Step by Step Watercolor Painting By Alistair Butt
March 27, 2008
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Below is a wonderful step by step watercolor demonstration by the very talented artist Alistair Butt.
Please take a moment to visit Alistair’s site when you are finished reading through this demonstration. There a handful of other demonstrations on his website, tips on painting supplies, limited edition prints for sale and more. |
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Stage One |
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A drawing of the subject was produced on pre-stretched Bockingford 250lb watercolour/watercolor paper. Before any painting is started all the white areas of the painting are masked, in this case all the swans (I used colourless masking fluid from Winsor & Newton). Next the whole paper area is given a wash with plain water and while this is soaking into the paper I’ll pre-mix the first wash colours/colors on the palette. The first wash is to establish the sky and remove the remaining white areas of paper. A light grey/blue for the sky which was extended down to the river as this colour/color would become the highlight areas on the river and the beginnings of the shadows placed in the foreground. |
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Stage Two |
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| Two methods can be used for the this stage. The first is to mask all the foreground leaves and paint the background first or second (as I have done here) is to paint the leaves first and then mask before painting the background. The leaves are created from three washes, each of changing colours/colors working from light to dark. |  |
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Stage Three |
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All the leaves painted in stage two had masking fluid painted over them plus highlight areas on the water were also masked. Having pre-mixed the colours/colors needed, the background was painted using two wet into wet washes, the first wash was allowed to dry before applying the second, softening any edges that were too sharp using clear water. I also painted the reflections while the correct colours/colors were on the brush. Some loosely applied detail was added to the middle distant trees. |
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Stage Four |
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With the masking fluid still on the leaves I painted the foreground tree trunk with four washes. Starting with the highlight colours/colors then starting the modeling with a mid to dark colour/color wash followed by adding the details, like the branches, splits in the bark etc before the final shadow wash. The masking fluid from the leaves was then removed and some softening of the edges is done. More detail for the reflections on the river is added before a darker version of the sky colour/color is washed over the whole river. |
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Stage Five |
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| Moving to the foreground. The whole area is given a wash to establish the sunlight parts of the grass and tree on the right |  |
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Stage Six |
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| Two darker washes followed in the tree and on the grass to start creating the shadows cast from trees to the right hand side. The washes were a mixture of wet into wet and wet on dry. |  |
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Stage Seven |
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| Further detail was added to the tree on the right. The final grass shadow wash was added and as sharper edges were required the details like the twigs on the grass, gate and the plants by the river edge were painted last. |  |
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Stage Eight |
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| The final part (having removed the masking fluid that covered the swans from the beginning) was to paint the swans. The swans were painted with four washes, the first being a warm wash to capture the sunlight on the swans with the following three for the modeling and shadow areas working from light to dark and allowing each wash to dry before progressing, whilst being careful not to paint a shadow wash over a swan standing in sunlight. The details for the heads and legs being the last parts to be painted. |  |
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All Images and Text are © Copyright, Alistair Butt
Popularity: 67% [?]
Artist Spotlite - Interview With Harmony Steel
March 18, 2008
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| "I really enjoy drawing and painting lots of different things. I love the process of sketching or swooshing watercolor paint about, or the peaceful tap-tap noise my reed pen makes when I draw with ink. I also love to experiment with new types of paper and ways of painting; I have waaay too many once-used art supplies ;)" |
THE INTERVIEW
Q - What medium or mediums do you work with?
A - I love to experiment with different mediums and have worked with acrylics, watercolors, color pencil, watercolor pencil, ink, and digital painting software (Painter). My favourite would have to be digital painting because it’s so versatile and fun, I find it less "stressful" than traditional mediums because if you make a mistake you can just undo it, unlike a watercolor painting or ink drawing where one fatal slip of the brush can ruin hours of work 
Q - How long have you been an artist? How did you get started?
