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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781633227750 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Foster, Walter Publishing, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 05/07/2019 |
| Series: | How to Draw & Paint Series |
| Edition description: | Revised |
| Pages: | 40 |
| Sales rank: | 1,077,129 |
| Product dimensions: | 10.25(w) x 13.75(h) x 0.12(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
TOOLS & MATERIALS
Painting is fun, frustrating, exhilarating, tedious, absorbing, and transformative. Feel free to experiment with the tools and materials presented here, and choose the ones that you are most comfortable with.
PAINTS
Oil paints are made up of pigments suspended in oils (such as linseed oil) with additives for durability and consistency. Paint is available in two main qualities: student grade and artist grade. Artist-grade paints contain a higher quality of pigment and fewer additives. Although they are slightly more expensive, they tend to last longer.
PAINTBRUSHES
Brushes vary greatly in size, shape, and texture. Naturalhair brushes, as opposed to synthetic, work best for oil painting. There are four main brush shapes: round, filbert, flat, and bright. Round brushes taper to a thin point and are good for detail work and fine lines. Filbert brushes taper to a thin point and are good for detail work and fine lines. Filbert brushes are slightly flattened with long bristles, making them good for blocking in large areas and rounding our forms. Flat brushes can hold a lot of paint and are great for creating corners. Bright brushes are similar to flat brushes, but allow for more control. Clean your brushes after each use to keep them in good condition. Remove as much paint as you can with turpentine. Then wipe the bristles with a paper towel, and clean with warm water and mild dish soap.
PALETTE KNIVES
Palette knives are mainly used for mixing colors on your palette, but some can also be used for applying paint to your canvas or creating texture in your work.
PALETTE
Whatever type of palette you choose — glass, wood, plastic, or paper — make sure it is easy to clean and large enough for mixing your colors. Glass is a great surface for mixing paints and is very durable. Palette paper is disposable, so cleanup is simple, and you can always purchase an airtight plastic box (or paint seal) to keep your leftover paint fresh between painting sessions.
SUPPORTS
The surface on which you paint is called the "support" — generally canvas or wood. You can stretch canvas yourself, but it's simpler to purchase prestretched, preprimed canvas (stapled to a frame) or canvas board (canvas glued to cardboard). If you choose to work with wood or any other porous material, apply a primer first to seal the surface so that the oil paints adhere to the support instead of soaking through.
MEDIUMS & SOLVENTS
There is a variety of mediums available for oil paint. Different mediums can be used to thicken or thin paint, speed up drying time, etc. Solvents such as turpentine can also be used to thin oil paint or wipe it from the canvas. You can also use turpentine to clean your equipment. Turpentine and mineral spirits are toxic, so take precautions when using these products.
PAINTING TECHNIQUES
Most oil painters apply paint to their supports with brushes. The variety of effects you can achieve — depending on your brush selections and your techniques — is virtually limitless. Just keep experimenting to find out what works best for you. A few of the approaches to oil painting and brushwork techniques are outlined below.
Painting Thickly Load your brush or knife with thick, opaque paint and apply it liberally to create texture.
Blending Use a clean, dry hake or fan brush to lightly stroke over wet colors to make soft, gradual blends.
Stippling Using the tip of a brush or knife, apply thick paint in irregular masses of small dots to build color.
Thin Paint Dilute your color with thinner, and use soft, even strokes to make transparent layers.
Glazing Apply a thin layer of transparent color over existing dry color. Let dry before applying another layer.
Scumbling Lightly brush semi-opaque color over dry paint, allowing the underlying colors to show through.
Drybrush Load a brush, wipe off excess paint, and lightly drag it over the surface to make irregular effects.
Pulling and Dragging Using pressure, pull or drag dry color over a surface to texturize or accent an area.
Scraping Use the tip of a knife to remove wet paint from your support and reveal the underlying color.
Wiping Away Wipe away paint with a paper towel or blot with newspaper to create subtle highlights.
Sponging Apply paint with a natural sponge to create mottled textures for subjects such as rocks or foliage.
Spatter Randomly apply specks of color on your canvas by flicking thin paint off the tip of your brush.
PAINTING WITH A KNIFE
With painting knives, you can apply thick textures or render intricate details. Use the side of your knife to apply paint thickly. Use the fine-point tip of your knife for blending and drawing details. Below are some examples of effects you can achieve with a painting knife.
COLOR BASICS
A basic knowledge of color and color relationships is essential in learning how to paint. One of the easiest ways to approach color is by seeing it on a "color wheel," which is a visual organization of color hues around a circle. Seeing the colors organized in this fashion is helpful for color mixing and choosing color schemes.
