Daily Handy Tips

Posts Tagged ‘artists’

How can I go about this? Well, you may ask, I can tell you this may not be very easy to achieve. Pastels are smudgy paints! You will find they pick up dirt specks and the paints are actually quite fragile.

Therefore it is quite hard to protect your work. Pastels can be harmful in fact, as the pigment in them is quite loose. You need to be careful not to inhale from the specks of these dust pigments.

Some people do use a daily newspaper to store their work, but with this you stand the risk of spoiling your work with the newsprint or acidity of the paper. Another way out of this would be to use a tissue paper that is acid free.

So, for instance, you want to store your work for sometime to come. In this case I would buy an acid free board. Personally, I would cover it with greaseproof paper and tape it down firmly with masking tape.

When you reach the framing stage, decisions have to be made. At this point you may decide you would like to change it somewhat. Maybe you think it is improved with less sides for instance or even all the way round.

Even a few inches can sometimes make the difference. A good way to decide upon this, is to have a frame made of card which you can look through at different angles. This way you often may decide to go with less in the frame.

Pastel does not work next to glass. If you do this you will have both condensation and find dark spots or patches on your work. To remedy this for framing, your painting would need a mat of cardboard on top to separate it from the glass.

Your painting will remain intact for years without “fixing” like this. Fixing, by spraying, is also possible if you wish, as long as you are aware of not inhaling the fumes.

Fumes can be very dangerous to your health, so really, if possible, it is better to spray outside, depending on the weather of course. Not that I always do, to my shame! Please, if you spray inside at least open all the windows.

What you really need to do is to buy a plastic mask which will cover your nose and your mouth for this. Particularly if you suffer from allergies, as pastels collect dust and are also quite messy.

This is a sensible suggestion that I am making, otherwise it is likely that your nose will get all stuffed up if you do not have much air in your room. I can only warn you of any pitfalls you can come across. You need to wash your hands regularly and take a few breaks. It is worth it.

Sanguine can be a drawing, crayon or chalk. There are various different shades it can actually be. Flesh, or an absolute blood red, or a reddish colour. This medium can be used for drawing. It has oxide in the pigment and the content of it is generally chalk or clay. This is also the main colour in Conte crayons. Red chalk, as a term, is the name of the shade.

Sandy Paste works pretty well when using pastels, as it spreads well. The texture of it is gritty and is a sandy coloured acrylic paste which makes for an interesting surface.

Scale really is the ratio of proportion or dimensions of one object compared to another. So if you are painting or even drawing, the scale would be the ratio of the composition to your original from which it was taken. As an example, the picture is drawn one third scale, it would be one third of the size of the original.

Triptych can actually be a set of three carvings or pictures, which also share a definate connection. Usually the central piece is the largest and has a piece of art both sides of it. These can be hung side by side, mounted sometimes, or even, in some instances, are hinged together.

Diptych - A set of two pictures which often can be united in the centre, or if you prefer it, they can be hung with a gap between them. Polytych, on the same theme, only with four or five works of art.

Automatic Drawing, which can also be called automation. An interesting form of drawing, as with this you use your pencil or brush without really thinking about it. Probably first used by Surrealists who did not really conform to traditional methods as it allowed them more freedom of expression.

Using this method spontaneously, as it were, strange pictures emerged which also tended to be what I would call Abstact Expressionist.

Graphite - Years ago this was used for writing, by using small lumps of it, which were attached to a stick. It is a form of carbon, which is a grey or black. At one time it was called black lead and to this day some pencils are not properly labelled and are still being sold as lead pencils. The pencils themselves are a mixture of graphite and clay.

Conte Crayons go back to around the 18th Century. These crayons are made up of graphite and clay which has variances, which, in turn, can be used to create different degrees of hardness.

This does not crumble very much, but it is a bit like chalk and is slightly greasy. For drawing, it is available in a few colours, namely red, black and brown. Modern graphite pencils were invented by Conte who was, in fact, a portrait painter when he was young.

Where to start! This does not need to be expensive. Basic equipment for this is pretty simple. Like everything we all tend to add here as we go along and get carried away. Different people seem to use different things, so this is a general idea of what one might need to get started.

Usually it is fairly important where you choose to paint in the first place. It really helps if you place yourself somewhere where, in fact, the light is good. It helps if you have space around you too for your tools. Natural daylight is good, if not, you need fairly good lighting. Then you need something that can be used as a palette. Old china serves well.

Importantly enough, you need a fairly strong box or tin of some sort to hold your paints and for them to be easily accessible. Plus a ready assortment of colours, medium, your actual canvas and of course various brushes.

A good selection of pencils to use is an important factor. Personally I would recommend using HB range up to 6B. Then you need to just find somewhere sturdy to stand your canvas on, for example a desk, table, or something similar.

I like to obtain pale grey and yet also dark black tones, so for this you need a soft pencil. A Venus 6B is ideal, so I tend to use this, but it needs sharpening a few times! From here you will also need to be able to sharpen your pencils. Men often use a razor blade or penknife. Personally I make sure that I have a strong sharpener.

As for choice of drawing pads it is much easier to buy one with a hard back. Sometimes things go wrong and you do not want to use a rubber. Just take a fresh sheet and begin anew.

