Learn The Secrete To All Painting Styles With These Basic Painting Tutorials
These basic lessons comprises of:
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In this exercise the colored toys provide bright simple forms to practice mixing three values of colors. When you see a colored object you are seeing many values of that color. Because the first step is always simplification, we reduce the values to three, a light, middle and a dark. When these are blended many values are made. Of the three values the middle value is usually the closest to the actual color of the object. The dark is usually the middle value color with its COMPLEMENT added. The light value is the middle value color plus the color of the light, usually white. Highlights, the bright spots of light, are distorted or blurred pictures of the light source.
All forms begin as three values. Shiny forms will also have a highlight.
The dark value will usually have the complement of the middle value added.
Lay out your colors on your palette in this order. On the edge farthest from you, put your white on the left. As a right-handed painter you will have to reach the farthest to get to the white thus reducing the degree of contamination from neighboring colors. Next is cadmium yellow light, then cadmium yellow, cadmium orange, cadmium scarlet, cadmium red, Quinacridone rose, dioxazine violet, French ultramarine blue, thalo blue, thalo green, cadmium green and cadmium green pale. Black may also be added but is so rarely used it is put out only as needed.
If you are using the minimum palette of colors, lay them out as white, cadmium yellow, cadmium orange, cadmium red, Quinacridone rose, dioxazine violet, ultramarine blue and cadmium green. The intermediate colors such as yellow-orange or blue-violet will have to be mixed when needed.
With these things in mind we will paint these toys.
The drawing is made with white paint that has been thinned down.
Starting with the teapot put in the light value first. The blue is a mixture of French ultramarine and thalo blue. For the light we just add white.
Next we put in the dark. The dark is the middle value blue with the addition of blue’s complement, orange. A deep dark is needed so no white is used. In all cases a color’s complement is added to the shadowed part of the object.
The middle value is the true color of the object.
The values are blended with parallel strokes and the illusion of form is created.
Next are the yellows. Three values of yellow are created. The spectrum color is pure yellow. The middle value is Cadmium yellow light with a little white. The light value is the middle value with more white added. Shadows always contain the complement of a color thus the dark is Cadmium yellow pale plus its complement Dioxazine violet. The light value is placed around the highlight. The highlight is a distorted picture of the light source as it is on all shiny objects.
The dark is next. The sequence of light, dark and middle is used. Light is used first to minimize contamination from the wet paint. Dark is next because it is easy to see. The middle value is last and unifies the form.
If an area it is not light or dark it has to be the middle value.
Parallel and curved brush strokes are used for the blends.
Red-red-violet is the spectrum color for the monkey. White is added for the middle value.
More white is added for the light value. The shadow color is the red-red-violet plus its complement yellow-green.
The dark value is placed.
The middle value fills in everything else and is blended.
The colors for the bell lyre are violet-blue-violet with a trace of its complement, yellow, plus white. The mixture is already dark so white is added for the middle value. More white is added for the light value.
The penguin’s feet are orange-yellow-orange with a trace of blue. White is added for the light value. More blue is added to the middle value to make the dark value.
The black for the penguin is actually blue with orange added. Additional white is added for the penguin’s belly values and for the teapot’s top and bottom.
The values are blended.
The background values are placed. Three values of white with yellow and violet will create the flat receding surface of the floor. One value of white with more violet and yellow added creates the back wall that is parallel to the canvas.
The values are blended.
Last the cast shadow values are placed. The color of a cast shadow is the complement of the color of the light. The orange (with some blue) cast shadows indicate a cold light.
The blends finish the painting.
So now you have learned to mix your colors. You know how to create shadow colors and highlight colors and all the transitions in between.
The Credits Of This Tutorial Goes To: Bill Martin’s
OIL PAINTIN OVERVIEW
What is Oil Paint? Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varnish may be added to increase the glossiness of the dried oil paint film.
Oil Paints comes in tubes and can be mixed on a palette with palette knife to get another colour, it can then be applied to a surface or space using stiff brushes. Oil Paints can be used on Canvas, Panel, Board or any other suitable surface.
Oil Paints provides room for modification due to its slow drying time. It dries through oxidation and this may take up to three days, the slow drying time has its advantage and disadvantage, the advantage is that it gives room for modifications like, cleaning, blending, and adjusting expecially when making gradual transition from one colour to another. It can be cleaned with rag, palette knife, or any other suitable materials.
The disadvantage of oil paint slow drying time is that colours can smear into each other if not apllied appropriately.
Oil Paint can carry many layers of application, you just have to let one colour dry for at least three days before applying another. Modification can be made sevral times on a layer before applying another. New layer must be thicker than the previous layer to avoid the painting from cracking after drying.
DRAWING: A complex drawing is quickly lost when the oil colors go on, so simple shapes and contour lines make the“ best drawings for oil paintings.
The drawing may be made directly on the canvas or it can be prepared before and transferred to the canvas.
When drawing directly on the canvas, PAINT that has been thinned with thinner is the best. Because it is paint, it doesn’t need to be isolated from subsequent colors.
CHARCOAL can be used for drawing on the canvas. The charcoal drawing must be isolated from the paint layers with FIXATIVE. Vine charcoal is easier to seal with fixative than compressed charcoal.
The drawing can be made with a PENCIL on the canvas. This must be sealed with FIXATIVE before the colors go on. A pencil’s point (if pushed too hard) can make small cracks in the gesso so a thin transparent layer of gesso may need to be applied to re-seal the canvas. If gesso is used in this way the fixative is not necessary.
A drawing that is going to be TRANSFERRED to a canvas is best done on thin tracing paper because the transfer will be clearer. Tape the drawing to the canvas. Transfer the drawing using carbon paper. Draw over your drawing with the carbon paper beneath it. Use a contrasting color ballpoint pen so you can see where you’ve already drawn and to get a consistent line size. The carbon transfer should also be separated from the paint layer with fixative or a thin transparent layer of gesso.
BLEND: A blend is the gradual transition from one color to another. Oil paint, because it takes time to dry, allows you to move the wet paint around on the canvas. This makes it easy to do the thing most difficult to do with other types of paint, the blend. All brushes will blend oil paint. Flat brushes are best and rounds the worst. The principles are the same for large and small blends.The colors are mixed on the palette and applied in their approximate location on the canvas. The brush is then dragged back and forth in a crosshatch stroke between two values until a satisfactory transition is made. Parallel strokes are then used to refine the transition of values. A clean brush is used for the dark to middle and another clean brush for the light to middle.
(A) In a blend the brush strokes are ALWAYS perpendicular to the light. In a circular blend the brush must rotate to remain perpendicular to the light so curved brush strokes are used.
(B) The placement and size of value shapes within a blend create the contour of the surface. Note the value placements for flat surfaces on the left and curved surfaces on the right.
MATCHING COLOURS: A rainbow gives us pure examples of the basic colors of the visible world. The rainbow’s colors are, in order, red-violet, red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue-violet and violet. When this order of colors is formed into a circle we have the COLOR WHEEL. The color wheel is an essential tool for matching colors.