Don't worry about Proportions ( Painting Tips )

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Don't concern yourself too much about proportions, but rather concentrate on the shapes      and angles and try to capture the feeling of the subject. You would rather see an exaggerated

drawing of the subject-one that shows feeling and captures the character-than one that is too photographic and tight. 

Contour drawing is a big help for Beginner who do not draw well and haven't had much experience drawing the head and figure.

recommend Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards for Painter who are serious about improving their drawing skills. This book shows some examples of students' work at the beginning of practicing the exercises and then again after only a few weeks. The improvement is truly amazing.

The Horse Painting Tips

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Few men have looked into the large soulful eyes of  a horse without wondering what this stately animal was thinking about.

Though,  in his labors, man has put the horse to use more than any other  creature,  he still remains worlds apart from the horse's 'mental'  functionings.

 The mystery seems compounded by the head' s massive size and its steel-like armor plate.  These unusual physical characteristics contain perhaps more beautiful lines than any other living animal.                                  

"A horse's head is often the first to be attempted by the amateur artist.

What are the basics? The following pages simplify the problem".

Contour Drawing Painting Tips - watercolor painting

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Contour drawing has been most helpful in teaching ourself to draw better. One of my friend, who is becoming a fine painter, says this method has helped him more than anything else he has learned about drawing. The line and characterof his drawing has improved greatly.

KEEP PEN OR PENCIL ON PAPER

The objective of contour drawing is to Keep the pen or pencil on the paper as much as possible without lifting it, all the while looking at subject you are attempting to draw. 

In true contour drawing you will never look at the paper, only at the subject. Exciting shapes can be achieved with this method and it prevents your work from getting tight, thus looking like a photograph.

DRAW SHAPES

Don't draw things, draw shapes. On a contour drawing, you can begin drawing anywhere but I generally begin with an eye. I do this more from habit than for any other reason and it seems to work best for me. When I begin, I think entirely about the shapes I see rather than the eye itself. 

After working out this area, I move on to other parts and use the eye I have just finished to judge the rest of the drawing for shapes, sizes, angles and proportions.

USING A PEN

Using a pen will give you clean lines and will eliminate the habit of reaching for the eraser. I some- times work with a Tombow pen that has a fine or very fine point.

The surface I work on determines which one I choose. For instance, if I'm working on vellum or some other smooth surface, I use a very fine point; if I'm working on a surface with more texture, I use a fine to medium point to get a heavier line.

Four Kinds of Contour Drawing

In the  first drawing of the pear and banana, I used only curved lines, not lifting the pen  from the paper and keeping my eye on the subject as much as possible.  In the second  drawing, with the same technique, I used only straight lines. Both drawings are boring because there is too much "sameness". In the third example, I used both curved and straight lines to get more variation into the drawing.

Finally, in the fourth drawing, I added some interior lines that develop shadow areas. I also connected the  drawing to the background with the use of  cast shadows.

Weaving Shapes into the background painting tips - watercolor painting

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Talk about shapes it's so important. It will help both your dawing and painting.  Not only we need to see and draw the shapes of our subject, but we must look at the shapes that weave through the subject and the background that indicate the lost and found edges. This helps make a drawing that will become a comlete painting and not one that looks like it has been cut out and pasted on the surface.

CONTOUR DRAWING TIPS

Go fast on the straight and curved lines; slow down on the angles.

Stop often to see where you are and check for shapes, sizes and proportions.

Try not to repeat the same shape twice. This will add more variety to your drawing.

Let the pen or pencil linger at a stopping point, making a distinctive mark that adds character to the line.

Think of the shadow areas as shapes and draw those shapes.

Draw the background shapes and weave them in and out of the subject. If you draw the subject and then come back later to draw the background, you will have two totally isolated thoughts.

If  a boundary is lost in shadow, then leave it out in the drawing to remind you to leave it out when you do the painting.

Connect your subject to at least three of the borders, and try to balance the positive and negative shapes to achieve better design.

Try to keep the backgrounds as simple as possible unless the subject matter demands more involvement.

This is the same drawing as at before except that attempted to weave the figure and the background together in order to achieve a better composition.

