Posts Tagged ‘drawing’

A Hard Life

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Yesterday, I went to a friend’s house to pay him a visit. As I went, I saw this guy making art signs. His works were displayed just outside his little house. The displays included posters for campaigns and some for cinemas. Seeing his works I realized he is not just an ordinary painter. He could paint a very detail work in just a short period of time. I was so impressed that I walked up to him and asked him how much he makes for a living in a day. He answered so fast I couldn’t remember a word. But I was sure it wasn’t enough to be able to save for the rainy days. There were three little kids running around the place. “Your kids?” I asked. He just nodded while working on another letter. I can’t believe how he survives with his kids just by selling cheap art signs.

 

When I got to my friend’s house, I mentioned to him about this artist. He told me one of his uncles run a small factory where they make art signs. He has hired more than ten people already to do the job. But the business isn’t easy with a low pay.

 

I wonder how many good artists out there that are just sitting in the corners of the street trying to survive, waiting to be discovered. Its not everyday people are born with such talent and skills. They say that there is nothing that can stop you from reaching your dreams. I guess there is an exception when it comes to poverty. I often complain about my tools, I buy expensive brushes and paints, and there they are working with just an old brush and a few buckets of cheap paint.

 

If only there is something we can do to help these fellow artists and let the world know of their talents and skills. But then, it all comes down to dealing with poverty and the government. Its everyday we see people on streets. Its only once in a lifetime to realize it.

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The Amazing Color Shifting!

Friday, April 4th, 2008

Modeling the inside of the shapes with value changes began in the late Renaissance and lasted until post-Impressionist painters such as Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne and Gauguin began to flatten forms in order to create less realistic but more symbolic and personally expressive works. These painters and the modernists that followed eliminated or subdued the value contrasts they used and developed a variety of devices for animating the descriptive shapes in their paintings.  

In this blog, I will discuss about how artists substituted value change (which was discussed in my earlier blog) with color or intensity change. By animating the inside of the shapes with subtle alternations with hue or intensity rather than value, they created flat, graphic designs. Their color choices were more subjective than descriptive, expressing their reactions to their subject. This approach isn’t about describing the form of your subject, so forget about the direction of your light source, the pattern of light and shadow and all those other conventions for modeling that you’ve learned. Instead, try the following.

 

  1. Start with the simple shape of your subject and fill it with a single color (if you want to be somewhat realistic, use the local color) then quickly create a contrast by adding a complimentary or near-complimentary color. Make sure the two colors are the same or similar in value. Some complimentary combinations are difficult to use; for example, you can’t combine yellow (the lightest pure color) with violet (the darkest) without greatly lightening the violet.
  2. Forget about accuracy. The sky doesn’t have to be blue or the grass green. Make your color choices more expressive and emotional than descriptive.
  3. all the subjects in your painting don’t have to be close in value, just the inside of each of your shapes. You can have some light shapes (with light color changes inside) and some dark shapes (with dark color changes inside).

  

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Water Wonders

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

Its summer and everyone is excited to go out to the beach and in places where there is water under the sun. For artists, it is also a good time to paint waterscapes since there will be colorful summer views that are as bright as the sun.

With its wide range of moods, colors and textures, water has attracted the attention of artists for centuries. Precisely because of its changeable nature, water is also one of the more challenging painting subjects you can undertake. If you want to capture the beauty of water in your own work, you must understand how to produce the right look for any given situation.

Reflections say a lot about the mood of a body of water. For example, smooth, calm water has a glass-like surface that forms a natural mirror. It’s highly reflective and the reflections it produces are distinctly detailed with relatively straight lines and unbroken shapes. Also, in calm water the length of reflection will be exactly the same as the reflecting objects, measured from where the object, if extended, intersects the water’s surface.

The more active the water’s surface, the more interrupted and distorted the reflections will be. So when painting reflections on rippling water in a stream, lake or river, you don’t need to be precise as when rendering reflections in calm water. On gently moving water, shapes lose their distinct identity. Reflected lines may undulate and appear elongated to the point of exaggeration, or they may be broken up.

