Still Life Pastel Drawing Demonstration
This demonstration is courtesy of Dan Gray.
Visit his website to learn more about him and to view more of his work
Cherry Bomb Still Life Demo
I was out in the forest with an Oldsmobile but the rain started to fall so back into the studio with a still life for rest of the day
Layout
I am using tobbacco coloured canson, I work all over including the background
Adding definition to my objects
Warming up, working from light to dark
Refining
Warming up the base and adding more blossom, refining detail
Background
Lowering the contrast and working the background
Final work
Working all over on detail and values, cooling the background to try and make the blossoms jump
Cherry Bomb
18″ x 20“
Watercolor and Pastel Painting Demonstration – Let’s Paint Winter Woods!
About Christine Kane
Christine Kane is a pastel and watercolor artist who is inspired by the Midwest landscape and it’s seasons. To find new ideas for her paintings, she hikes in the forest preserves during all seasons.
Christine began drawing at an early age. She focused her education on art and has a degree in Graphic Design. She is continuing her studies and is currently pursuing a degree in Natural Resources.
Translating weather is also evident in her work. “Weather makes a landscape painting come to life. How I love to show leaves blowing in the Autumn time, snow falling in winter, or a beautiful thunderstorm approaching in my summer paintings.”
Christine finds God’s handwork in all aspects of nature and tries to translate her awe and reverence in her artwork. Never disappointed, she relies on His creation for inspiration.
To learn more about Christine and to view more of her work, please visit her site by following the link below:
==> http://letspaintnature.com/
Christine’s work can be viewed at the LaGrange Art Gallery
Watercolor and Pastel Painting Demonstration – Let’s Paint Winter Woods!
About three years ago I went hiking at Bull Frog Lake, right before evening in January. I came upon a scene that made me pause for a moment and fall in love. Winter’s intense setting sun was casting long shadows from the trees in the woods. Right on que it seemed, three crows in the distance began to caw. I almost wanted to cry. Call me a fool for nature, but West Nile almost eliminated all the crows in my area and I haven’t heard that beautiful, “CAW, CAW, CAW”, in a very long time. They are my 2nd favorite bird in the world.
So here we go! Let’s remember that moment forever by painting the winter woods…
Step 1: I am using an Ampersand Pastelbord 16×20. This is going to be a watercolor and pastel painting. With charcoal, make a simple sketch before you paint. Remember the 3rd’s rule…great composition happens in thirds. Notice my horizon line is 1/3 from the top. My deer tracks will be 1/3rd from the left.
Here is my reference photo. I had it enlarged and printed at 8×10. Notice I have a clear plastic cover on it. This will help you greatly! I am a very messy painter and get junk all over the place (and I don’t care…it’s part of the process), if I didn’t protect the picture it would have been destroyed.
Step 2: Turn your board upside down. This will help the paint flow down with gravity. Spray the sky with clean water. Using watercolor paints, paint Naples yellow in the sky (remember we are upside down so it is at the bottom). Next, with a mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt umber, paint some distant trees using up and down strokes.
Step 3: When dry, paint some far trees using ultramarine blue and a lot of water so the mixture is not dark. Paint closer trees using a darker mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt umber.
Here is a close-up of the distant trees. I love how the watercolors spread out at the edges representing rough bark…YES! Effortless painting!
Step 4: When completely dry, turn your board right side up. In this step I am just laying down big blocks of color using watercolors. I am only using cobalt blue, ultramarine blue and alizarin in different mixtures. You might be thinking, “Are you nuts? Those colors are so dark!” Don’t worry, most of this will be covered by pastels.
Step 5: With sap green, ultramarine blue, and alizarin crimson, make a black mixture and paint the closest trees. Try to vary their sizes. That took me a long time to accomplish in my early years of painting. Your brain just wants to make trees, so after a while you realise they are all the same thickness. NO! In nature they are all different.
Step 6: We are done with watercolors. When everything is dry, start painting with pastels. I used a medium Unison purple for the tracks and shadows and a medium blue for snow.
Step 7 Final: Make layers and layers of snow, using three different light blues. I also used light purple for the snow as well. On the tree trunks I painted spots of deep dark purple and fuchsia. You can’t really see it, but it is there. I also painted tiny spots of yellow in the snow to reflect the setting sun.
