Topics

Watercolor Painting

2012-03-16T22:06:00Z


	The Red Rigi by JMW Turner, watercolor painting, 1842, 30.5 x 45.8 cm.

Watercolor painting is the process of painting with pigments that are mixed with water. Of all the painting processes, watercolor painting is known for its inherent delicacy and subtlety because watercolor art is all about thin washes and transparent color (though watercolors can be made opaque with the addition of Chinese white). Traditionally, watercolor artists work on paper, though the tooth of the surface can vary greatly. Oftentimes the white of the painting surface will gleam through and lend itself to the luminosity of the painting.

When artists first learn how to paint watercolor art, the fluidity of the medium is often a stumbling block because it makes the paint less predictable. Successful watercolor artists know how to balance control and freedom in their work, using watercolor painting techniques that create effects that often occur almost by accident rather than on purpose.

A watercolorist uses watercolor painting techniques like washes, working wet in wet and wet on dry, lifting out and masking out for highlights, and dozens of other techniques to achieve textural effects. But most of all, watercolor painting comes back to the premise that the watercolor lessons and methods matter-but what matters most to a watercolor artist is letting go and finding a balance between controlling and freeing this painting medium.

Step by Step Watercolor Art Lesson


STEP 1 Martin's sketch for her watercolor painting.

Watercolor Resources

Watercolor, Fall 2012

Explore the exceptional with insight from top watercolor artists.

600 Watercolor Mixes

By Sharon Finmark

Commanding Color

By Sue Archer

Watercolor lessons are often best seen, so Margaret Martin's step by step watercolor demo is particularly helpful for students of the art. Her painting, Country Jewels, is one in which the artist adds figures to her architectural and landscape scenes. Martin believes this allows her to better direct the viewer's glance and give a sense of movement and life into her watercolor paintings.

STEP 1 Martin starts with a photo reference for many of her watercolor art pieces, evaluating the photos for shapes and aspects of composition that she can pull from. For Country Jewels, she decided on a warm color palette and inserted figures into the painting for interest. She creates a sketch for the watercolor painting, using a felt-tip line pen to draw out the foreground, middle ground, and background for the painting, as well as identifying the basic lights and darks with cool-gray markers.


STEP 2 Martin lays down washes for the sky and ground.

STEP 2 Starting the watercolor painting, Martin drew in the composition on her watercolor paper and then applied a wash of alizarin crimson and Winsor yellow to foreground. Once it was dry, a wet-in-wet layer of Winsor blue was applied to the background by the watercolorist. The washes come together near the horizon line and Martin adds in the faraway mountains with French ultramarine and Winsor blue.


		STEP 3 The watercolorist keeps her brushstrokes broad as she fills in the background foliage.

STEP 3 Martin progresses through the watercolor painting by first working on the large area of foliage in the composition, using the blue shade of Winsor green and burnt sienna. Lights in the middle area of the forest are done with burnt umber, cobalt violet, Winsor orange, red, and yellow. The watercolorist keeps the brushstrokes broad and painted around the areas where the figures would eventually go, leaving areas of white.


STEP 4 The edges of the figures vary and the reflections in the puddles and birds overhead add visual interest to the watercolor painting.

STEP 4 As the watercolor painting comes together in the background, Martin redirects her focus to the middle ground. The edges of the runners are crisp and diffused, and sometimes of a similar value to the watercolor's background. The shadow areas are Winsor yellow, blue, and orange, and perylene violet. The result is the shadows are warm with glimmers of the white of the paper to indicate sunlight.

The artist made a point of establishing a sense of visual unity and color harmony by using the same colors throughout the whole of the painting. Note how the artist also enhanced the painting by adding reflections in the puddle and birds in the sky for more visual interest.

Source: Watercolor magazine, Winter 2008.

Let Go of the Details for Watercolor Art


	A watercolor painting by Jim McFarlane.

Jim McFarlane teaches watercolor art from the perspective that simplicity is everything. In his workshops, whether his students are portraying a traditional arrangement or something from their imaginations, McFarlane stresses that the white of the watercolor painting paper should be used for sunlight, and then all remaining values should be reduced to one light, one middle, and one dark. "Using a limited number of values in a watercolor painting requires that you link areas of similar values together, resulting in larger shapes and sounder compositions," he says.

