great effect to sketch in an under painting or simply to create a coloured working surface.
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Artist role modelsHistory serves us two extremes of artist role models. One a figure sitting at the centre of the art establishment, receiving patronage from it and working directly for it. The other a lonely artist figure working outside of the establishment of the day. Until quite recently the art establishment was broadly conservative and artists working for the establishment through force of necessity were required to conform and those that were unwilling to renounce their individuality and vision were socially excluded. Today a complete about-face has occurred where the art establishment is seen to only sponsor art that is avant-garde. This, I believe, leaves the artists in a quandary! They either irrationally and artificially peruse some avant-garde agenda in order to be part of the established order or they take the conservative route. Either way this leaves room for genuine unadulterated revolutionary spirit somewhat stifled! So what’s the point here, well the artists must either through nature or design, rebel, but their own rebellion against themselves, an internal struggle, a struggle to break out of any comfort zone of what they think they understand and attempt to reach new and wonderful destinations. It is honest self-appraisal that forms the backbone of the true avant-garde and not superficially conforming to the establishment norms. How each individual artist goes about this task is a personal journey but one simple method you could consider is never to take your first idea as the best, wait till you have developed multiple times, or never sit and paint a subject without first exploring over and over again possible compositions and lightings. See artist search
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We are all guilty of the smugness trap of over confidence in face of the task ahead, of thinking we know how things look, how to represent them, how to achieve effects, etc. The only end result for this thinking process is art that is over stylised and designed and lacking in originality and the depth. A useful trick to help one avoid this is to try different mediums and different combinations of mediums every time you start a new work. You can try this easily by going out to do five drawings. Do one with charcoal, one with watercolour, one with a pencil, one by finger painting and one with pastels. That will keep you on your toes! see also wotartist abstract art paintings
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Drawing is one of the most satisfying activities that you can do. It is so simple and yet can feel so complex at the same time. One way to improve your drawing skills is simply by keeping a sketchbook with you and getting into the practice of regular drawing. Observing and sketching simple every day objects or scenes is often the key to a greater expression. Regular drawing practice is an easy way to find your true expression and improve your drawing technique.
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Artistic viewpointIt would be impossible for the sculptor to complete his/her work without first making detailed drawing studies of the subject from many different angles. The painter is more accustomed to finding a single viewpoint and proceeding to paint from it alone. The painter can learn a lot from the sculptors methods and should consider where their viewpoint will be by making sketches just as a sculptor does. This of course is even more important when the subject is close, for example, in the case of a portrait subject, a still life or interior scene. Often simply shifting one's viewpoint to the left or the right can help the painter to explain what they are seeing.
Exercise 1.
Take several objects and arrange a still life. Without making a drawing re-arrange them several times and each time step back and try to observe how colours change, how shadows darken, how lights lighten, how mood changes, how cast shadows can distort the appearance of objects. Just like the sculptor does draw the subject from many different angles. You should start to see that the appearance and our preconceptions can play games with us, and that which we hold to be true one moment may the next moment no longer hold true!
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Instead of bringing out your paintings only when you intend to work on them, why not keep your unfinished paintings and drawings on view around you at all times. This is the best way to advance as each morning you will be confronted by the reality and the only remedy for dissatisfaction is to push yourself harder.
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Instead of making you own composition of a subject why not set about painting or drawing the first randomly organised grouping you see around you. This might be the jacket you threw on the bed as you arrived home that sits on the book you were reading before going to bed the night before that’s next to your dozing pet cat! This is a good exercise in dictating to your subject rather than letting it dictate to you. You will be forced to seek out more unusual ways to paint it if you are to be successful in making it interesting! Why not also paint an abstract painting from the composition. See also Art tips, cause and effect and art quotes
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Drawing fixativeAn alternative to fixing a drawing from the front is to fix it from behind. Hair spray makes an adequate solution when you have run out of fixative. You can also literally hang your drawings out to dry. Try pegging them to your washing line and to avoid the pegs leaving marks on the paper, create a sandwich of two strips of cardboard placed either side to which the pegs are attached.