COLOR WHEEL
The color wheel helps us see relationships between primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. Primary colors are blue, red, and yellow. We can create a multitude of other colors by combining blue, red, and yellow in various proportions, but we can't create the three primaries by mixing other colors. Secondary colors include orange, green, and violet. You can create these colors by combining two primaries. Red and yellow make orange, blue and red make violet, and yellow and blue make green. Tertiary colors are created by mixing each primary color with its neighboring secondary color. These colors include red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, and red-violet.
COMPLEMENTARY COLORS
Complements sit opposite each other on the color wheel. For example, red sits opposite green, blue sits opposite orange, and yellow sits opposite purple. These colors are considered opposites in their hues and yield the maximum amount of color contrast possible. When complements are mixed together, they form a dull gray, brown, or neutral color.
NEUTRAL COLORS
Neutral colors are browns and grays, both of which contain all three primary colors in varying proportions. Neutral colors are often dulled with white or black. Artists also use the word "neutralize" to describe the act of dulling a color by adding its complement.
COLOR TEMPERATURE
Color temperature refers to the feeling one gets when viewing a color or set of colors. Generally, yellows, oranges, and reds are considered warm, whereas greens, blues, and purples are considered cool. When used within a work of art, warm colors seem to advance toward the viewer, and cool colors appear to recede into the distance. This dynamic is important to remember when suggesting depth or creating an area of focus.
PALETTE SPECTRUM
This is the most important thing I can teach you in this book! I begin every painting by mixing a color spectrum on a large palette. I squeeze out lots of paint and premixes, and blend their edges together until it represents all of the colors and values that will be in the final painting. When I am on location, I actually hold the palette up in front of me, and if it matches the scene before me, I am ready to begin painting. The value of the spectrum is that it saves time trying to find the right blend of colors, and my painting does not get muddy.
PAINTING METHODS
Often described as "rich" and "buttery," this classic painting medium is a favorite among fine artists. The slow-drying properties of oil allow artists to create smooth blends and rework their paintings over multiple sessions. This large window for manipulating and refining a work of art can result in an impressive degree of realism.
PAINTS & DRYING TIMES
Unlike watercolor and acrylic paint, oil takes a very long time to dry. It can take several days for a layer of paint to feel dry to the touch, but for varnishing purposes, an oil painting needs to dry for six months to a year. Even after this long period, the oil continues to dry for many years. Be sure to keep a wet oil painting well protected as it dries by storing it in a dark room with very little risk of scuffing.
DRYING OILS & MEDIUMS
Drying oils and mediums allow artists to change the consistency and reflective qualities of the paint. Although you can technically paint straight from the tube, most artists add medium to extend the paint and to build an oil painting in the traditional "fat over lean" layering process. Drying oils and resins can be used as mediums, but the term "medium" in oil painting generally refers to a mix of oil and solvent, with the solvent accelerating the drying process.
SOLVENTS
Because oil-based paints do not mix with water, artists traditionally use solvents for paint thinning and cleanup. If you choose to purchase a solvent, be sure it is intended for fine art purposes. Note any instructions and cautions provided by the manufacturer.
VARNISHES
Varnishes are final layers (or "top coatings") designed to protect paintings from dust, scratches, and moisture. Some also offer protection against UV rays, preserving the intensity of a painting's colors. As various paint colors dry to different levels of gloss, a varnish also acts to unify a painting's sheen.
UNDERPAINTING & GLAZING
Some artists build an oil painting by first creating a black-and-white (or grayscale) foundation on the canvas, ensuring that all the appropriate values are in place. Then they introduce color by glazing with transparent layers of paint, yielding rich and luminous results.
SKETCHING
You can use a variety of tools to sketch on a toned canvas. Many oil painters use thinned oil paint and a brush to block in a composition, but others use drawing tools such as graphite, charcoal, indelible pen, or hard pastel. Unlike watercolor paint, oils can cover up a sketch, so you can be bolder or looser with your groundwork. When you create your sketch, however, avoid adding too much detail; block in only the most important lines and divisions in value.
WORKING FROM DARK TO LIGHT
A common approach to oil painting involves working from dark to light, which refers simply to applying the darks and shadows first and leaving the lights and highlights for the later stages. This eliminates the need to apply each intricate shadow individually, allowing you to focus on the illuminated areas and saving brushstrokes in the long run.
ALLA PRIMA
Translated from Italian to mean "at once" or "at the first," alla prima refers to the act of finishing a work of art in one or only a few sittings, all while the paint is still wet. It is also called "direct painting" or "wet-into-wet."