These watercolor art sketches can become roadmaps to final paintings and actually allow watercolor workshop students to loosen up because it helps them to learn how to avoid the details and capture large shapes and values. To one watercolor artist in his class McFarlane cautioned, "You're getting caught up in the minutiae. I can tell as you're putting down color that you're thinking 'tree.' Forget what it is and get the large shape in. The question is whether you can see the tree as a simple shape and put it in the correct value relationship to the rest of the painting."

From there, McFarlane encourages students to reduce their image to three or four value areas. This helps the watercolorist decide which zone-foreground, middle ground, or background-is going to be the focus of the painting. For the final phase of painting, McFarlane uses a nine-value scale. The area of the lightest value gets few and lighter values. The middle value represents a larger and slightly darker range; and the dark value represents all the values on a nine-value scale and the white of the watercolor paper. This arrangement is especially useful for a watercolor painting because it simplifies all the visual information while allowing the artist to change the pattern and switch the focus of the painting if they choose.

Source: Watercolor magazine, Spring 2011.

Watercolor Painting Essentials


	Autumn in Blue and Gold by Stephen Quiller, 2005, watercolor painting and casein, 32 x 44.

Watercolor artists want fresh applications of paint with fine control with enough detail to lend a narrative to their works while preventing the finished piece from feeling overworked. To do so, here are some watercolor lessons gathered from the brightest and savviest watercolor painters in the business.

Artist John Falato emphasizes the importance of preparation in watercolor painting, using his own work area as an example. He lays out two palettes, one for gouaches and one for watercolors-two large containers for water, and three cups for mixing washes. Another plastic cup held an array of brushes ranging from sable rounds and large squirrel flats to stubby bristles and fluffy brushes for mopping up. Other supplies included a pump spray bottle, a small sponge, tissues, paper towels, and a drawing board with a sheet of Arches watercolor paper.

When it comes to choosing brushes to create watercolor art with, you want a brush with spring to it, and one that will hold a lot of paint.

For smooth watercolor painting washes, the object is to create a bead of paint and keep it moving around objects and across the paper as best as you are able. Use a brush that is appropriately sized to the wash you want to create, and it is not outside the realm of possibility of using two brushes for a wash-one for large areas and one for areas with a lot of detail or edgework.

Soft edges are a result of working on a wet watercolor painting surface. If the painting surface has dried, it needs to be wetted, and that can be done with a brush, sponge, or spray. A spray bottle is often most effective because it doesn't lift the color from underneath. When going back in with a brush, remember to not overwork the edge. Just do it once and let the area dry. Edges will continue to blend as the paint dries.

Source: Adapted from an article by John A. Parks.

Resources

Free eBook:

Watercolor Lessons on Depth and Luminosity: 10 Watercolor Painting Techniques from Artist Daily

Portrait Painting

2012-03-16T22:05:00Z


	The Misses Vickers by John Singer Sargent, oil on canvas, 54.25 x 72.01.

Portraiture is the genre of painting in which the likeness of a sitter or model is depicted by the artist. Historically, portrait paintings were often commissioned by the well-to-do or powerful, but artists will also create portrait art when they find a compelling model or want to commemorate a person with the work.

In the contemporary art world, portraiture as status symbol is less and less prevalent. Instead, artists explore portrait painting because of the challenges inherent in painting a person's likeness while capturing their personality and spirit, and the pleasure in the pursuit of painting the human figure and face. Rarely are painted portraits judged solely by the accuracy of the depiction. Instead, artists try to eke out the emotional character on the visage of their model.

Compositionally, portrait art can vary—the sitter can be sitting or standing; clothed or nude; full length, half length, or a bust view of the head and shoulders; and depicted in profile, in a three-quarters’ view, or facing directly out. Portraits can be formal affairs, with figures in their best clothes and presented in commanding ways, but they can also be more informal with a slice-of-life feel that allow the viewer to feel as if they are seeing inside the private world of the sitter.

Throughout the centuries, portrait painting has been a reliable and sometimes very lucrative business for artists. Painters would often become famous because of their portraits, elevating their status in the wider world. Famous portrait artists include Diego Velazquez, Rembrandt, Ingres, Thomas Eakins, Anthony Van Dyck, and John Singer Sargent.

The First Crucial Steps of Portraiture


The composite image for Herrick's portrait painting commission, based on the reference photos he shot with the clients.

More Portrait Resources:

Watercolor Portraits of the South

Mary Whyte

Portrait Painting Duo

Daniel Gerhartz , Scott Burdick

Mastering Portrait Drawing

with Susan Lyon

Mastering Watercolor Portraiture

Mary Whyte

The first step in portraiture is always meeting the client or model. Sometimes, if you are a professional, this can come through an agent, like a local representative of Portrait Source (a portrait broker).