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Symmetry should be avoided in your paintings. The human eye is most pleased by logical and structural direction. It is satisfied when it is given clear and logical steps to follow. Imagine how two identical objects positioned side by side in a painting would compete for your attention and not allow the eye to rest. Imagine how unsettling a grid of identically sized and coloured squares would be to look at and then consider how soothing the same set of squares would be if the squares themselves were arranged in a gradation of tones from the dark to the light. Composition is the order that the artist imposes on his work. Remember to always consider the subordination of elements to a main point of interest.
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It takes time to develop a feel for when a drawing or painting is complete and at which point to put it down. Art school students learn this lesson well through the numerous life drawing classes spent practising the one to five minute sketch. This practice is invaluable in teaching one how to adapt our technique and selective thinking. It also liberates the student from any preconceptions regarding what we actually see. An overworked drawing is a dead drawing, one that does not communicate. There will always be an innate insecurity when drawing that can compel us to continue to work past the point at which you should have stopped drawing. Try to heed any appeals to stop that you may hear!
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Falling into patterns of behaviour is a common human trait. The art of experiment is the art of breaking the patterns that the lazy mind subjects us to. I remember living in a shared house where another tenant would on returning home at any hour of the day or night, fill the kettle with water and then retire to his room. Breaking these habits which invariable will creep into one’s artistic life is a challenge and one that one has to confront if one is to develop as an artist. As an exercise try scribbling with a pencil or charcoal on a sheet of paper. Naturally the inclination is to fall into repetitions of motion, for example, circular or angular patterns. Instead, try to vary the scribble as much as you can and not to repeat the same motion twice.
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When painting a portrait make a note of where your lightest light is and where your darkest dark is. Try to set up the lighting so that there are not multiple lightest lights all competing for attention. This will contradict the correct rendering of the form and tend towards a flattening of the form and an unpleasant result. The Dutch masters of the 17th Century would often paint their portraits with one source of natural light from a window set high above the sitter. This made it easier to see the highlights, middle tone and darks, which is essential to complete the illusion of three dimensional drawing.
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Paper toothThe paper you choose for your pastel paintings is entirely of personal choice. Remember that smooth paper has little [tooth] - a papers capacity to hold pigment within its groove - and you need to work in layers - each fixed with fixative. Pastel paintings with little tooth are ideally suited to very polished and realistic finishes. It is best to experiment as much as you can. see also art quotes, turpentine solvent and paint palette
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The spaces that surround the objects that we see and draw are referred to as “negative shapes” and can not only be used creatively to describe objects that we see, but should always be considered. Imagine you draw the outline of an apple on a sheet of paper and then cut out the shape of the apple along the outline. The cut out shape of the apple and the shape that is left are both perfect descriptions of the apple.
Exercise 1.
Draw an outline of the same still life and trace this through onto six separate sheets of paper. Now you can colour the negative shapes and experiment with different abstract arrangements of both the negative and positive shapes.
Exercise 2.
Take the objects you used in the still life exercise above and re-arrange them by turning some of them upside down and some on their sides. Being now in unfamiliar and unexpected positions will force you to draw shapes as you see them and not as you know them. Now without making a preliminary linear drawing of the still life, take a stick of charcoal and attempt to draw the negative shapes only. See also cause and effect and art tips
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Artist quality paints are very expensive and for a beginner may prove prohibitive. Student quality paint adequately meets the needs of the art student but as you develop you will find yourself falling for the charms of the superior quality of artist quality paints. The difference in quality between student and artist paints in the earth colour range is not so noticeable and so it is possible to save money by using a combination of both student and artist paints.
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By applying and releasing pressure between a pencil and paper as you draw can be used to great affect to add spatial dimension in your drawings. By applying more or less pressure you create tonal variations in the line. Darker passages of line will suggest areas of greater tonal contrast and lighter passages will suggest less tonal contrast. Without the need to add any shading to define the varying planes of your subject, line alone, used expertly can achieve it for you.
