Thursday, December 22, 2011

Drawing Lines of Length, Width and Direction

Drawing lines can be complex or simple. Line divides space and form and may describe contours of the form. As your line moves over the surface of the paper, has a rough or smooth edge, has a light or dark tone, it starts to describe an image.

These lines can then begin to describe your experiences, your thoughts. Your drawing then takes on an emotional quality and therefore conveys a message to the viewer. I've heard it said many times that art represents "the quality of communication."

You have to ask yourself first "What is art?" The bumper dictionaries do not define this too well and many of these definitions give the idea they are groping around in the dark for something more concise.

Here is a recent definition "the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles." What does that tell you? What are aesthetic principles? Does this mean that a work of art is good only if it is beautiful? I don't think so. Anything that is beautiful or ugly is only in the eyes of the beholder. Right? And that depends on education, experiences and emotional feelings towards the subject matter, the painting itself.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Watercolor Fast and Loose

This is one of the more difficult mediums to use with many beginning artists giving up almost after their first try!

With watercolor, you must plan your painting first; you cannot erase your mistakes with white opaque paint. So you paint the correct colors (in value and hue) first. If you try to paint over an area again, it will look a mess. This takes practice—a lot of practice.

Watercolor paintings must look fresh and spontaneous, not muddy and overworked. My advice is to start with a LARGE brush about 1 inch wide, preferably a Purdy from Home Depot as they are a lot cheaper than the art store brushes.

Get a fair amount of paint (say blue for the sky) and mix it with water so your brush is loaded with paint. Before you put paint to paper, wet the watercolor paper with a damp sponge, then take your loaded brush and make a sweeping stroke at the top from left to right (if you are right-handed) and run your brush down the paper as you blend it into the white areas with more water on your brush.

In one or two attempts at this you should have a nice even and blended blue background from your dark blue color at the top fading into a white (your white paper) at the bottom. You work fast and loose with NO fiddling.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Are Your Drawings Expressive Enough?

There are many drawings by famous artists, living and dead, on display in the top museums here in the USA. Many of these are expressionless and rather boring.

Because a drawing has been created by a famous artist does not make it expressive at all or even good...you will find many sketches in this category that are taking up real estate in the museums!

How DO you make your drawings more expressive? That is a good question as there are gazillions of ways to make a drawing expressive: here are a few; your line quality, thick or thin, light or dark, length of line, short or long or variable? All lines can be bold or slender, curved or jagged, strong or weak...the varieties are endless.

Beginners have timid lines, and the best way to overcome timidness is to start gesture drawing—quick bold strokes giving vitality and strength.

Go here for an e-book on "Beginners Guide To Drawing" which will not cost you a cent...you have to sign up for the monthly newsletter on Drawing and Sketching.