The next step is to have a discussion on where the portrait should be set. Sometimes the client is "in charge" of this aspect of the portrait painting, as they are paying for the service, but sometimes the artist is in charge and places the model where he or she desires.

Often the best way of deciding where to set the scene of a portrait painting is to start looking through your viewfinder. From there you can, settle on a pose and take reference photos. The best portrait artists allow their models inclinations to guide them in terms of the chosen pose or composition.

Garth Herrick reflects on a recent portrait painting experience of his, when he was trying to decide where to have his three young sitters pose: "There were so many good choices for settings! It was amazing that we so quickly narrowed the pose down to the kids sitting and standing on the rock, considering that all areas of their place were just spectacular.

"The kids gravitated toward that particular rock. The client's original idea was to have them sitting in a porch swing, which was nice, but it didn't really inspire me, especially as there was a blank stucco wall behind the swing. I wanted more contrast with the kids' white clothes. The dark evergreen foliage behind the rocks where we eventually settled was more interesting. I took a lot of pictures that day, and met with the clients to review the photos on my computer. We decided that we wanted to take some more photos. It was sunnier the second time, so the weather conditions became more of a challenge.

Once I settled on the reference photos, I spent a few days combining them into a composite image in Photoshop. All of the photos used in the composite image were taken on the second day because of the different lighting conditions on that day. I mostly worked in Photoshop the day after I took the photos, but I kept rethinking things and fine-tuning the image. Although the client approved my first version, I kept tweaking, and they approved each subsequent version.

From an article by Garth Herrick.

A Portraiture 'Must'


	Jillian by Wende Caporale, 2003, oil portrait painting, 7 x 5.

During her portraiture workshops, Wende Caporale takes a considerable amount of time to offer tips on drawing the human head accurately. "Even if you work from photographs in your portrait painting, it is very important to be able to draw well," she tells her students. "You have to be aware of photographs' inherent distortions and be able to adjust them accordingly. Furthermore, drawing skills are critical in making adjustments during all stages of the portrait painting process."

Using a piece of vine charcoal, Caporale made quick drawings of members of the class to demonstrate how an artist can use the average proportions of the head to determine how a specific model's features may vary from that norm. "The standard proportions divide the head into three equal units of measure from the forehead to the eyebrows, from the eyebrows to the bottom of the nose, and from the nose to the bottom of the chin," she explained. "When you look at a sitter with the eye of a portrait painter you can judge how those relationships might be different, and that gives you a clue as to how to draw or paint a likeness. For example, if you recognize that the person's forehead is larger than most, you can draw or paint it that way. Knowing several other standard proportional relationships will also help you judge the placement of the ears, the width of the mouth, and the distance between the eyes, for instance, because those averages help you determine the specific proportions of your subject.

"Some portrait artists find it helpful to draw straight or angular lines rather than curving lines because those can sometimes be easier to use when judging distances," Caporale added. "That is, lines indicating the top, bottom, and side of the head can be useful when determining the placement of the head on the canvas, and straight lines drawn from the head to the edges of the shoulders can aid in accurately putting a neck and chest below the head. You can use whatever system helps you arrive at an accurate drawing, but the most important thing is to be confident that you have the right framework on which to build your oil portrait."

Caporale's drawing demonstrations are usually done on a 16"-x-20" sheet of paper because she finds it to be the most comfortable size for head-and-shoulders portrait paintings of children. A student in the workshop asked Caporale to clarify a remark she made about using a plumb line to evaluate the lines of a drawing. She responded by explaining that portrait artists use a variety of tools, including weighted strings, rulers, pencils, and paintbrushes, held in front of their eyes to judge the lines of their drawings against horizontal or vertical lines. "The point is to determine if your drawing is slanting one way or another and whether you have the features properly aligned," she said. "You can use an actual carpenter's plumb or just hold a pencil in front of your eyes at a 90-degree or 180-degree angle to your line of vision to make those determinations."

From an article by Stephen Doherty.

Think Exaggeration in Your Portraiture--But Maybe Don't Paint That Way


	Sita and Sarita by Cecilia Beaux, 1893, oil painting, 37 x 25.

I'll be the first to argue that caricature and portraiture are completely different types of art, but both use many of the same strategies that can make fine art portrait painting and portrait drawings memorable.