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Aerial PerspectiveAerial Perspective refers to the bluish and faint appearance objects take on when viewed at a distance. Think of how mountains in the distance appear fainter and tinged with blue or how on a misty day trees not far away appear a pale grey green. This is caused by the density of water vapour present in the atmosphere that has the effect of not only merging tonal contrasts by making dark tones lighter and light tones darker but also making colours appear cooler. This effect in nature can be mimicked in your paintings by making the far ground paler and bluer. See also art tips, acurate drawing and poetic meaning
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The horizon line is the line formed where the earth and the sky appear to meet. It will always be at eye level whether you are standing or are seated. When painting a landscape its position within your picture space should be the first thing that you establish. Even if it cannot be seen, for example, when painting a mountainous scene you should establish a position for it, either in your minds eye or position it in the under-painting. It is important to help us draw the perspective of the scene correctly as all perspective lines will converge to it. Remember that it will always be parallel to the base of the picture but should not be positioned dead centre in the painting so as to divide the picture space into two equal and not satisfactory parts. The atmosphere of a painting can be greatly altered depending on if it is positioned high or low in the picture space.
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Charcoal life drawingWhy mention charcoal life drawing? Well charcoal is ideally suited to the execution of bold and dynamic drawings and together with the expressive possibilities of the human form they make for very good partners in crime. Ideally I would initiate all art students with charcoal drawing and ban the pencil altogether. The pencil will tend us towards meticulousness and detail whereas charcoal will bring out the fire within. It is that fire that as art teachers we all feel is our obligation to nurture. The art student often is afraid to make a mess, make a false move with their pencil and charcoal is perfect as a liberating experience. Learn to use it to attack the paper, use your fingers to smudge middle tones, get dirty and think big – using all the available space on your paper. Together with white chalk to pick out highlights charcoal can be used on toned and coloured paper to understand how to express a subjects three dimensionality. see also canvas art prints
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To help minimise wastage from your tube colors and prevents rupture of the tube casing, always squeeze your tube colors from the base upwards and expel air by folding the used section of the tube back on to itself. See also brush care, tube colors and cause and effect
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Pastels can get very dirty after only short use. To clean them put them in a bag together with ground rice, give it a shake and strain through a sieve.
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To avoid possible drips landing on a pastel painting when using fixative spray, pin your artists paper in an upright position rather than lay it out on the floor. Hold the fixative spray at about a foot distance from the paper and working quickly with smooth continuous sweeps from left to right and importantly from top to bottom. Ensure that each stroke does not repeat over a previous one and does not leave un-fixed areas between strokes. Remember, use it sparingly as fixative does tend to darken colors and dulls the natural beauty of the pastel. Using paper with more tooth can reduce the need to fix too often. See also artist paper, artist color and plumb line
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If a watercolour tube has dried solid you can always pierce the tube and use the paint as if it were a pan colour.
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Having good reference material at hand is the bedrock of good illustration. I remember a painting project at art school where through damn laziness I thought I could get away with painting a building from my imagination alone, only to be told by my tutor to go out and do some studies from life. The lesson was well learnt and my painting improved immensely because of it. It is a good idea to collect when and where you can, a rich variety of different reference material that you can have ready at hand.
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Mixed media explorationsExperimenting with mixed media is a great initiation into the world of art. It can orientate us towards what it is exactly that most excites us visually and technically. Using traditional mediums such as oil paint or watercolour can be daunting to the beginner and a conflict of interest arises as they try to understand the medium and its technical idiosyncrasies and at the same time grapple with understanding how to interpret the visual world. Mixed media with its undefined technique and fewer historical references is actually a liberating experience and one that I would recommend artists at any time in their art lives have a go at. It can be a great way to find new directions when the artist may feel he has reached a dead end and in search of new inspiration.
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The sky is blue? Skin is pink? A short while ago whilst I was admiring a Van Gogh print of his “Branches with Almond Blossom, February 1890” a friend of mine remarked that Van Gogh had got the colour of the sky wrong! It was not the blue that he considered the sky to be. This sort of preconception is born partly from a deficit in experience and understanding of the world as we perceive it but dare I say it also reveals a lack of artistic creative joy in the visual world. The world as we perceive it is not full of absolutes that one can state with any certainty, but full of possibility so we can interpret this world through the vehicle of our feelings and talent for invention.
Artists have always been at the forefront of the way we perceive the world. The Impressionists opened our eyes by painted shadows full of colour instead of dark colourless areas. So abandon you preconceptions and join in visual discovery!