My Sample Work For Painting Tips

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Oil On Canvas

Acrylic On Canvas

Acrylic On Canvas

Acrylic On Canvas

Acrylic On Canvas

Top 10 Tips To Start Oil Painting Like a Pro

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Ralph Serpe-Oil painting is a difficult medium to master. Chances are you are going to need a bit of help. 

I hope this article will do just that. Enjoy and Happy Painting!

LEARN HOW TO DRAW

You will be amazed at how much learning how to draw will help improve your oil paintings. In fact, years ago art students were not permitted to paint until they learned the fundamentals of drawing. Drawing gets you more in touch with value, line and form without the distraction of color. Find a good book on drawing fundamentals and start there.

LEARN ABOUT COLOR

Nothing can confuse a beginner more than color. You need to have a good understanding of color theory if you intend on producing high quality paintings. Concepts like color temperature, hue and intensity are very important and should be studied. Once you have a good understanding of color theory, you must then learn how to mix your colors. There is much more to color mixing then meets the eye. For instance, you cannot mix any old blue with any old yellow and get the perfect green. Certain blues and yellows behave differently than others, so you must learn about the properties of each color.

Oil Painting Materials and Purchasing Tips

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 Rose Pleasure

Hobbies Articles | September 20, 2010

To create a beautiful oil painting on canvas, you need all perfect materials required for your painting. Here are some tips and advise on choosing good materials for your oil painting.

To get started with the art of oil painting you are faced to buy the materials needed. Oil painting materials are quiet expensive and there are many varieties of materials to choose from which is little hard for the oil painting beginner. What we have here is a guide for you in purchasing your oil painting materials.

1. Choosing the right easel for your painting? You have to consider some few things like what is it made of the height. The most important thing to remember is to have an easel that is sturdy. Many easels can be bought in art shops but if you do not have a budget then you can make one for your own. There are tips on how to make an easel that is just right for you. Having a self made easel gives you an ease of not adjusting anything when using because you can make it to put the canvas where you wanted. Portable easels are mostly used if you wanted to paint outdoors or out of your working place.

Ten Painting tips on reflection

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Ten Painting tips on Reflection

1 - Any given point on an object must reflect directly below itself.

2 - An object tilting toward you will foreshorten and will seem shorter than its reflection.

3 - When an object tilts away from you, its reflection becomes shorter than the object itself.

4 - The reflection of the object appears the way you would see it if your eyes were on the surface of the water, where the reflection is located.

5 - The tonal value of a reflection is controlled by the deepest value of the waters local color.

6 - The color of a reflection is influenced by the local color of the water.

7 - The angle of incidence and the angle of reflection are always the same and they are inseperable.

8 - Reflections are not in the water but on its surface.

9 - If a gentle wind blow from the side making many tiny waves, you may see breeze paterns on the water's surface.

10 - When a very light subject against a very dark background reflects in gently moving water, its reflection may appear much longer than the length of the object itself.

Painting Tip of Composition and Design

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Composition and Design

Painting is an visual art, composing a painting means that the artist must use visual means to express his or her ideas and to communicate emotion. All paintings are the result of composed graphic elements, They may be good, bad or indifferent but how they communicate depends on the artist. Stimulating organization makes a painting pleasing to the eye. 

However, a balanced composition doesn't mean computer - like perfection, but rather a comfortable harmony between all elements for the benefit of the whole unit.

Painting that are only technically perfect seem stiff  and sterile because they lack of emotional stimulation. People do not respond to art with skilled reason, but with immediate and honest emotions.

An artist needs to know how to deliver graphic symbols that can communicate emotional qualities. It's helpful to understand these symbols and the part they play in compositional reasoning when we plan our paintings.

Carefully planned elements are every bit as good as accidently derived ones. The talent involved in using happy accidents lies in the decision to keep them or reject them.

Painting Tips

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PROBLEM-SOLVING HINTS

1. Look at your painting upside down to see shapes, not subjects.

2. Look at your painting in a mirror to see the work with a fresh eye.

3. Examine your painting in a black mirror (a pane of glass painted black on one side) . The reflection will Knock down the color and help you see values.