At its most essential, a caricature is an exaggeration or distortion of a person's physical characteristics, but it is still a study of a person's physicality. We've all seen the boardwalk artists at the beach who draw quick caricature sketches in a handful of minutes. The artist gets the shape of the face and accentuates two or three physical features of the sitter and voila, a caricature.

Although fine art portraiture takes longer to create, an oil portrait painter still uses the same approach. First, it is essential to get the shape of the head right. This is a crucial step because it determines how the head sits on the neck and leads into the torso, and how the features sit on the face. Think of how you are able to recognize a friend or acquaintance from across the street. The same rule applies for a portrait; the sitter will be recognized first from their big ol' noggin.

With a caricature, the artist will usually exaggerate a person's features-eyes, lips, chin, ears, or hair, even freckles or big eyelashes. It always varies, but usually the artist doesn't emphasize everything and only select one or two features for the biggest impact. Fine art portrait artists should work in the same way. Not in terms of exaggerating the size or proportion of a person's features, but drawing attention to certain aspects of a person with color, light and shadow, and brushstrokes.

Looking at a model and first thinking of how you'd draw their caricature can really open up ypur mind to what you could showcase in their portrait. And, just like caricatures, a portrait that visually "heightens" certain aspects of a person's looks will certainly stand out from the crowd.

From an article by Courtney Jordan.

Resources

Free eBook
How to Paint a Portrait: 38 Portrait Painting Techniques from Artist Daily

Shading

2012-03-16T22:05:00Z

Creating a convincing representational image of an object or figure in a drawing or painting is usually a matter of shading the form, using gradations of light and shadow to give the illusion of volume and dimensionality. With drawing, this is often done by hatching and cross-hatching with your pencil or chosen implement. In painting, visual depth is most often created by changing the color tone of the depicted object or form.

Sketching

2012-03-16T22:05:00Z

Sketching implies looseness and freedom as opposed to more fully finished or formal drawing practices. Sketching techniques usually focus on hand-eye coordination and observational skills surrounding proportion, light and dark, and gesture. Creating simple pencil sketches or quick studies is an affordable and engaging way to sharpen one’s drawing skills. Freehand sketching can result in marks that aren’t technically correct, but the purpose of sketching is to embrace the “mistakes” and stray marks as signs of an artist’s process and progression through any given drawing.

Pencil Drawing

2012-03-16T22:04:00Z

Pencil drawing is arguably the most common yet most versatile of artistic pursuits. A drawing pencil allows an artist to work with brisk gestures as well as meticulous strokes to create everything from quick and uncomplicated sketches to highly finished drawings. Learning how to draw with a pencil is easiest when you understand that a graphite pencil allows you to make lines and linear marks that can turn into hatching and crosshatching, as well as gradations of tone and shading when you blend the lead.

Perspective Drawing

2012-03-16T22:04:00Z

Linear perspective techniques are used by artists to give the illusion of distance and space to drawings and paintings. One-, two-, and three-point perspective all refer to the number of vanishing points in each category. One-point perspective involves a single vanishing point and the most common example of it is two parallel train tracks that appear to merge at a single vanishing point in the distance. Two-point perspective allows for the illusion of corners, and three-point perspective that you are seeing objects from above or below.

For more, here's our perspective drawing resource guide.

Photo Reference

2012-03-16T22:04:00Z

Painting from photographs is, for many artists, a matter of convenience. Portrait painters, for instance, often go from photo to painting because it is not often possible to complete a commission working solely from life. Therefore, knowing how to use a photo reference and that there are certain limitations to that process is important for every practitioner to understand. Such issues include getting tunnel vision or adhering too closely to the photo so that end result looks stiff or unnatural, and losing the subtle play of light and shadow on a form or object.

Painting Water

2012-03-16T22:03:00Z

If an artist steps outside the studio, chances are they will come upon the occasion to paint water. In the landscape, water comes in many forms and fashions, from rushing and rippling streams to crashing, foaming waves to placidly still waters. Painters faced with the question of how to paint water should keep in mind a couple of “rules,” which include that water appears cooler in tone as it gets deeper and the sky’s reflection on water usually appears darker than the sky itself. Beyond that, observation is key, as water painting can take an artist any number of places, visually speaking.

Pastel Painting

2012-03-16T22:03:00Z


	End of the Season by William Merritt Chase, 1885, pastel, 13¼ x 17¾.

Pastel painting or pastel drawing starts with an implement of pigment mixed with chalk or clay and combined with gum to make a paste that is then hardened and made available as soft or hard pastels, pastel pencils, or oil pastels.