A - I’ve always loved to draw since I was a little girl and when I was 10 years old a lady came to live with my family who could draw the most amazing horses. Like most little girls I was mad about horses and she was very kind and helped me learn how to draw them, and in the process taught me the basics of constructing a drawing. I’ve been drawing ever since and became interested in painting when I was older, I’ve been a hobby artist for about 20 years now.
Q - Do you have any formal training or are you self taught?
A - Apart from studying art through school and a class here and there I am self taught. My favourite ways to learn have been books, online resources, and experimenting with different mediums. I keep a list of the best free resources I find online for new artists here - http://www.treelightstudios.com/links.htm#tutorials
Q - Do you have any favorite art supplies that you would like to recommend?
A - For Acrylics I would recommend Atelier acrylics, they’re just so much nicer to paint with and more responsive than any other brand I’ve used.
For watercolors definately Winsor & Newton Artists’ Watercolors, they cost more but they’re worth it; they’re beautiful to paint with and produce great results. For watercolor paper I like Arches
Smooth 300gsm and Cotmans,
depending on how much water I want to splash about - Cotmans is great for drawing over with pencil and ink and then painting if you don’t use too much water, while the Arches Smooth paper is a bit harder to draw on but will handle a lot more water.
For digital painting I recommend Corel Painter IX
Q - Do you work with any specific styles or subject matter?
A - Portraits, animals and fantasy art. My style is colorful and whimsical, similar to children’s book illustrations.
Q - Can you recommend any books, videos or other resources that will help new artists?
A - For a solid base in drawing - which is the basis of all good art - I highly recommend the books by illustrator Andrew Loomis. These are old books so they’re freely available in the public domain, and they’re fantastic, particularly if you want to learn to draw faces and people. You can download the books for free here - http://acid.noobgrinder.com/Loomis/
For an introduction to digital painting and character design the best book I’ve found is Don Seegmiller’s "Digital Character Design and Painting"
I also keep a list of the best free learning resources I find online for new artists here - http://www.treelightstudios.com/links.htm#tutorials
Q - How do you get ideas to create a piece? What inspires you?
A - I’m inspired by new material, particularly faces and figures. Most of the time I’ll sit down to look through my reference library and begin to draw from something that strikes me as interesting or fun to render, and I’ll build it from there. I love fantasy art so fantasy characters and creatures feature strongly in my work. I also like to design interesting animals, like my winged rabbit and Hedgedragon (not to mention the balloon sheep!) - http://www.treelightstudios.com/gallery_fantasy.htm
Q - Are there any artists that have influenced you and why?
A - Children’s illustrator and portrait artist James Browne has always been my greatest influence, I just love his happy, whimsical work and hope one day to be even a freckle as good as he is - http://www.jamesbrowne.net/
I’m also a huge fan of Don Seegmiller’s work, particularly his character designs and his lively and textured painting technique - http://www.seegmillerart.com/
Q - Do you have a website you would like to share?
A - Yes my online gallery is www.treelightstudios.com . I’ve also been writing ambient and chillout music for 10 years which you can download for free from my music site www.alarinmusic.com . A lot of people tell me this music is very relaxing to paint and draw to so I hope you might like it too
Q - Finally, do you have any last words of advice for beginner artists?
A- All art is based on good drawing skills, and drawing is a fine-motor skill so it takes a while to develop. This seems to be the main thing that discourages new artists from continuing to practice, so my advice is… don’t ever give up! Keep drawing, even if it’s only once a week for a few hours, just keep drawing. The more you draw, the better you will become, and the more you will want to draw.
It takes time - if you draw for an hour a day for a year you would improve pretty rapidly, but for most people (myself included!) those first few years are a lot of looking at your work and thinking "ugh, that’s awful!" but then picking up the pencil and trying again. It’s important not to become discouraged, just keep practicing and give it time - you will get past that frustrating stage every artist has to go through at the start.
Also remember to keep things fun! Draw subjects that interest you, experiment, do tutorials, become a part of the online art community where you can get feedback on your work (http://www.treelightstudios.com/links.htm#artGroups) and join in fun challenges like speedpainting (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=0a83493dc88d998a3794c2dfdfa776fa&forumid=39).