The science behind the Blue sky
As sunlight enters our atmosphere it collides with oxygen and nitrogen atoms. The shortest wavelengths of colour are scattered, Violet and Blue being the shortest, so the sky appears blue/violet. The human eye is more sensitive to blue light and therefore the sky appear blue to us.
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Everything we see is conditioned by light and it's character and mood is in constant flux. It is important therefore to always consider the light conditions whilst you work as a subject may be brought to life by a timely change in light mood. Photographers are well known for waiting patiently, perhaps for hours, for the right lighting before taking a photograph. Turner (1775-1851. English Romantic landscape and marine artist) was famous for his discipline with respect to this and would sketch with watercolours in the morning, after lunch, in the afternoon and early evening. It was his depth of understanding of how the mood of light changes during the course of a day that makes his paintings so timeless and profoundly interesting.
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An artist's observational skills should be kept well oiled. It is a good idea to draw something new everyday. Try to keep more than one sketchbook for this purpose and separate them into distinct subject matter. That way it is easier to note and be encouraged by one's advancements. see also contemporary artists websites and glass for painting
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With ten of them at hand, fingers remain possibly the most readily available tool to blend pastels! Of course to keep their vibrancy pastels like all pigment need to be saved from contamination by other colours, so keep a damp cloth at hand to wipe you fingers clean between blends. You could use a Tortillon, paper rolled tightly to create a point and both toilet paper and paper hanky tissue. Remember to keep contrast of soft and hard edge alive in your paintings if you want them to sing and to create depth. An over use of blending can produce a dull and unpleasant result.
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Always use fixative outside and not in an enclosed non-ventilated area. Fixative is noxious. Spray from left to right evenly and don’t repeat over an area. Spray directly in front of the painting and not at an angle so as to avoid blowing pastel particles away. See also contemporary mixed media and what is abstract art?
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Many photographers invest a great deal of time, effort and money pursuing the belief that buying the best more expensive camera, like the best paints, or acquiring the camera used by one of their photographic idols will help them take a better picture.
Whilst well crafted lenses or cameras have a role in helping a photographer realise their creative ambition, its worth remembering that many of the more famous photographers of the last century used a single camera or a very limited selection of equipment to realise their vision. Examples of well known modern artists who used a single camera for the majority of their life's work include Henri Cartier Bresson (French photographer 1908-2004), Diane Arbus (American photographer 1923-1971) and Edward Weston (American photographer 1886-1958).
The best camera you own is the one you're using now. Don't be put off taking photographs because you're waiting or saving up for the 'perfect camera'. Use the camera you have and push yourself further with the means you already have at your disposal . You might be surprised at the results.
Also see abstract painting and the world is flat
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There are numerous exercises to help to train the eye to observe accurately. The best way to do this is to force the eye into situations in which the comfortable connection between its understanding of what it is seeing and what it is actually seeing is broken.
One good exercise is to hang a master drawing upside down and to copy it. Why not take an art book and try to draw all the artwork in it. Make sure it is you who is the right way up and that it is the book that is upside down!