Pastel lessons often discuss the medium in terms of both drawing and painting. It can be used to create broad strokes that appear buttery and solid like oil paints, but they can also be used to create precise lines and marks akin to any drawing implement. Further appeal of pastel painting lies in its wide range of colors and blending ability.

What makes pastels unique is that pastels aren't mixed together the way other media like oils, watercolors, or acrylic paints are. An artist has to select the specific color and value they want, or he or she has to overlap several strokes of pastel so they blend in the viewer's eyes to appear as if they have been physically combined. A pastel artist must have a wide assortment of pastel sticks to work with, and a strong sense of color layering.

Pastels were initially used to create studies for larger works, and not intended for the completion of a finished work. But nowadays pastel is accepted as a viable artistic medium. The nature of the medium makes it an excellent choice for those who favor portability as well. Pastel painting requires little set up, there is no need for solvents, and there are no brushes to clean. For this reason, many plein air painters work in pastel, and many portraitists of the 19th century worked in pastel to facilitate a speedy execution.

A Pastel Painting Master: Jean Francois Millet


Shepherdess and Her Flock by Jean-François Millet, 1862, black chalk and pastel, 14 5/16 x 18 11/16.

Shop Pastel Products

Pastel Essentials (eBook)

Pastel Essentials II (eBook)

Children's Pastel Portraits (DVD)

En Plein Air: Pastel Landscape Painting (DVD)

Born to a family of farmers, French painter Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) was most interested in painting the daily life of the peasantry. His early work consisted of portraits and pastoral scenes, but it is the painting The Gleaners for which he is best known.

The painting depicts two women picking leftovers of the harvest, stooping low to collect so little. Picking up what was left of the harvest was regarded as one of the lowest jobs in society, yet Millet offered these women as the heroic focus of the picture; light illuminates the women's shoulders as they carry out their work. While he was criticized for presenting socialist leanings in his work, his paintings appeared in the Paris Salon year after year.

As his popularity grew in the 1860s Millet steadily received commissions, and in 1865 a patron began commissioning pastel drawings. From 1865-1869 he painted almost exclusively in pastel for a collection that would eventually include 90 works. With this collection Millett explored the possibilities and limits of the pastel painting. "He was one of the first to really draw with the medium and use broken strokes of color, rather than blending the colors extensively the way many early pastelists did," says Flattmann. Many of his later pictures are landscapes, with the human figure entirely absent. As he grew older, the artist preferred simpler, more direct processes such as using graphite or pastel, over painting. Instead of the heavy, dark coloring of many of his paintings of peasant life, Millet often let the tinted paper show through and used his color sparingly in his pastels, bringing his draftsmanship to the fore.

The artist's subject matter can inspire artists today who may be drawn to subjects that are deemed controversial or uninteresting. The use of pastel as a drawing tool, and the strokes of color evident in much of his pastel work not only brings greater attention to his subject matter but also shows that an artist has many options when working in pastel.

Source: Pastel Masters by Naomi Ekperigin, American Artist magazine, 2008.

Switching From Oils to Painting Pastels


	Back to the Clouds by David Stout,2006, pastel painting, 18 x 24. "I just love capturing the moment when the clouds open up and there is a sliver of intense light," says Stout. The approaching storm forced the artist to develop the painting very quickly--although he still ended up getting soaked. (Thankfully, the painting didn't.)

To help him maximize the limited amount of time he has for his art, artist David Stout decided to switch from oil to pastel. Besides enjoying the purity of the colors, the artist appreciates that there's little set up and no drying time with this medium, so he can have something down relatively quickly. Because he'd rather spend his time painting than searching for new products, Stout works with a limited number of pastels and only three brands: Rembrandt, Sennelier, and Schmincke. Although he admits to having "a hodgepodge of pastels" in his studio, separated into warm and cool colors, the artist has developed a feel for picking up a half or quarter stick of the right color. "I work fast and don't think about it too much," the artist explains. "I feel the color--I know what I want, and I find it."

Stout's pastel kit for painting outdoors is limited to about 35 pastels. (Occasionally he uses pastel pencils for fine line work.) He never buys the whole range of values of one color, relying on different colors for different values. One of his favorite colors is Sennelier dark green (No. 158) "It's incredible," he enthuses. "I use it instead of black; it breathes, it has life in it." Schmincke, he notes, makes a wonderful white (No. 17001-069D), which he appreciates for its saturation and covering ability. In snow scenes he likes to use Sennelier violet blue (No. 393), which is effective for cool shadows, and Sennelier ochre orange (No. 104) is perfect for creating the look of adobe.