TIP
Colors dry at different rates. Avoid layering a fast-drying paint over a slow-drying paint; this can help prevent ripples and cracks in a painting.
SKY STUDIES
When I first started painting as a child, I used to climb on the rooftop to paint skies. Skies are important: they often make up one-third of a painting. I feel that if you can paint good skies, it forces you to paint the other elements just as well. These sketches show that skies can be created from almost any color to achieve different effects. Try to memorize cloud formations, and know the various clouds for various conditions. Collect photos for reference.
Cadmium yellow pale, yellow ochre, alizarin crimson, cobalt blue.
Cadmium yellow pale, cadmium red, viridian green, cobalt blue.
Cadmium yellow pale, cadmium red, ultramarine blue, raw umber.
Cadmium yellow pale, cadmium red, cobalt blue, Paynes gray.
Cadmium yellow pale, cadmium red, yellow ochre, cobalt blue, Paynes gray.
Cadmium yellow pale, cadmium yellow deep, cadmium orange, alizarin crimson, viridian green, cobalt blue.
Cadmium yellow pale, cadmium orange, cadmium red, alizarin crimson, cobalt blue.
Cadmium yellow pale, cadmium orange, cadmium red, alizarin crimson, viridian green, cobalt blue.
TIP
Experiment with different shades of blue; I've found that cobalt blue makes a good afternoon sky color. Theoretically, you can paint any picture with a basic red, yellow, and blue, but I use pre-tubed color (such as Naples yellow or cadmium orange) to create clean color and to save mixing.
WAVE STUDIES
Variety is essential in becoming a good seascape artist. Study waves from different positions. Watch the wake patterns in the foam and the form of the water after the wave passes. Notice that the force of the wave creates chunks of foam as it hits; to make these chunks too soft-looking would weaken the strength of the wave. Never use pure white in painting foam, as that makes it look like cotton. Rely instead on the premixed shades of paint to achieve tonal contract (warm against cool).
Cadmium yellow pale, yellow ochre, cadmium red light, alizarin crimson, cobalt blue, burnt umber.
Cadmium yellow pale, alizarin crimson, viridian green, ultramarine blue, Paynes gray.
Evening Charm: Vernon Kerr's paintings are featured in Haddad's catalog of fine art reproductions.
ROCK STUDIES
Strong paintings need angular rocks to portray their strength. To harmonize a rock with its surroundings, vary the color by intensity and grays, and bring some of the background color into the rock. In still water, carry the rock color into the reflections to make the rock "sit down." Sometimes I change a rock shape in my painting to create a better design, but I try not to lose the character of the rock itself.
Cadmium yellow pale, yellow ochre, cadmium red light, alizarin crimson, cobalt blue, burnt umber.
Cadmium yellow pale, alizarin crimson, viridian green, ultramarine blue, Paynes gray.
SNOW STUDIES
My studio shelves are lined with oil sketches of different subjects in both monotone and color. The bark of a tree, for instance, is a fascinating balance of textures and colors. Note the warm lights on the sunny side, and the cool reflected lights on the shady side of the trunk. When snow piles against a tree trunk, it sends fingers up the grooves of the trunk, and it spreads out at the base to blend with the snow on the ground.
Snow colors do not have to be white with blue shadows! Glowing snow has all colors in it. Notice the shades of yellow, and lavender, and pink, and green. Don't forget to add the reflected lights. In the stream picture, notice the lights the snow picks up from the water beneath it.
MENDOCINO MELODY
Backlit subjects are sometimes difficult because we paint the subjects too dark. The darks are not black, but very colorful. Notice the halo-effect that occurs around a tree at sunset. Working from a photograph can often be deceptive because the values that a camera picks up are wrong. The camera sees contrast, but the human eye sees half-tones.
There is no blue in this sky. By adding chrome oxide green on top of the gold, you can achieve the illusion of blue. This is called color optics. This will also keep the painting in closer harmony than the use of blue would have achieved.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Painting Land & Sea"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc..
Excerpted by permission of The Quarto Group.
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Table of Contents
Tools & Materials, 2,
Wind Song, 22,
Painting Techniques, 4,
Fantasy Mountain, 24,
Color Basics, 6,
Surrender to Fall, 26,
Painting Methods, 8,
Sea Dunes, 30,
Sky Studies, 10,
Autumn Lullaby, 32,
Wave Studies, 12,
Awakening Sunset, 34,
Rock Studies, 14,
Walking Through Summer, 36,
Snow Studies, 15,
The Citadels, 38,
Mendocino Melody, 16,
Anchor Bay, 40,
The Storm King, 18,