4. Squint. It softens the scene so you see large, important shapes with less detail.

5. If you're having a hard time seeing a color or value in a scene, look next to that color, not right at it.

6. Look at your painting from a distance, or use a reducing glass, to see the large, important masses.

7. In the studio, try not to get too comfortable or too close to the canvas, which limits your brushstrokes. Stand up while painting. It allows more freedom of arm movement.

8. use a viewfinder when searching for a composition (a mat board with a rectangular opening works fine) to block out confusing, unwanted areas.

Asep Petir ( acrylic on canvas)

Improve Your Kids Painting Skills With Cartoon Coloring Pages and Worksheets

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by Julia Thomas

in Education / Homeschooling    (submitted 2013-06-10)

Kids have their own worlds, and what they like most is something that is imaginary, colorful and full of fun. Colorful things always attract kids, for examples candies, sweets, and colorful toys are also their favorite choice. Whenever they see these things around, they always get excited, and, of course, wish to grab them. It is not always the shape and functionality of the toys, and flavor of the candy, but the color of these things that gives kids more attractive appeal. You also know that kids love cartoon pictures so much because they are colorful and give them so much fun. So, if you want to teach your kids something new and fresh, cartoon characters are a great channel that can make your job a lot easier.

Resolving a Painting

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It is nearly impossible for artist to see their own work objectively, but there are ways of making judgments that help resolve problems

Almost a moment you begin painting, you lose your objectivity and never really see your canvas clearly again – at least not until long after it has been completed. Even obvious mistakes in drawing, immediately apparent in someone else’s painting, are difficult to see in your own.

Seeing a Painting More Clearly.

There are several ways of overcoming this problem during the long and often frustrating period of resolving a painting. A mirror is extremely helpful. Try this In your studio, have two large mirrors, one that is stationary and one on an easel, with caster, which may be easily moved. also have a small hand mirror that you can use constantly. By loooking at the reversed image in the mirror, You can study your composition for balance, Mistakes in drawing, value or colour become magnified. Because the image in the mirror is double the distance from the easel to the mirror, without actually moving you can see the painting from far away. The image is reversed, and this also give you a fresh look at your painting.

Distancing yourself physically from a painting or turning it to the wall between sittings also help you to see it with fresh eye. Working on more than one painting at a time is helpful – moving from one painting to another, you get ideas. Turning the canvas on its side or upside down help you to see the shapes and relationships more clearly. Problems in drawing and composition are there more easely seen.

Wether or not you have a model, Take breaks frequently. This allows you to come back to the painting somewhat refreshed. Staying on top of a painting can be badly. The time you spend stepping back from a painting and studying it is very valuable. By squinting you can see the subject more simply, in term of overall pattern. By squinting and looking first at the subject and then at your painting, back and forth several times, that wich is not happening in the painting more clear.

Questions And Answers

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ADVICE ON  :

• Salvaging Oils and watercolors 
• Starting over in Oils
• Understanding color 
• Loosening pastel edges

Q. How do I salvage dried – up oil and water colour tubes ?

A. The solidification of tubed oil color is called livering. It's caused by a chem­ical reaction between impurities in the pigment-especially traces of sulfur and the oil vehicle. As a result, the tubed oil color forms rubbery masses, distorting its handling qualities. Impu­rities found in the tubed oil color are characteristic of poor, or incomplete, washing of pigments during initial pro­cessing. In general, livering tends to occur in lower-grade oil colors- not in colors made of high-quality, properly washed pigments correctly ground in the best oil vehicles.
The same problem can happen with tubed watercolors. Occasionally impure pigments will liver when ground into gum arable, the traditional vehicle for tubed watercolors. Some­times plasticizers or preservatives are added during production of high-qual­ity artist's watercolors to prevent this.

SALVAGING OPERATIONS

 Whether or not lumpy, gummy tube oil or watercolors are salvageable depends pretty much on how far gone they are. Reconditioning, then re tubing, the col­ors may require more time and effort than they're actually worth. In many instances, you're much better off with fresh, newly produced tube colors.

If you're determined to try to save your old paints, here are some sugges­tions for reclaiming those tube oils (be Sure to wear latex gloves to keep all traces of paint off your hands).