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Disposable gloves should be considered when working with pastels or indeed oil an acrylic painting. Pigment from pastels can be absorbed through the skin, even more so when working with oils as the use of mediums can help the pigment to be absorbed quicker. Perhaps the strongest case for using disposable gloves is when handling white spirit or Turpentine, these can do nasty things to your body if ingested or absorption through the skin. Definitely use them with caution and in a well ventilated room. See also contemporary abstract art, poetic meaning and cause and effect
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Hold to your eye your clenched fist leaving a small opening just large enough to see through. Use this trick to see localised tonal and color contrasts in a subject better. View also art tips home, dream meaning and life drawing classes
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If a stretched canvas has lost its drum-like tautness, you can remedy this to a point by spraying the reverse side with water. See Contemporary American artists
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Also known also as the Claude Glass named after Claude Lorraine 1600-82 a simplified version of black mirror can be made by painting one side of a piece of glass with either black gloss paint or varnish. When viewed in a black mirror faults in your paintings tonality become easier to spot. As all colours are equally tinged with the colour of the mirror it has the effect of creating simpler arrangements of tone and so making it evident if one colour is lighter in tone than another. You will be able to see clearly if there is unity in the light and dark masses of the painting. Although perhaps its use was more relevant to an age of painting born from Chiroscuro, it can still be a useful tool to further your appreciation of the relationship between colour and tone. Try also looking at your subject in it. See also rich painting, abstract canvas art prints and artist gloves
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All humans have great imaginative powers. Artists are perhaps better at making use of theirs and as they develop as artists become more trusting and believing in their own capacity to invent and find interesting context and juxtaposition. As an ever-present necessity to seek out new inspiration and possibility, artists have often drawn on dreams as a rich spring of inspiration. Try getting into the habit, before you forget them, of recording as you wake, images and emotions in your dreams. Reference see: Art student, life drawing classes and silhouettes
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Complementary colors sit opposite one another in the traditional colour circle, i.e. Red-Green, Yellow-Violet, and Blue-Orange. They are colours of maximum contrast and when placed next to one another will create a powerful visual colour effect. Illustrators sometimes produce work that is executed with just blue and orange. This combination is ideally suited to creating an illusion of depth as the blue will recede and the orange advance in space. A study of master portraits from the 18 century onwards will reveal how the cool of blue or green-blue is used to suggest the planes of the form that turn away from the viewer in space and produce a pearl like luminosity that so accurately mimics the appearance of skin. view also Pastel fixative and watercolor palette
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The removal of excess pastel dust from your painting should be done by holding the paper from the top and tapping it on the back. Blowing away the dust can get into the lungs and is not only harmful but creates a great mess.
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Get into the habit of using your sketchbooks not only as a visual diary but also to make comments. Write down how you feel about things you experience, about your own work and the work of other artists. Try to get into the habit of adding a comment to all drawings. When you have no paint at hand to record with colour an interesting colour harmony you observe, try writing down your observation and describe how you would mix the colours you see. Try filling whole sketchbooks with only abstract shapes derived from observation. |
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Load your brush with thin white paint and then 'splatter' it on to a dark, deep blue surface - brilliant stars. The Dutch post impressionist artist 'Van Gogh' is perhaps the most famous for painting the night sky with his painting The starry night -1889 well worth a study. He has chosen to paint the clouds of gas that surround stars with swirling patterns. See also abstract art, cause and effect and American artists
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It is preferable to rub out an unsuccessful drawing than reach for a new sheet of paper. Not only will this save you money but the interplay between the residue of the under drawing and the new drawing can help to spark the imagination and lead to unexpected results.
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A successful painting in part transmits satisfaction through the technical coherence of its execution. By this I mean; imagine a painting that was painted on one half using a pointillist technique and the other half using a hyper-realist style. This extreme would serve only to confuse the viewer as to the language he was meant to be understanding. You would probably loose their support forever. How to succeed in this endeavour is by understanding your technique in depth and this cannot be rushed -it is only acquired through hard work, continual auto-criticism and observation.
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Contour lines
Contour means "outline" and expertly used Contour lines can create the illusion of three dimensionality on a two dimensional drawing surface. Their application is easy to see in action in the drawings of Walt Disney. Well worth copying Walt Disney cartoon characters to get an idea of how they work. The best way to understand their use is to go back to basics and draw simple forms such as the cube, cone, sphere and cylinder. Having mastered them, when you move on to draw a complex form such as the human head, for example, you should start see all its features in terms of these basic forms and how Contour lines can describe the connection between one form and another. Basically Contour lines are used to describe the points and manner by which one form is connected to another, for example, how the nose connects to the forehead and cheeks, the neck to the head and the eye to its socket, etc.
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Never throw away your old sketchbooks. Sketchbooks are microcosms of your artistic development. Although I believe in the power of the inspirational moment, ideas are more often than not the result of development by increments. Through the regular use of the sketchbook you can learn how to develop ideas and it is often by looking back over past drawings that fresh ideas are born.
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Drawing from memory
The following exercises should help the art student to understand that art is never only about what you see but also about the artist. I believe the best artists always reveal more about themselves than their subject and the more they can touch us the more we as viewers can participate in and enjoy their journey.
The recommend the following exercises.
1.
Choose a painting in a museum that particularly appeals to you, take your sketchbook along and make sketches and notes about all aspects of it, its proportions, color relationships etc., and then back home attempt a copy of it from memory and your notes only. Don’t be fixated with getting it perfect but allow the limit of your observations and notes to determine how you paint it – and hopefully a new and original painting will be born - one that could hint at your style and the expression of your personality.