Don’t worry if you do not paint with pastels. You can use the same principles to paint with oils. It’s all about layer upon layer.
“Before Dusk in Deep Snow”
16×20
This painting will be on display at the LaGrange Art Gallery March 2010. I hope you enjoyed this step by step painting demonstration on how to paint a winter scene in the woods using watercolors and pastels.
Pencil Shading Technique – How to Shade a Drawing Using Pointillism
About Miranda
My work fits into two very different and unrelated categories: realism and abstract. Each style allows me to challenge different parts of my personality. Drawing realistically indulges the side of me that loves detail and is a perfectionist. It challenges me technically and I am always pushing to create more accurate drawings. The abstract works reflect my interest in colour and form. I am able to work loosely and fluidly, reacting to the painting as I go. It is sometimes a relief to shift from the tight discipline of realistic drawing to this type of work, but it can be equally relieving to go from these open-ended paintings to getting lost in the details of a drawing.
A very important part of drawing realistically is shading: the variation in value from shadows to highlights that describe the shape of something. By improving your shading, you can greatly improve the quality of your drawings. Shading isn’t difficult to learn, but it does take some practice. You can learn how to make your drawings more realistic by understanding light, controlling your pencil, and blending.
To learn more about Miranda, please take a moment to visit her websites below:
Art Lessons & Tips: http://www.learntoart.com/
Portrait Work: http://www.customportraitsonline.com/
Online Gallery: http://www.mirandaaschenbrenner.com
How to Shade a Drawing Using Pointillism
Pointillism is a technique using a series of dots to create an image. It takes time, and loads of patience, but the results can be incredibly impressive!
For pointillism, you’re going to need some special pens. The best are fine tip pens with free-flowing ink. Ball point pens don’t work well because they need to be moving for the ink to flow. My favourites are Staedtler Pigment Liners. You’ll also want a range of sizes as well, from very fine to a wider tip. Something like a 01, a 03, and a 05 would work well.
Throughout the drawing, you’ll use each size of pen. Make sure you blend the dots together when you switch pen size. You don’t want to see the border where you switched pens. Also, don’t rush your mark-making. If you get careless, some of your points might get little tails. You want nice clean dots to create an even pattern across the whole of your drawing.
As with any drawing, you want to start out with a good line drawing. Outline the contours of your subjects, as well as the shapes of the major shadows and highlights. You want to have good guidelines for when it comes to filling in the values.
When using pointillism to shade, you need to think about values just like you do when shading with a pencil. It’s important to have a range of values to give your drawing enough contrast.
Let’s use the sphere as an example for how to shade with pointillism. Once you learn how to shade basic shapes, you can shade just about anything!
Start with your finest pen and make some dots around the highlight. Avoid putting any dots inside the highlight area, but make sure that the points gradually become more and farther apart closer to the highlight. You don’t want your marks to suddenly stop dead. As you move away from the highlight, place your dots closer together.
As the highlight fades to the mid-tones, switch to the middle-sized pen and mark your points closer together. Now you can fill in almost the entire sphere, making your points closer together as you approach the shadow.
For the shadow, use your widest pen and make your marks close together. In the darkest areas, your dots should be so close together that white shows through. You might be tempted to cheat and use the pen to color in the entire shadow.
Try to resist!
It would be faster, but it would be obvious. With pointillism, it’s important to use only dots. The marks create a pattern or a texture that is visible even in the solid black areas. If you have a really large area of black that would take you days to dot, you could try colouring it in solid, then adding a few dots on top to mimic the pattern. I don’t recommend it, but you could try.
When drawing with pointillism, make sure you don’t draw any lines. Even when you’re drawing wrinkles or eyelashes use a series of points to create the line. It will look more natural than a solid line, which would stand out amongst all those dots
When your drawing is done, let the ink dry for ten minutes or so before erasing the pencil lines. You’d hate to smudge all your hard work!
