The Looser You Get, The More Real It Seems: Watercolor Demonstration
About Debi Watson
I showed talent with my drawing from an early age, but my parents discouraged me in the hope ‘that I would pursue something more productive’.
I spent much of my adult life working as a operating room nurse, but couldn’t abandon my love for painting. Working long hours and raising two children didn’t leave me with much free time, but I still managed to paint whenever I got the chance.
Starting Life As A Watercolor Artist
Losing a Likeness and Finding It – Again and Again
About Karin
Karin Wells is an artist of amazing versatility. She graduated with honors from both the New England School of Art and Design, Boston, 1965, and the Butera School of Art, Boston, 1986. Karin has enjoyed a career as an award-winning graphic designer, illustrator and sign painter. She also taught Life Drawing and Painting for many years. She has most recently studied for three years at The New England School of Classical Painting in Greenfield, New Hampshire, under the direction of Numael Pulido.
To expand her craft, Karin has traveled throughout Europe studying the Old Masters. Her art reflects the deep influence of these great works. Karin demonstrates a remarkable facility for likeness and for the use of light.
The artist is a member of The American Society of Portrait Artists, Portrait Society of America, The Portrait Society of Atlanta, and The Copley Society of Boston.
Blick Presents: Liquitex Acrylic Colors
In this video, the folks over at Blick Art Materials talk about one of the most popular Acrylic Paints on the Market called Liquitex Acrylic Colors. Liquitex was the first company to offer a water based acrylic paint for sale in 1955 and since then, it has become a household name in the art industry. Artists Andy Warhol and David Hockney were early supporters of Liquitex Acrylic Paints.
In the following video, a representative of Blick Art Materials demonstrates how to use the 4 unique viscosities or consistencies that these paints are available in. It is important to note, as the gentleman in the video points out: All of these paints are made with the same pigments and they can all be intermixed and mixed with all of the various mediums that Liquitex has to offer. The only difference are the consistencies.
- Ink – Very fluid pigment based acrylic formulation. Very good for doing calligraphy, stamping and airbrush to name a few. Also great for laying out very broad flat areas of color.
- Soft Body – Thicker than the ink but still has great coverage. It retains little to no brush strokes.
- Heavy Body – Thicker yet and more suited for impasto work. Will retain brush strokes.
- Super Heavy Body – The thickest consistency paint. Will retain the most brush strokes. Great for use with a palette knife. Excellent for impasto, mixed media or collage.
Blick Presents: Liquitex Acrylic Colors
Painting Lesson – How To Mix an Endless Amount of Greens
You can learn how to mix an almost endless amount of greens with just a handful of tube colors that you may already have on hand.
You may be asking yourself: “Why would I want or need to mix my own greens when I can just buy tubes of green paint and use those?”
It’s true, there are some very nice tubed greens on the market today. Thalo Green and Thalo Yellow Green for instance, are two of my favorites. I use these two greens if I am outdoors painting and I don’t have the time to mix my own greens from scratch and believe me, they come in very handy sometimes. Apart from those two, I have no other greens on my palette. Everything else I mix from various blues, yellows and other colors.
If you aren’t a landscape painter however, then you can probably get away with using tubed greens, but even tubed greens may have to be modified depending on your particular subject matter. Using colors straight from the tube can be too intense sometimes.
If you do a lot of landscape painting however, then you should really learn how to mix your own greens.
How To Achieve Color Harmony In Your Paintings With a Limited Palette
Achieving a sense of color harmony in painting is something that we all strive for as artists, but some of us just never seem to get there and eventually become frustrated and give up.
It is no surprise that color harmony is so difficult to achieve. For one, there are so many different colors to choose from today, and when you have this many choices, things can become rather confusing. Secondly, it is very difficult to find any clear cut advice on this topic.
Hopefully the following tips will help you get a better grasp on color in your painting and you will finally be on your way toward Mastering Color.
One of the most effective methods that will help you harmonize your paintings is to switch to a limited palette of colors. A limited palette simply means that you are reducing the number of colors on your palette.
Painting Lesson – Learn How To Accurately See Color & Value
In this video lesson Richard Robinson talks about how to more easily recognize color and value. Seeing color and value correctly is one of the most difficult aspects of creating art. In this lesson, Richard discusses how detail in your reference picture can actually distract you from seeing the main values. He recommends to squint your eyes when looking at your reference picture, which blurs the image and makes it easier to recognize value. He goes on to say that while squinting your eyes can help see value, it will not help you to better recognize color.
Recognizing color is a real challenge. One of the main reasons it is so challenging to see color accurately is because of a a particular color’s surrounding environment. A color’s surrounding environment can greatly affect the way we perceive it.
For instance, you can take the same color blue and surround it with two different colors as illustrated in the picture below. Notice how the the blue swatch on the left appears lighter and seems to stand out more than the blue swatch on the right?
Mastering Color – Simple Exercise To Help You Become a Better Painter Overnight
Are you an artist who struggles with color? Do you find yourself unable to achieve color harmony in your artwork? Well you are not alone. Did you know that over 70% of artists admit that color is one of their biggest obstacles? Chances are that you are amongst those 70% or you would not be reading this article right now.
If you take the time to work on the exercise below, you will have a new appreciation and understanding of color, and it won’t take years of practice either. You can become more knowledgeable about color after only one session.
What exactly am I talking about?
Artist Spotlite – Agnes Preszler
Artist Name: Agnes Preszler
Location: Italy
Title of Artwork: “Black Diana”
Dimensions of Artwork: 27x35cm
Medium: Acrylic
Support: Board
Website: http://pagnes.weebly.com
(Click Image Below For Larger View)
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