2.
Search out a subject to paint or draw and instead of thinking about its appearance, think of how it makes you feel and then later at home try to express those feelings meaningfully in paint.
See also keep eyes open, horizon line and picture frames and mounts
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Experienced artists will often paint the middle ground in their paintings as an abbreviated silhouette. This is very effective and simulates the way the eye sees. As an exercise why not try to draw only what you see either on the horizon line or the furthest point in view. The more you look the more you will see. If all is blurred and detail impossible to make out, then represent it with shapes.
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The art of selective seeing is an art in itself. As an exercise, set up a still life and decide on a number of lines with which you will attempt to draw it. Start by setting yourself the task to represent the arrangement with ten lines and working downward see if you can make a drawing with as few as possible, for example, three. You should begin to see how economy in the use of lines, in sensitive hands can result in expressive and beautiful drawings. (Look at the work of Modigliani 1884-1920) View also contemporary abstract art and wooden picture frames
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The squinting tip is similar to the clenched fist trick but used to better understand the large tonal and colour relationships of the entire subject rather than individual parts. Look at your subject with half closed eyes in a semi-squint.
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Abstract drawingThe doodle is the start of all my artwork. I doodle everywhere, while waiting at the airport, on a bus or my favourite place sitting in a cafe by the window. The abstract doodle is I believe the easiest way to get a feel for abstract art and long before the heavy duty requirements of actually painting an abstract work you can enjoy and experiment without any pressure. I usually doodle with whatever I have at hand, I play with shapes, compositions and angst. You really don’t need to do drawings any larger than those that fit on any scrap piece of paper or serviette that you find, in fact it is the conception of the very large from the very small that most excites me with possibility. Its important to keep your doodles, I am not too organised but if you are I would keep them in one place. I find that I am constantly looking for other unrelated things when I come across a lost page of doodles that again I can re-new my interest in a particular path.
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Draw what you seeThere are numerous exercises to help improve your observational skills that are also fun to do. For example, instead of looking directly at something when drawing it, why not try drawing something by looking slightly to the left or right of it. Try looking at an object and instead of drawing it, write down as many observations you can and draw from memory. It is usually the large statements and not the details that ultimately help us to distinguish between things. Why not look at a subject and think of how best to describe it simply by using only one of its characteristics. This may be its tone, its form, a pattern, its size, or what it reminds you of, or how it sparks your imagination.
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No artist has yet submitted a tip on this subject. To help build this
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No artist has yet submitted a tip on this subject. To help build this
resource please submit you tip here :submit
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No artist has yet submitted a tip on this subject. To help build this
resource please submit you tip here :submit
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No artist has yet submitted a tip on this subject. To help build this
resource please submit you tip here :submit
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No artist has yet submitted a tip on this subject. To help build this
resource please submit you tip here :submit
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Under drawing with pencil or watercolour
When talking about finding ones own unique form of expression - lets make things clear - there is no right or wrong way to draw or paint. It is the degree to which the artist imposes their individuality on technical knowledge and uses this knowledge to their advantage. What works for one artists doesn’t necessarily work for another. There are, however observations that can help. For example, a charcoal preliminary drawing when intending to use watercolour washes is probably not the best method with which to start a watercolour painting. Many artists make preliminary under drawings in pencil, creating a style that uses the interplay between this linear under drawing - allowing it to show through - and contrasting this with the softness of successive layers of watercolour. If this is not to your taste, why not try making the under drawing in watercolour wash itself, with a fine pointed brush. Indeed many a great master painting was started in precisely this fashion.
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No artist has yet submitted a tip on this subject. To help build this
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No artist has yet submitted a tip on this subject. To help build this
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When taking photographs of fast moving scenes, try not to close one eye when looking at the scene in front of you when you're looking at the scene through the cameras viewfinder. If you keep both eyes open, you can often anticipate and plan for movement and changes to the composition in front of you before they happen, by taking account of what's happening outside of the viewfinder frame. Remember, when working fast, the best images are often the ones you didn't anticipate. Act on instinct and embrace the accident!
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