Pointillism in Colour
You can also do pointillism in paints or pastels. This technique involves layering different colored dots on top of each other. When seen from far away, it’s like an optical illusion: dots blend together and create a new color. A simple example of this would be dots of red and yellow, which would appear as orange from far away. This type of illusion was used extensively by the French painter, Seurat.
His example from Wikipedia is A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, by Seurat.
Preparing Your Paper For Use With Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils
Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils are water-soluble and made of professional artist quality grade pigments. They are sold individually or in sets of 12, 24, and 36 pencils. Used with or without water, the smooth and rich colored leads lend themselves to creating dynamic drawings. Additionally, all Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils precisely match the color palette of Prismacolor’s other products – Premier, Verithin, and Art Stix.
The technique to using water-soluble pencils is up to the individual artist’s imagination. There is no wrong way to use these pencils, except to avoid over saturating paper with water, which can lead to tearing, especially when using light weight paper. Artist grade watercolor paper is recommended, rather than drawing paper.
An alternative to watercolor paper is cold press illustration board, which is a thick, high rag content paper similar in thickness to cardboard. It has what artists call, tooth, which means that the surface is textured and not smooth. The textured surface will absorb water better, allowing for greater artistic control.
A smooth surface will cause running, because there is no place for the water to go. Pencils in general work much better on a textured, porous surface. When purchasing either watercolor paper or cold press illustration board, be sure to check that it is made from 100% cotton fiber and is acid free.
Illustration board can be used with a combination of media and is much more resilient to water than watercolor paper. When using either, particularly if you plan to apply water, it is best to secure your paper to a hard, smooth surface such as Masonite board. The reason for this is twofold; first, when paper absorbs water and dries, it expands and buckles. If taped down, your drawing surface will maintain better integrity.
Secondly, the tape allows for a border, which will come in handy when it comes to framing your drawing. Some artists prepare their watercolor paper by first gently immersing it in lukewarm water before they tape it down. Soaking time is generally no more than 10 minutes, and should be less with lighter weight paper.
Always handle your paper by the corners when removing it from water. Allow the excess water to drip into a basin before placing it on your board. Before taping down your paper, you will want to remove excess water using a sponge, applying smooth, even, straight, and gentle strokes across the surface.
Once all bubble and bumps are removed, tape down one side using drafting tape. Make sure to use only one piece of tape; multiply pieces will cause your paper to dry unevenly. You will need to hold the tape taught, and begin in the middle of one edge of the paper, working it evenly from the middle to the edges. Once one side is evenly taped down, again use your sponge to smooth out your paper, but this time, apply even strokes away from the taped side. When you are satisfied that the paper is bubble free, apply tape to the opposite side of the paper.
Depending upon whether you are right or left-handed, will determine which side you will begin your taping – keeping in mind that you want to use the sponge to stroke away from the taped side. If you are left-handed, you may want to begin on the right side of the paper. Once the right and left sides are taped down, your paper should be adequately stretched, and won’t require further sponge work when taping down the top and the bottom of your paper.
In order to avoid making a hole or tearing your paper, it is probably best to wait before you paper is fairly dry before applying your first markings with Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils. Once the paper is dry, you may begin your drawing! Applying water to your drawing will require at least one watercolor paintbrush. Brushes come in a variety of sizes and shapes; a fan brush is especially useful for pulling your pigment away from the point of pencil saturation, in order to create a wisping or fanning effect.
Written by, Brenne Meirowitz, B.A., M.S., M.A. This article, Preparing Your Paper for Use With Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils Online was written while researching information about Prismacolor Colored Pencils.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brenne_Meirowitz
Drawing Lesson – How to Shade Pencil Drawings By Miranda Aschenbrenner
About Miranda
My work fits into two very different and unrelated categories: realism and abstract. Each style allows me to challenge different parts of my personality. Drawing realistically indulges the side of me that loves detail and is a perfectionist. It challenges me technically and I am always pushing to create more accurate drawings. The abstract works reflect my interest in colour and form. I am able to work loosely and fluidly, reacting to the painting as I go. It is sometimes a relief to shift from the tight discipline of realistic drawing to this type of work, but it can be equally relieving to go from these open-ended paintings to getting lost in the details of a drawing.
