Use Pastels To Enhance Your Command Of Colors By Karl Sultana

By Karl Sultana

Because of its ease of handling, pastel is an excellent medium for a beginning painter to learn about color or become more familiar with the various pigments derived from diverse sources and how effectively they blend, contrast, or complement one another.

Plan Colors in Advance

A good color reminder is to prepare a custom color chart after you’ve planned your pastel drawing and chosen your colors, but before you begin work. Using the pastel colors you’ve chosen (leaving aside black or very dark colors), apply a one-inch horizontal strip of color across a piece of paper (the same type of paper you plan to use for your work). Leave an inch of clean space between each stripe and write the name/number of each color at the far end.

Then, turn your paper 90 degrees and using the same pastels in the same order apply another one-inch strip of color. You may have to clean each pastel after it passes through each of the cross stripes. Take your time so you end up with each color passing over every other color with pure color between. Don’t worry if the colors smear just a bit as you’re going to be smearing some of them anyway.

When this is done, use your fingertips to gently blend the various combinations where they intersect. Blending diagonally with an additional adjacent color can give you further combinations. Hang your custom color chart where you can see it as you work. Do not use a fixative on your color chart so you can continue to experiment on it to blend colors.

Experiment with Techniques

Experiment using each pastel technique with different pastels (hard, semi-soft, and soft) to become familiar with the slightly different result each gives. Different brands of pastels can also give varying results.

Outlining: For gestural lines and contours, draw with the end of the pastel, wielding it as you would a pen or pencil. Use broad, relaxed strokes employing your whole arm, to achieve expression, and bear down more firmly to alter the thickness of you lines.

Filling in areas of color: Peeling the paper from a pastel and using the flat side in broad strokes will give you large blocks of color. Bearing down harder creates a heavier, darker, color. (Save the paper; storing the pastel stick in its paper helps you remember the color name.)

Hatching and cross-hatching: Using hard pastels or pastel pencils, draw sets of fine parallel lines, either curved or straight to block out your subject. Use several colors, i.e., darker hatching in shadows, light colors for highlights or reflections, consulting your custom color chart.

Blending: Blend by using your fingers or any one of the many blending tools available, such as a tortillon, paper stump; putty, kneading erasers, cloth, Q-tips, or cotton balls. Gently blend filled in single color areas, taking care not to run into lines or adjacent colors and clean your finger or change tools when you move to another color. Where you plan to blend colors, blend the hatching and cross-hatched areas, following your color plan.

Scumbling, feathering, and dusting are other techniques for achieving special effects.

An inexpensive way to acquire a photo to pastel portrait is to commission one from photo to pastel portrait website.

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Watercolor Painting For All Ages and Abilities By Dean Novosat

By Dean Novosat

Watercolor painting is a free-flowing adventure in color, textures, and form. It is easy when you learn it one step at a time. The art of watercolor painting is rich in traditional techniques and formality. The difficulty in watercolor painting is almost entirely in learning how to anticipate and use the behavior of water, rather than attempting to control or dominate it. A unique quality of watercolor painting is the look obtained when various colors are layered on top of previous colors (after each layer has dried). In rich, mutable, easy-to-mix colors, watercolor painting is perfect for beginners as well as more accomplished artists. A traditional watercolor painting is executed with transparent watercolors with no opaque pigments used and the white of the paper serving as white paint. And today, fine art watercolor painting is a highly respected and much sought after, art form bringing high bids at art auctions around the world

Watercolor is a type of paint made from pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder, such as gum Arabic. Watercolor paints can be bought in tubes or pans (small blocks). It is one of the most dynamic mediums available to the artist. Watercolors are great for outdoor painting because of their quick drying nature and ease of use and watercolor painting offers a wide range of varieties and consistencies.

Watercolor techniques have the reputation of being quite demanding, although they are actually no more demanding than those used with other media. In the 17th and 18th centuries, ink, pen and watercolor tints were common mapmaking tools, portable and convenient to use outdoors and in remote locations. At the beginning of the 18th century, the topographical watercolor was primarily used as an objective record of an actual place in an era before photography. It was also a popular choice for landscape painting. Watercolors have moved from mapmaking to the mainstream in the past 300 years. Now, watercolor painting can be enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities.

Painting in watercolor is one of the most popular mediums for aspiring artists, yet there are many pitfalls that can snare the beginner. Painting in watercolor is fun when you can find new opportunities for personal discovery, expression, and invention. Painting or drawing while traveling always makes the experience more rewarding, satisfying, and unforgettable. Professional watercolor paper is the basis for getting beautiful watercolor paintings, so remember this when selecting your watercolor paper. The better the paper, the better the painting.

Watercolor is not just for mapmaking anymore. Watercolor painting is enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities. My first memory of painting is using dime store watercolor paints in a metal tin. Although not the best quality, it introduced me to the watery, transparent color of this type of paint. Later in life, I learned to use these transparent pigments to create works of art. If you are considering getting started in painting, you may want to consider watercolors as your medium of choice.

To learn more about watercolor painting and how to master watercolors, you can read more about it on OfficialPainting.com in the Watercolor Painting section

Dean Novosat owns and operates http://www.officialpainting.com and Painting

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How To Draw People – How To Use Proportions When Drawing People – By Adam Reeder

By Adam Reeder

Before you can draw a human figure with clothing, muscles, shading, etc., it is necessary to understand the basic proportions of the human figure. Proportions on a figure are simply how long the major anatomical parts of the body are, in relation to each other.

Let’s examine the proportions of a healthy male human figure. Proportions change based on body type, age, sex and activity level. Our example healthy male figure will be seven heads tall. As a foundation, let’s start with these lengths that are all the same. Each of them are two heads long.

1. From the middle of the kneecap to the bottom of the foot

2. The head of the femur to the kneecap

3. The elbow to the tips of the extended fingers

4. From the collarbone to just below the belly button

5. The width of the chest from shoulder to shoulder.

Tip #1 – The width of the hips is the same as the distance from the crotch to the knee.

Tip #2 – The length of the arm from the pit to the tip of the extended fingers is the same as from the base of the neck to the bottom of the buttocks.

Tip #3 – The arms should hang with extended fingers, to the middle of the thigh.

Tip #4 – The elbow should rest parallel with the bottom of the rib cage.

Tip #5 – The size of the foot should fit in between the base of the palm and the pit of the forearm.

Tip #6 – The hand from the base of the palm, to the tip of the fingers should fit on the face, from hairline to chin.

These proportions are critical to learn if you want your figures to look convincing. The reason this is essential is that you cannot place a bone or muscle group on a figure and have it be the wrong length without making your drawing stand out because it will look “off”.

Adam Reeder is a professional artist who is currently working on a masters degree at The San Francisco Academy of Art University. Visit his website at http://www.adamreeder.com

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