When water is in violent motion, as in churning surf, waterfalls and white water rapids, reflections are obliterated. Edges are rough and irregular. When I paint rough water, I try to be mindful of perspective. Waves will appear increasing smaller as you move farther into the distance, and the reflections closer to you will appear bigger than those of the distant waves.

Water in nature isn’t pure and transparent. The more impurities it contains, the more opaque the water, and thus the more body color it has.

There are many techniques in painting the water. The best advice I can give you is observe the water first for a few minutes. And after the moving waves have been frozen in your mind, paint them as to how you see them.

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Make It Look Different

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

One time I found myself searching for sketches and photos for new subjects. Then an idea hit me. Instead of looking for something new to paint, why not paint something familiar and do it in a new way? Yeah, that could work. I studied the work of great painters from the past and present and I discovered that their individuality often lies in the way each approaches form. In simple terms, what painters do “inside their shapes” greatly determines the style and expressive content of their work.

You probably start each painting the way I do, by dividing the pictorial space into varied areas, then reducing your subject into a few simple, interestingly designed silhouettes. That’s a sold first step, but it was what I did next that I found very important: it was finding the way to make the inside of these simple shapes interesting. Fortunately, I found a variety of equally effective and expressive ways to animate my designs. One possibility I considered was varying my values. 

I remembered my teacher in art class discuss this during the final days in school. Value changes – in which shifts between light and dark values are used to create an illusion of three dimensions -  are the most conventional treatment for inside shapes. This produces what most of us would consider the most “realistic” results. For example, Rembrandt’s moving self-portraits and some of Edward Hopper’s works employ value changes to convey their expressive messages. And of course, in the hands of such masters, value change can be an expressive tool. However, this approach often puts a greater emphasis on the description of a subject than on the artist’s emotional response to it. If the form or character of your subject is so appealing, then describing it with value changes is, for me, the best choice.

So I plan the boundaries and proportions of my light and shadow areas so that they create an interesting, varied division of primary shapes.

There are lots of ways in painting common subjects and present them in such a way that they would stand out and have a sense of uniqueness.

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The Painter’s Primary Weapon

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

Soldiers never go to war unprepared. They always carry with them guns locked and loaded, ready for combat. So is a painter. I believe the most important “weapon” that an artist can’t go without is his brush – or painting knife. The paint would serve as the bullets. The brush is the means by which the painted effects are applied. If you want a particular effect, bold or delicate, it is your brush that will dictate the result which is why it is important to buy the best quality brushes you can afford.

Brushes vary in shapes and sizes, even the make of the tips are very important. Sizes are indicated with numbers. The bigger the number, the bigger the size. In watercolor, you can start with 2 sizes, No.10 and a No.6 round, sable brushes. The quality you get, of course, will depend on the price you pay. Round sable brushes are good for watercolor since it can hold lots of water. They are also soft and apply washes very well. Flat brushes are good for flat washes. There are even big flat brushes for large areas that need an even, flat wash. In painting oil, you will need hard bristle brushes because they can carry paints with large consistency values. You can also use your knife in applying oil paints. Be careful though. Take care of your brushes to preserve their quality so that it will last a long time. Expensive brushes can take a pretty heavy amount of beating. But still, always keep your brushes where it is not too crowded and that their heads are always covered. Also, never leave paint on your brush, especially oil paint, when you are done working. Oil paints, unlike watercolor, are very hard to remove when they dry up. Always clean your brushes after every session for it to be ready for the next. Like soldiers, always keep your weapons ready for combat.

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Color Media

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

People have been asking me about different mediums. They’re questions are often about which medium is best and which is good for a certain type of painting. Well, for me, there is no best medium. Every medium has its own edge depending on your style of artwork. It’s up to your creativity to utilize your media. Before you do your painting, you should first know what you will be working with and what type of result you want to achieve. And it is always good to try different kinds of media and learn their tricks. Every medium has its own taste, texture, feel, and effect. These effects also vary depending on the canvas you use. The following are some of the media that artists often use in their works.

 

Watercolor – you can buy watercolor in tubes, or in half or whole pans. I would not advice using tubes because, in my case, it is difficult to control the amount of paint on the brush. You can buy pans individually or in boxed selections. There are many brands that make quality watercolors, one of which is Prang. It’s what I’ve been using for a few years already. You can buy a whole box with 16 colors, a half box with 8 colors, or in single refills.