A very important part of drawing realistically is shading: the variation in value from shadows to highlights that describe the shape of something. By improving your shading, you can greatly improve the quality of your drawings. Shading isn’t difficult to learn, but it does take some practice. You can learn how to make your drawings more realistic by understanding light, controlling your pencil, and blending.
To learn more about Miranda, please take a moment to visit her websites below:
Art Lessons & Tips: http://www.learntoart.com/
Portrait Work: http://www.customportraitsonline.com/
Online Gallery: http://www.mirandaaschenbrenner.com
How to Shade Pencil Drawings
Understanding Light
In your drawings, you will generally have one light source, which determines the location of highlights and the direction of shadows. The spot where the light hits your subject directly is called the highlight, and is usually pure white. The side facing away from the light source will be in shadow. The midtones refer to the gradation of tones between the shadow and the highlight. Most objects will also have an area of reflected light. This reflection happens when light hits the surface next to your object and bounces back. You will notice that these values blend into each other smoothly, which communicates to us the shape of the object. The only time you will see a hard edge is when there is a cast shadow, otherwise the tones change gradually. The closer the cast shadow is to the object, the darker it will be, fading as it moves farther away.
Control Your Pencil
The key to smooth shading is learning how to control your pencil. You need to be aware of how you hold the pencil, how you apply your strokes, and how hard you press. For darker shadows, press slightly harder and slowly lessen the pressure as you work away. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t have to press very hard; if you want darker shadows, build them with layers of graphite. Your pencil strokes should be even and regular. You don’t want to be able to see the paper between your lines. Try to make your pencil strokes in the same direction to get smoother results. This is easier if you hold your pencil closer to the end and at an angle, using the side of the lead to shade.
The wrong way!
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The right way!
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Blending
Some people like the texture of the paper showing through, but I find you get the best shading results by blending. A blending stick is a small tube of tightly rolled paper that lets you smooth out pencil shading. You can use it the same way you use your pencil: on an angle with regular strokes. Again, you won’t’ need to press hard! Start at the lightest value and work towards the shadows. If your blending stick gets too dark, wipe it on a clean sheet of paper, or press it into your kneaded eraser. Learning how to shade well isn’t difficult, but it will take practice. With each drawing you’ll find yourself getting better. Remember, don’t be too timid with your shadows; a nice dark shadow will give your drawing depth. Let’s practice our new skills!
How to Shade a Sphere
A sphere is a good example because all of our elements are present: highlight, shadow, midtones, reflection, and cast shadow. To set up a maquette to draw from, get a ball and shine a table lamp toward it. This is a great way to train yourself to see the different elements of shading.
First, draw the outline of your sphere and the shadow it casts. Outline the edges of your shadows and highlights. Draw the highlight a little bit bigger than what you want it to end up being. You will be blending into it and you’ll want to keep the highlight as white as possible.
Using a medium pencil, like a B, very lightly shade the area around the highlight. Work your way to the edge of the sphere and the edge of the shadow. Squint to see the more subtle shading of this shape, and add another darker layer along the edge of the shadow. You don’t need to press any harder, just keep shading the same area until it gradually gets darker.
Using a softer pencil, like a 2B, shade in the entire shadow area. You don’t want to be able to see the transition between the midtone and the shadow area, so try to make it gradual. Again, add another darker layer where you see the darkest shadows.
Use your blending stick to blend your pencil marks together. It’s important to work from light to dark so your stick doesn’t get too dirty. If it does, wipe it on a piece of scrap paper or press it into your kneaded eraser. You want the white of the paper to show through as the brightest part of the highlight, so blend inwards, keeping the center free of graphite.
The cast shadow directly under the sphere is the darkest value, so use an even softer pencil, like a 4B, to shade it. Switch back to your 2B to shade in the rest of the shadow.
Blend out the cast shadow, paying close attention to the edges. The edges closest to the sphere are sharper, and get softer farther away. Lastly, use your kneaded eraser to clean up your edges and re-define your highlight and the reflection. Voila, a sphere!
Now you can use your skills to realistically draw virtually anything with a rounded shape. The rules are the same! A highlight, a range of midtones, the shadow with a reflection, and a cast shadow!
Happy drawing!
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