After experimenting with different grounds, Stout has settled on Sennelier Pastel Card. He likes the uniformity of its surface as well as the fact that it's very forgiving and allows him to build up layers to create a sense of luminosity. It's also conducive to fine work and drawing thin lines. His preference is for toned cards, cooler blues and grays for winter pieces and warmer tones for fall or New Mexico scenes. He attaches the card to an acid-free Fome-Cor board with acid-free double-sided tape and sets it up on his French easel.

Stout begins a pastel work by making light indications, explaining that he does more thinking than painting at this stage. "You have to sneak up on a pastel painting," Stout says. "Start light. If you build up too quickly there's no going back. You lose the freshness and that painterly quality you want." With a half stick of Rembrandt burnt umber he then blocks in the scene, using the toned paper as the middle value. (Because he uses light strokes he can work other softer pastels over the burnt umber.) At one time he worked his way from the darkest dark to the lightest light, but now he blocks in the light, middle, and dark values in one step.

Next Stout paints the crucial center of interest and then makes decisions about what to include around it. He likes to keep everything loose except the focal point, allowing other areas to complement the main attraction. The artist generally uses three to four layers of pastel, spraying the second layer lightly with fixative to push the pastel into the ground. Because fixative tends to deaden colors, he sprays a painting only once. He doesn't hesitate to blend with his fingers-he enjoys the immediacy and control-and does a lot of smudging and softening of edges. "Too many competing sharp edges make a painting look overworked," he explains.

Source: A Disciplined Approach to Pastel by Linda Price.

From Frustration to Forgiveness: One Artist's Pastel Lessons


	Path With Trees to Hidden Pond by Marlene Wiedenbaum 2008, pastel, 24 x 31.

In her pastel painting Path With Trees to Hidden Pond, Marlene Wiedenbaum presents a resplendent view of a glade whose rich canopy encloses a forest floor buried under a dense carpet of fallen leaves. So natural and convincing is the filtered sunlight and enveloping space of the painting that it takes us a few moments to discover the hint of a pathway through the woods. The artist, it seems, is content to take the world as she finds it and then to mine it for hidden riches and intriguing insights. She has achieved this feeling through masterful use of pastel, working it in numerous layers to create color of surprising subtlety and nuance while keeping her surface supremely tactile and alive.

"I love the immediacy, the color, and the forgiveness of pastel," says Wiedenbaum, "but I especially enjoy the involvement of my hands. I understand and control my fingers much better than I ever did a brush, and there's a more direct connectedness to the work." Wiedenbaum made the change to pastel from oil some years ago. "I was frustrated at having to clean brushes, as well as myself, and having to put everything away each time I wanted to paint," she recalls. "It was drudgery. I didn't have the luxury of huge blocks of time back then, and the condition of the work is different each time you return to an oil painting. A very good friend left a box of pastels on the dining room table, and that's when my relationship with pastels began." The artist also enjoys the portability of pastel. "It's so much easier to spontaneously pack up my supplies for working en plein air," she says.

Like most other pastel artists, Wiedenbaum has also come up against the difficulties imposed by the medium. "The biggest drawback is the dust," she says. "I sometimes wear a mask in the studio, but I don't know how much that really helps." The artist also manages to keep some of the pastel dust off her fingers by wearing finger cots--small rubber sleeves that can be rolled onto individual fingers--which are available in drugstores.

In order to achieve the lush and rich surface of her paintings, Wiedenbaum uses sanded paper and a wide variety of pastels. "I primarily use Sennelier, Schmincke, and Unison soft pastels," she says. "Through my endless search for colors, I have also been enjoying Great American Art Works and for a slightly harder pastel, Mount Vision. For many years I worked on Sennelier La Carte sanded paper. That product seems to have changed, however, so I use Wallis paper more often. I am also working a lot with UART paper, since they offer a 40-inch sheet and various textures. The 400 and 500 grades have made my fingers bleed, but the layering possibilities make 500 my preferred paper."

Source: Building Rich and Full Layers by John Parks.

Mixed Media

2012-03-16T22:02:00Z

Most painters and draftsmen are in fact mixed media artists because they mix media quite often, sometimes without realizing it. Whether creating a preparatory sketch in pencil on the surface of an oil painting or combining inks and pastels with watercolor, mixing media is often second nature to artists. Working in such a way allows one to explore how various media can work together and gives the artist an opportunity to brush up and hone a multitude of skills.