Acrylic Color– there are several types of acrylic colors on the market: the two I have used are the Standard Formula and Flow Formula. Standard Formula has a consistency similar to oil color and is ideal for palette knife work. Flow Formula flows – it is much better to use with a brush, and takes a little more time to dry than Standard Formula. I prefer using Flow Formula as my basic paint. Texture paste is also available to help build up a heavy impasto.

Oil Color – this medium is oil based and, unlike watercolor, has a high consistency. It is an oil based version of Standard Formula Acrylic. This is also good for textured paintings.

Pastel Color – there are over 50 different pastel colors with different tints available on each, making over 200 pastels in all. Rowney pastels are graded from tint 0 for the palest to tint 8 for the darkest. The best way to start is to buy a set of 12 or 36 Artist’s Soft Pastels for Landscape. When you are already used to the medium, you can buy different tints, colors or refill pastels individually.

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I Want The Outdoors!

Monday, March 31st, 2008

Landscape as a subject for painting is never ending. There is always something to see and paint. Once, I stood outside in a farm near my place and I could see different pictures in every direction. Now add to that a sunrise or sunset, anytime of the day including the different seasons for the permutation. I could see that just by standing in one point I could draw dozens of different pictures during the year.Not only are there always subjects for a landscape painter to paint, but there is also a call of the “great outdoors”. At certain times of the year I get the feeling of wanting to get outside. Sometimes I have the urge to get close to nature to see the vast landscape in front of us with windswept clouds or the tree fallen half across an old cart track that has long since had its last horse and cart rumbling down its rutted surface.But there’s always this big problem that landscape painters often complain about: transportation. People who don’t own a vehicle, like me, can’t always travel and see the outside world where we can find great sceneries to freeze in our papers. It bores me just staying home most of the time and make landscape painting out of the pictures I get in the internet. Yes, it may be nice just working at home with my butt on a soft comfortable chair without the insects trying to get a piece of me. But the sense of adventure and thrill of being “actually there” is lost. They say that painting always goes with the mood. Well, where’s the mood in being stuck surrounded by four walls and a roof? All our senses, not just our visual sense, are with us all the time we are out. The sense of touch allows us to feel the wind, the warmth of the sun or the insect bites. Our sense of hearing also plays a big part in enjoying our “seeing” the environment. It sets our mood into painting the salty smelling sea or the dank smell of wet autumn leaves or the dusty road after a quick summer shower of rain.

These are some of the things why many artists love working their art with the outdoors. Even I would eat my heart out just seeing those who have the chance to travel in the luxury of their own vehicles full of art equipment all at their own disposal. I’m just hoping that someday I won’t have to surf the net and look for landscapes to paint.

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DRAWING with 2 P’s

Monday, March 31st, 2008

A drawing is usually groundwork for a painting, whether it is watercolor or oil. Therefore it is very important to pay attention to your sketch because it will greatly affect the outcome of the final painting.

 

Some artists can render vibrant and realistic colors but have difficulty in drawing proportions and perspectives. These two are one of the basic elements in a drawing or sketch. Proportion gives a drawing that normal look especially when drawing the human body. You don’t want that other arm longer and bigger than the other do you? And you don’t want that left eye seem too big for the face. Basically there is a rule on proportion. This is called the Golden Mean. Our upper body’s proportion to our lower body is 1:1.6. An average man is more or less as tall as 7 heads stacked together. There are other theories about the proportion of the human body.

 

Perspective, on the other hand, gives your drawing a sense of depth and distance. This composes the foreground, midground, and the background. An object, when viewed from afar would look smaller than its actual size. Perspective can be achieved in different ways. One of which is by making the farther object smaller and shorter than the nearer one. Another way is by overlapping the object that is nearer over the farther one. The third way of achieving perspective is by blurring the farther object. The farther it goes, the lesser detail there will be.

 

Perspective can also affect proportion. For example, a man’s arm, when extended forward or backward would appear shorter than its actual length. The hand that is extended forward would appear bigger and the far one, smaller. This is called foreshortening.

 

I will soon post some of my artworks that show these two elements.

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