Although I have to say I am quite happy with small pads which are easy to carry around with you. Ideal are the pads with ready perforated edges that you can easily tear out. The smoothness of the paper is also a bonus.

Pens - this is very personal to the artist him or herself. Ballpoint pens are never too successful as they do not give you light and shade or a definite thin or thick line for your drawing.

If you go to an art and craft shop or supplier they do stock various pens that you can use with ink or even a felt type nib. Failing this you could use an ordinary fountain pen that you are used to using.

Also to be considered if you are going to go out and about to sketch your painting; you certainly need to be comfortable and warm. So don your socks and comfortable footwear. Old clothes are good with plenty of pockets. In winter you might need a hip flask!

A stool that you might buy in a surplus store or camping shop is easy to carry and needed to sit on. Unless you sit on walls and get a cold bottom! Useful I find too, is to cut a square out of the centre of a piece of cardboard to frame your work as you draw.

Whenever your start something new you are probably a bit apprehensive, therefore, what I have here, is a few pointers to help you. Firstly, go out and buy yourself a cheap, fibre tipped pen (preferably a black one). This should be ample for your needs.

This will be fine to do various strokes and is easy to carry on your person. Obviously, how you use your pen makes a difference and what I am meaning here, is how much pressure you put on, or, do not put on the nib. Now you need to choose your subject. Don’t get too ambitious, start small and progress later. Shells, leaves, pebbles, stones are all good, simple choices. You need a bit of detail.

This is all very well, but you also need to have form and to know how texture is laid. So using different amounts of pressure, you can sketch a few dots, small dashes and / or lines, acting as guide lines. Now, if the marks are near to each other, it gives a darker effect, but you need to cross hatch if you want it very dark.

Cross hatching can intensify your work. What actually happens, is you actually draw one set of lines and continue by drawing more lines the opposite way across it, making it much, much darker. Other effective results can be made by giving a feeling of roundness. If you have a crevice on any curve and you make it dark, but then lighter, as you come away from the curve.

Pens adapt well to both smooth and shiny papers, but a wash will lay better on rougher grained papers.

So, now you have done your sketching with your pen, now for paints. Block watercolour paints are ideal diluted with water. Keep your wash thin, otherwise you may block the lines of your drawing. Remember the light will reflect from the white paper.

Some people use water soluble pens for the original line drawing so it will seep into the wash. As for paints, if you use block paints, these will slot into your palette. This is sensible as you can always replace them. These palettes are ideal as you can also mix your paint on them, have them at your side, enabling you to work quickly.

So it is not disastrous if one colour runs in to another. We have all been there intentionally and by mistake, but often it turns out to be an enhancement. If you do have a problem it will not be rectified by more layers of paint. This paint being translucent, problems may not be easy to fix.

When problems happen you may be able to fix them with an ink rubber if you only rub lightly. It needs to be the grainy sort, but if you rub hard you will probably end up with a hole in the paper and your work in a mess. You cannot do this if your work is not dry! So gently does it. One last thing, do not cover all the paper, you do need white parts for contrasts.

This really is all about leaving impressions on your support which look totally spontaneous and no trace of a brush mark. What you do, is spatter your paint on to your canvas or just flick it and this will give you interesting speckles, dapples, or mottles.

Introducing these sort of textures into your work can be used for several reasons. You can use them to give the look of rough surfaces, or even to show different elements, for instance, in a landscape painting.

Supposing you are doing a beach scene, you could use this method to create your pebbled beach or bushes in the foreground. In a country scene you could do old, broken down stone walls, or an old street with cobble stones.

Maybe your work, in places, has patches of colour that look flat, or you generally want to spice your work up a bit, this may be your answer. You can proceed to build up complicated patterns, but you can also randomly build up colours, or just create a fine mist with one colour.

Assorted liquids can be used to create these effects which can be quite stunning. As an example, you could use watercolours, gouache, or oil paint if it was thinned down first.

Obviously, to avoid dripping, you need to have your support surface flat or it would spoil any effects you might try to make.

So, what tools can I use for this? The answer being, quite a few. A toothbrush, a nailbrush or even a mouth spray. Any sort of spray with a pump, a bristled brush or various styles of artists brushes, like a stencil brush or soft brush are possible.

What you could do now, is what I would call splash and spray, whereby you fill your brush with thinned paint and then quite strongly flick your wrist. This would give you in reality, large, varying splashes.

Or fill the brush and hold it over the surface then hit the handle with another brush or something firm. You could build up dense layers this way. Alternatively you could spray with any sort of household spray, or even sprays like you see for sale in chemists.

How about another method? Most people own a nailbrush for instance! Now get your dish and mix up your paint with water. Put you brush in the mix and then take it out and remove any surplus paint. Making sure your brush is held over your support, run something hard through the bristles, like a knife, so that it will spatter.

The pattern will appear differently according to how near or how far away you stand from your work This will give you what I call a speckled look.

A Gum Arabic mix can be used on your support too, bearing in mind that it has to be left to dry. Then you can spatter away with water repeatedly to create your picture.

You could use the rough water colour paper, spattering different colours intermittently, but ensuring each colour dries first. Similarly, you could use water paper, if it is damp, spatter and just leave it to bleed.