Painting Flowers

2012-03-16T22:02:00Z

Floral painting is a significant part of the still life painting genre. Many of the greatest artists throughout history have pursued painting flowers at one time or another, whether as a mainstay of their oeuvre or a departure from their usual studio pursuits. For many artists, learning how to paint flowers is a way to perfect their artistic abilities when it comes to compositional arrangement, color choice, and level of detail without the pressures of working from a human model.

Life Drawing

2012-03-16T22:01:00Z

The concept of life drawing is literally drawing from life as opposed to drawing from a photograph or other source material. This usually involves drawing models in a classroom setting or hiring a model to pose. Life drawing models is a good way to hone one’s skill with gesture to create a sense of visual movement. Life drawing lessons can also involve drawing quick studies that teach you how to draw models with just a few marks.

Ink Drawing

2012-03-16T22:00:00Z

Pen and ink drawing is one of the most visually varied art practices in history. Dating back to ancient Egypt, ink drawing has been used over the centuries for many different types of art, from calligraphy to tattooing to art sketches and formal drawings. In modern times, ink drawings have been used largely for illustration, whether for advertisements, editorial cartoons, or inking comics. But the practice of drawing in ink unites artists through the use of many of the same ink drawing techniques including hatching, crosshatching, wash, and various forms of line.

Landscape Drawing

2012-03-16T22:00:00Z

A landscape drawing is a formidable artist’s tool for many reasons. For starters, drawing landscapes is an enjoyable process because you can be out in nature and enjoying its sounds and sights. Painters will often create preparatory landscape drawings before beginning a painting in order to work out issues of composition and visual interest. But learning how to draw landscape features such as trees, mountains, or beaches allows you to become familiar with how to deal with issues of texture, light and shadow, and proportion, all of which are cornerstones of strong artistic practice.

How to Draw Flowers

2012-03-16T21:59:00Z


		Tulips in a Square Vase by Susan Van Campen, 2006, watercolor painting, 23 x 30.

Taking a sketchbook out into nature to create a flower drawing can be as helpful as any studio session. Studying the organic forms of a flower as they occur in nature allows artists to sharpen their skills with gesture, color, and light and shadow. And, arguably, the shape and "design" of a flower or budding plant can challenge the artist just as the figure does because both are complex and take a sharp eye to discern their proportions and structure.

Transporting a cut flower indoors and arranging it in a vase is always a good way to learn how to draw flowers, too, because it pushes artists to arrange strong compositions and figure out a focal point or center of interest for a still life arrangement or floral painting.

There is no one way to draw flowers. Artists take this pursuit in many different directions—from creating impressionistic works that emphasize color and gesture to more naturalistic pieces that emphasize the appearance and details of the specific flower itself.

Because flower drawings and floral paintings often are most often experiments in line and color, artists will work with graphite, pen and ink, pastel, or watercolor when delving into this genre, but truly there is no medium that is off-limits to this subject matter. It is up to the artist to decide how best he or she can create a rose drawing, for example, and to be true to their own vision.

How to Draw Flowers with a Naturalistic Likeness


Bouquet by Susan Van Campen, June 2006, watercolor painting ,42 x 29½.

Shop Flower and Drawing Products

Botanical Sketchbook

2010 Drawing CD Collection

A Step-By-Step Guide to Watercolor Still Lifes

Pastel Essentials: Pastel Painting Instruction for Still Lifes, Portraits and Landscapes

Flower drawing for Susan Van Campen is not a matter of arranging an aesthetically pleasing setup or conceiving the most striking composition. It is instead about drawing the life of a flower—the naturalistic details that give each its own likeness. "My aim is not to create a pretty picture," the artist emphasizes. "Rather, I am trying to capture the character of the flower—almost as if I'm painting a portrait."

Van Campen employs the versatile, direct medium of watercolor—and has come to love the process. "In oil painting, each brushstroke counts," the artist explains. "But, with watercolor, great things can often happen without the artist expending too much effort. In the beginning, when I was first learning watercolor, it was difficult to adjust to the medium, but the more I worked with it, the more I realized the water actually does a lot of the work. It's one of those things you can't teach—just like anything else in life, the more you do it, the better you become at it."

Van Campen always creates her flower drawing art from life—sometimes sitting on the ground in her garden directly from the subject, while other times she'll cut a bunch of branches and bring them inside, setting them up on white surfaces and in front of white walls.