Popularity: 33% [?]
Acrylic painting tutorial By Harmony Steel
March 17, 2008
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This tutorial is an instructive walkthrough of how I created "Alien Landscape" including details about paints, brushes, palettes and acrylic painting techniques. The painting was created with Atelier acrylics on a 20"x30" gallery-wrapped canvas. There’s a few images here so you may need to give them a minute to load. This is the finished painting, I’m unusually attached to this one and it remains part of my personal collection. Scroll down to see how it was made. |
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| First a quick look at my workspace… it’s a little crowded I know but it does the trick. I always try and work with my canvas facing natural light, and I have the overhead light switched on too to get a realistic idea of how my painting will look when it’s hung on a wall. |
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| Here’s most of the materials I use - a water container for my brushes, an old tea towel to wipe the brushes, white gesso to prime the canvas, my home-made palette, and some very useful disposable palette’s which are real time-savers when it comes to cleaning up. |
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I’ve tried a few different palette’s and this one works the best by far. I’m just using the lid from a glass casserole dish and I’ve folded six sheets of paper-towel (Handi ultra-absorbent works well), run them under water (squeeze out any excess) and pushed them into the contours of the dish. Then I get one of my disposable palette’s (cut in half) and press that onto the paper towel. The wet paper towel keeps the palette cool so that your paints won’t dry out too quickly, and the best bit is that when you’re finished you can just throw everything but the dish straight in the bin, which is much easier than scrubbing off paint. I also use an egg cup to keep my painting medium (right) separate from my paints. |
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| This is the brush I used for most of the painting. It’s my favorite brush, a Windsor & Newton size 18 Galeria (bright shape, sable bristles). |
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| Onto the paints. I use Atelier acrylics which are professional artists acrylics produced in Australia. They have a beautiful, thick, oil-like consistency and produce fantastic vibrant colors. |
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| Now to the canvas. I’m using a 20"x30" gallery-wrapped canvas (no staples on the side) and it’s already been primed; however for good measure I paint another two coats of gesso onto it as I’d rather the canvas absorb the cheaper-to-replace gesso than my acrylics (learn how to apply gesso). I sketch a light outline directly onto the canvas using a 4B pencil. |
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| I then seal the sketch with a coat of fixative. You will still find you get a little bit of smudging if you’re painting over pencil, but the fixative will minimize that. |
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| Then it’s time to start painting! I’ve mixed up my base color with a bit of acrylic medium to make the paint go further - the important thing to do at this stage is to make sure all the white canvas fibres are covered by the paint. The actual base coat doesn’t have to be really thick as you’re going to paint over the top of it anyway. Using this method I paint the sky, and the highlights on the building and hills. |
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Before adding more color I wave a hair dryer over the base coat for a few minutes until it’s touch-dry. I do this because if acrylics are half-dry when you start to paint over them you’ll get all sorts of sticking and flaking problems. I build up the base colors by adding more yellow, red and orange and blending them together with a large round sponge brush. Then I start adding clouds using my normal brush and a lighter shade of yellow. |
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| I add vermillion shadows to the clouds and finish painting the sun. |
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| Here’s a close-up of the clouds. |
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| My next step is to create the base for the desert. |
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| Like the sky I add highlights and shadows and blend them together using the sponge brush. Also, like the sky, I’m using a bit of medium with my paint so that it doesn’t dry out too quickly, and I work fast with the sponge brush to make the colors blend into each other. When that’s done I take a little brush and mark out where the highlights will appear. |
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Since acrylics tend to dry quickly I mix up the colors I’ll be using for the desert before I start painting it. I paint the desert hills by starting with the lightest color, cleaning my brush on a rag, and then moving to the next lightest color, etc. |
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| By working fast you can get a nice gradient effect. |
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| The desert still looks a bit flat and unrefined so I continue to add highlights and shadows until I’m happy with it. |
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| Then it’s time to start on the building. I begin by laying down my base colors (the building is metal reflecting the sun and sky so the colors will match), and adding a few shadows and highlights to one side. |
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| I do the same on the lighter side and paint in the windows. I want them to look like little jewels so I add a bit of grey and green to my reds and yellows. |
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| I double-check the sides to make sure they match up with the front of the painting. I think painting around the sides adds an extra element of refinement to your canvas, and it means you or your customer can bypass framing if you like. |
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| And finally… it’s finished! I sign the piece, attach hanging wire to the back of the canvas, and it’s ready to go on a wall. |
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This tutorial is Copyright of Harmony Steel |
Popularity: 72% [?]