 First, you'll need to remove all of the color from the tube and deposit it onto your working palette so you can recondition its consistency

Painting Lessons for Beginners: Should I Start Here?

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   by Maurice Lewis

in Art / Painting    (submitted 2012-07-08)

Did you know that painting lessons for beginners are now available online? Yes, this is a fact. Through this, people from all over the world can now enjoy free lessons from the best artists.

Everything is a work of art. When you look around you, you get to see different styles, shapes and sizes of artworks. Each of these items represents different feelings and emotions. Each of these paintings conveys a particular meaning. Probably, the world of Art has been around our planet since the first person was born. What I'm trying to say is, it really has been in our land for thousand or millions of years.

This is the most primitive culture and people should learn that they can accomplish a lot if they appreciate art. These days, a number of people are already engrossed with the art of Oil painting. This started when different ways have been provided to instill into their hearts the magic of creating paintings. Now, there are varied courses for those who want to learn the basics and fundamentals regarding painting, particularly oil painting. Painting Lessons for beginners have been developed to assist students, young - late adults in pursuing their childhood dreams of becoming artists.

You can actually for schools that offer these courses. Short-term courses are also making its way because of the limited available time of most people. During summer vacations or during vacation leaves, these people enroll themselves in painting lessons for beginners to let their time pass. Others, who are really passionate with learning the art of painting wants to pursue and continue the course but due to lack of time and money, the opportunity passes them. With this, online courses of Painting lessons for beginners have been established to cater to the needs of these groups.

At any time of the day, at any day of the month, they can learn lessons from the best. Sounds incredible right? Also, the instructions provided are also in step-by-step process. They are made simple so that all of the viewers and students can easily grasp the needed information.

The advent of technology is indeed a powerful aid. Whatever the case is, people can benefit from the devices produced by the modern world. This is a proof that old and new cultures or traditions can co-exist with harmony and can work hand in hand. So, the next time you are asked on painting lessons for beginners, I'm sure you'll know what to answer.

About the Author

Hone your skills and read more about landscape painting lessons and still life painting ideas.

Searching for Oil Painting Lessons Online - Choosing the Right One

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by Reinaldo Arvelo

in Art / Painting    (submitted 2013-08-13)

Are you looking for oil painting lessons online? You're definitely going to find hundreds of them online. Yet, finding the right one can take some time. But the truth is choosing the right one depends on three important factors.

I'm a fine artist myself. Even though all of my training was done in a studio on campus, 

I still to this day look for online guides and resources. You can never get enough information on new techniques. Learning from different artists can help you develop new personal tools in your art.

You can buy books, which I still do but sometimes having a live presentation from an actual painter is still best. Watching artists at work is not the same as reading a step-by-step guide. Plus paying large amounts of money to learn from another master can hit your pockets hard at times.

But how many times have you looked at an online preview of a lesson and asked yourself if this artist is worth the investment? This has happened to me plenty of times.

To really find an online guide that fits your needs you need to look at these three important factors in choosing the right online oil painting lessons.

The three factors are:

Oil Painting Lesson - Frequently Asked Questions About Oil Painting

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    by Ralph Serpe

in Hobbies    (submitted 2006-05-31)

Oil painting is probably one of the more challenging mediums to master. There are many aspects of oil painting that often confuse and intimidate beginners. Many questions arise and this article will cover some frequently asked questions that beginners have.

What is "Fat Over Lean?"

Fat over lean is one of the most fundamental approaches to oil painting and when followed will reduce the risk of your paint cracking as it dries. An oil paint is "Fat" when it comes right from the tube. If you wanted to make it fatter, you would add more oil. To make your paint "Lean" your mixture would contain more of a thinner like turpentine. Begin your painting with a "Lean" mixture. As you add more layers, you would make the mixture fatter. This will help reduce the risk of cracking.

Modern Art Gallery - Five Tips of Water Color Painting

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  by Preeti Garg

in Art / Painting    (submitted 2013-05-30)

From a scientific point of view, knowledge to use watercolor is simple: add water to the paint, put brush on paper, and you're painting. It's the beginning of an exciting and interesting artistic journey. These 5 watercolor painting tips will help you keep away from basic mistakes and get better results right from the start.

