Description of learning to paint naturalism

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Learning to paint naturalism paintings is a rewarding and challenging endeavor that involves mastering various techniques, observing the natural world keenly, and developing a deep understanding of the principles of realism in art. Naturalism in painting aims to depict subjects in a highly realistic and detailed manner, often mimicking the appearance of the natural world as closely as possible. Here is a step-by-step description of the process:

1. Study the Basics of Art: Before diving into naturalism, it's crucial to build a strong foundation in art fundamentals. This includes understanding concepts like composition, perspective, color theory, and various drawing and painting techniques.

2. Acquire Necessary Materials: Gather the materials you'll need, such as high-quality brushes, oil or acrylic paints, canvases, and an easel. The choice of materials can significantly impact the final result, so invest in the best you can afford.

3. Learn Drawing Skills: Naturalism starts with accurate drawing. Develop your skills in sketching and drawing, paying attention to proportions, anatomy, and capturing fine details.

4. Observe and Study Nature: Naturalism requires a keen eye for detail. Spend time observing your subjects in nature, whether it's landscapes, animals, plants, or human figures. Take photographs or make sketches to use as references in your work.

5. Master Techniques: Practice various painting techniques, such as blending, layering, glazing, and impasto. Each technique contributes to the level of detail and realism in your paintings.

6. Understand Light and Shadow: Lighting plays a crucial role in naturalism. Study how light falls on objects and creates shadows. Learn to accurately depict highlights, mid tones, and shadows to give your paintings depth and volume.

7. Color Mixing: Naturalistic paintings often require precise color mixing to capture the subtleties of the natural world. Learn how to mix colors to match what you see accurately.

8. Start with Still Life: Begin by painting still life subjects. This will allow you to practice rendering textures, materials, and intricate details in a controlled setting.

9. Progress to Landscapes and Portraits: Once you feel confident with still life, move on to more complex subjects like landscapes or portraits. These require a deep understanding of anatomy, facial expressions, and environmental elements.

10. Seek Feedback and Critique: Share your work with fellow artists or art teachers to receive constructive feedback. Critiques can help you identify areas for improvement and refine your skills.

11. Practice Patience and Perseverance: Achieving naturalism in painting takes time and dedication. Be patient with yourself and keep practicing regularly to refine your skills.

12. Study the Masters: Analyze the works of renowned naturalist painters like John James Audubon, John Constable, or Johannes Vermeer. Learning from their techniques and approaches can provide valuable insights.

13. Experiment and Develop Your Style: As you become more proficient, don't be afraid to experiment with your style. Your unique approach to naturalism will set you apart as an artist.

14. Keep Learning: The art world is ever-evolving. Stay open to learning new techniques, exploring different subject matters, and staying inspired by the world around you.

Remember that becoming proficient in naturalism painting is a journey that requires dedication and continuous improvement. Over time, you'll develop your own unique style and voice as an artist while capturing the beauty of the natural world in your paintings.

Drawing Tutorials - The Tiger's Appearance

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Drawing tutorials - the tiger's appearance
Tigers stand high on the list when it comes to the number of animals with which an artist needs to be familiar. It seems there are more divergences of opinion on the tiger, his size, his strength, his markings than perhaps any other of the big cats. Some authorities have him growing to be 13' long and 700 lbs. heavy. A 10' tiger (counting tail) is a mighty big one. Many naturalists say the heaviest tigers exceed the largest lions in weight. The fact is, even a 500 lbs. tiger is a giant.
It may be helpful for the artist to know that tigers in northern regions of Asia (northern China, Siberia, Korea) are larger with thicker fur. Grown tigers in southern regions (Sumatra, Java, Bali) are smaller, around 250 lbs, with shorter coats. Southern tigers in warmer climates are more brilliant in color as a rule. Midway geographically, Indian tigers vary in size; the Bengal can be a monster. Where the temperature changes, a big cat in winter may have an 

Step by step-Painting-Cat-Head-With-Acrylic

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Step by step-Painting-Cat-Head-With-Acrylic

Step 1 

For this bobcat head, start with a tan base color and then add three other colors: a light gray, a darker bluish color and a dark value of burnt Umber and Ultramarine blue with some Cadmium-barium red Deep. The tan and grays represent the middle values; the darkest value here is one step away, on my imaginary value scale, from my final darkest value. defer to a paint swatch to make sure that there is a clear distinction in values, so they will play off each other in contrast. It will take several more coats of the dark mixture to build it up to a solid value where necessary. Use this dark value with varying amounts of water to make thin washes. You can "draw" with these to lay in the dark areas and start painting hair details. 

Step 2

Add more details with the dark paint mixture to make some areas, such as the eyes, ears, nose and mouth, more opaque using several coats of paint. Add Cadmium-Barium Red Deep and Yellow Ochre Light to the dark. mixture and thin with water to paint hair and suggest more details, starting around the eyes. For this area of short fur on the head, use a lot of short strokes, even to paint the shapes that appear to be long, dark lines on the forehead. These may be formed by the fur pattern or by head structure, but keep the strokes short and broken, like the short hairs will be. At this point, establish a base color value on the nose and in the eye. 

The-Oil-Alternative

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The-Oil-Alternative 

My approach for creating oil portraits shares several similarities with my watercolor work; for example, I use a similar palette for both-yellow ochre, cerulean blue and alizarin crimson (substituted for rose madder), to which I may add cadmium red and ivory black; However, there are four important differences: In oil, I deal more with shapes than lines,I Work dark's to light, my color applications are opaque rather than transparent and I don't use the progression of three key techniques that I use for Watercolor.

I work on toned canvas-usually raw umber thinned with turpentine which provides a solid neutral tone and I start each portrait by doing a drawing with ivory black. 

As with my Watercolors, I start adding Color in the face, which I block with four values. I start by mixing my shadow color, then take a portion of this mixture and lighten it with white to create my halftone. Next I lighten a portion of the halftone mixture to produce my lights. Finally, I adjust a portion of in light mixture to produce my highlights. My brushes are all bristle filberts and I usually start the head using a different No. 6 for each tone. This keep the color clean and allows me to work the tones together.

Master-Realism-1

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Master-Realism-1

Whether you work in watercolor or oil, here bow to give your portraits rich, lifelike fleshtones.

By Paul W. McCormack

I’ve always taken my artistic inspirations from the expressions of the human form-the ever changing countenance of a friend’s face in conversation, the blank stare of a stranger on a subway, or the poetic gesture of a stance. Although I work in both watercolor and oil (see “The Oil Alternative”),

I began my career nearly 35 years ago by painting the figure in watercolor, a medium that lends itself beautifully to recreating the translucent quality of flesh. By working transparently and using three basic techniques-wet-into wet, glazing and drybrush-I’ve developed a method that gives my portraits a look unlike conventional watercolors. This approach can be very time-consuming: I often spend 80 hours or more painting a simple head and shoulders. But the effort is worth it. The results of this process can prove” quite sublime. Here’s how it works.