Pen and Ink Drawing Demonstration by Mike Budden
March 6, 2008
| Drawing Demo - How to Draw the Chetnole Church by Mike Budden | ||||||||||||
| Click here to visit Mike’s Site | ||||||||||||
| How to draw: Using a photograph. | ||||||||||||
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| MATERIALS USED IN THIS PROJECT: HB Pencil. Putty Rubber. Layout paper. Acid free cartridge paper. Viewfinder grid. Ruler. Magnifying glass. Rotring Isograph pens; .1mm, .25mm and .35mm. Black India ink. A piece of lint free cloth - to wipe your pens on. Tissues, for resting your hand upon - fingers leave greasy marks on the paper and the ink won’t take kindly to it. Gillott Mapping pens can also be used (dip pens) for fine detail work. |
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| Where accuracy is required, I use this grid system. This can be used on location as well. Simply hold the see through grid at arms length and locate the key points. Photo’s can often hide details in shadows and bright highlights. | ||||||||||||
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| Draw your own grid onto layout paper (thin paper) to enlarge the image - the larger the squares, the bigger the picture. | ||||||||||||
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| Now transfer your best lines from the layout paper to your cartridge paper. You do this by using transfer paper, (this is similar to carbon paper except that it transfers a pencil mark instead of ink) and a sharp hard pencil. Make sure the transfer paper is face down onto the cartridge paper. Place your layout drawing on top and then simply trace over your best lines.
When this is completed, add the extra details lightly to your drawing on the cartridge paper, using an HB pencil. |
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| Start with the clock first because if this goes wrong it’s easy to start again. The actual size of this clock face is just 21mm high. | ||||||||||||
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| Be sure to get your drawing right before applying ink - it’s easy to erase pencil marks, but not ink. For this particular clock, making white hands and numerals to ink around is best - they are easier to see than a grey pencil mark. The numerals must be at the same angle of perspective as the brickwork the clock is on. The tighter the ink marks are packed together, the darker the tone. The more spaced out they are, the lighter the tone. Remember the clock is higher than your eye level and at an angle. | ||||||||||||
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| Click Image Below for Larger View | ||||||||||||
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| WORKING INDOORS (with imagination) FROM A PHOTO
Feel the warmth of the sun and a gentle breeze, |
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| The obvious can elude me sometimes, so a fresh look next morning can be a real eye opener. I often find things that have been overlooked. | ||||||||||||
| Click Image Below for Larger View | ||||||||||||
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| Be sure to draw each tile in the direction it is laying. When I became bored with bricks, tiles etc, I turned my attentions to the Woodpecker.I have used artistic licence to enhance this picture and add depth. Things like T.V aerials, telephone wires etc, I generally leave out. | ||||||||||||
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| Example of how to make things look round.This is just lots of tiny dots. | ||||||||||||
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| "ST. PETER’S CHURCH" Chetnole, Dorset. |
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If there was anything that’s not clear to you, please e-mail Mike. Equally, if you have any tips to help make Mike’s website or the tutorials better, He would be delighted to hear from you. |
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Popularity: 70% [?]
Grumbacher Max Oil Color Basic Set
March 3, 2008
Popularity: 25% [?]
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