1. With watercolor paint, a color will always look stronger when it is wet. A color will always be lighter and paler when dry. It's something you get a feel for through do and experience. If your paintings look insipid, make the colors more intense by using more paint and less water, or painting another layer of a color over the first. Watercolor paint dries very speedy, so test a color on a scrap of paper or on the border of your painting before using it. That way you'll know whether it's the shade and/or tone you're after.

2. Even once watercolor paint has dried, it remains water soluble. You can re-wet the dried paint with water on a brush and it will 'turn' back into paint. This means you can lift the paint off the paper to fix a mistake, lighten a color by removing some of it, or even mix it with new paint. While you do need to be careful you don't scrub at the paper too much and harm the surface. Watercolor paint is translucent. You can see from side to side the layers of color you've painted, making it near unfeasible to conceal mistakes. Don't fight against this, but embrace it and work with it.

3. Because the white in watercolor comes from the white of the paper, not the paint itself, the usual advice is to paint from light to dark. To start with the lightest colors and tones, and build your way up to the darkest. But don't be fearful to experiment with putting down dark colors early on in a watercolor painting, as it may turn out to be an approach that works for you!

4. Rather have just one, good brush than a handful of cheap ones that splay out and drop hairs. It'll save you a lot of irritation. A good brush retains its shape so you can get a very fine brush mark from the point; it holds a good quantity of paint so you need to reload it less often.

5. Avoid involuntarily adding more water to your paint after you've washed your brush by dabbing the brush onto a dry cloth before putting it in the paint again. If you've loaded a brush with paint and decide you needed less paint, hold clean cloth at ferrule end of the brush hairs to soak up some of the excess. Doing it at this end helps keep the color at the tip of the brush.

About the Author

Author loves to write articles on different topics and this article is based on Modern Art Gallery

Fundamental Recommendations to Discovering How to Master Oil Painting Quickly

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  by Ladawn Gomez

in Hobbies    (submitted 2011-08-15)

Innovative creativity isn't really necessarily a feature that anybody is born with, and may really be acquired and above all perfected. In opting to take up art painting and also learn about oil painting techniques, you have already employed the initial step in achieving this unique latent creativity.

Just like any activity or past time, it truly is dependant on whether you are enthusiastic about your subject or endeavor. Coupled with this sort of readiness and aim would be the decision to commit your surplus energy into learning as well as building the abilities which are important for your art painting expertise.

Ponder for one moment in regard to the successful sportsman or golf player; the amount of time that they dedicated to their enthusiasm by means of rehearsing, exercising and improving their skills is what establishes them different from the average competition. Likewise in painting, you would put into practice all these techniques that may benefit your pursuits in creating your capabilities.

It's possible you'll possess a few other responsibilities and work, and for that reason find it hard to commit you to ultimately achieving your competencies in a regular routine. In that event, you must develop a step by step course on top of goals for your self to obtain these painting objectives.

That virtue of perseverance also needs to be integrated, as a lot of the oil painting proficiencies you are going to learn take a whole lot of practice to perfect. While you develop your capabilities, you will notice the steps relating to advancement. This system of dedication, willpower as well as fortitude will all lead to a much more self-assured and expert artist within you.

It's actually important to take the time to obtain the foundation involving painting techniques and also similar concerns starting from the very first steps - because this will facilitate you to start out at a robust foundation and progress beyond that. Even if you could be enticed to attempt sophisticated images, or portraits, doing this may possibly be a catalyst for you being disappointed when you are not really primed yet.

The overall painting expertise learning process has to be seen as the 'study how to walk before you run' adage. It is this perspective that would facilitate a solid groundwork for one to improve on.

Summing up, beginning with a very rudimentary subject matter and approach. Learn as much painting skills coupled with related material as you can, while trying to learn the strategies as well as procedures practiced in this particular awesome activity. In time to come, you will certainly notice that enjoying a past time in art can assist you to live a content life and improve your creativity heights.

About the Author

Want to learn oil painting lessons? Read our Learn And Master Paining review for an insight to professional instructions on videos...