Once inside, Van Campen arranges her setup to bring the most clarity and focus to the subject. "I work on a large white counter with a plain wall behind it," she describes. "Everything is cleared away so I can concentrate only on the fruit, flowers, and vases that I want to draw or paint." The artist always stands when she works indoors, keeping her paper on the counter and her paints on the chair next to her. She uses Winsor & Newton watercolors and Arches 300-lb cold-pressed paper and notes the dramatic turn her work took when she changed the quality of her materials. "When I first started painting in watercolor, I used cheap brushes and paper," Van Campen admits. "When I switched to a higher-quality paper, I was astonished at how much my work improved—the water and the pigment hit the paper in a completely different way."

In addition to the quality of her paper, Van Campen counts preserving the white of her background as greatly adding to the freshness and spontaneity of her work. "For me, it's important to have that white background spacing the flowers," she says. "It's like painting a portrait—I wouldn't want a lot going on in the background distracting from the face of the person. The same is true when drawing or painting flowers—having a white background and surface simplifies everything for me and the viewer. There's no clutter, and the focus is on only the characteristic details of the flower."

Once satisfied with her arrangement, Van Campen begins composing, starting by drawing only the vases or bowls. "I never sketch the flowers, just the containers holding them," the artist explains. "In a sense, I am drawing flowers all along—only I'm drawing with my paintbrush. I don't work with a dry brush at all, nor do I work in washes. I am very direct with the paint and am basically just playing with puddles of water throughout the process—a puddle here for the shape of a flower, a puddle there for a stem or leaf—and, as I add the pigment to the puddle, I watch how it's going to react. At any given moment, I may have four or five wet areas of paint, so I have to be aware of what's going on around the paper. Because I have been doing this for so long, I know how the water is going to treat the pigment, and I use that knowledge to describe the shape of what I'm painting."

Source: from an article by Allison Malafronte, 2008

Learn How to Draw Flowers--Their Decay and Regeneration


	At the Edge by Joan Wadleigh Curran, charcoal flower drawing on paper, 50 x 38, 2009.

"I think that the reason people love drawing is because it's so basic," says Joan Wadleigh Curran matter-of-factly. "It's how we first learn to interpret our world in a visual manner." For Curran, drawing is both a foundational skill and a means of translating images and concepts that inspire her. The artist works in a range of media, including charcoal, oil, and gouache, preferring one over another at various times depending on the source of her inspiration.

Regardless of how her work is labeled, the artist's focus is always clear: The symbiotic, and at times antagonistic, relationship between people and the landscape. "For a while I was interested in the subject of gardens," she says, "because it was a perfect example of man controlling and altering nature. In a lot of ways a garden shows as much about the creator as anything else."

Curran has always enjoyed painting the natural world, but upon moving to Philadelphia, she found herself attracted to another facet of her environment. While out one day gathering photographic references, she came upon a tree that was in the process of being pruned and felt compelled to record how to draw a tree like this in the condition she found it. "It had become gnarled from the pruning," she recalls. "That's when I became interested in the relationship between man and nature, especially natural organisms living in an urban context."

With this in mind, Curran's exploration led her to subjects that are rarely noticed by passersby—the weeds, branches, and roots that break through pavement and fencing in order to survive. The resulting charcoal plant-life sketches and flower drawings are intimate and detailed while also being representational. No doubt the black-and-white image connotes a sense of reportage, but through her use of the white of the paper and dynamic composition, these objects become elevated.

Vegetation, normally the bane of every gardener or landscaper, is given the attention of a fine flower drawing illustration. "I've always been interested in the singularity of objects and their power," the artist says, "and because I'm extracting the object from the landscape once I'm back in my studio, I tend to think of it as isolated. But I take this approach because doing so allows me to really analyze and decode what about the image turned me on in the first place.

"I build up the image slowly through hatching," she says, noting that it may take her two weeks or longer to complete a drawing. "I'll use some smudging and erasure to get the lights I want. I like to have the full range of values so that I can really convey a sense of drama." She works on Stonehenge paper because its vellum surface can withstand repeated erasure without fuzzing.

Source: from an article by Naomi Ekperigin, 2012

Tips on How to Draw a Rose, How to Draw Flowers, and More


	Red and White Roses by Stephanie Birdsall, pastel floral drawing, 16 x 22.

Working from nature can give an artist a greater sense of texture, delicate gradations of light and shadow, gesture and movement, and color. But what is most helpful about learning how to draw flowers is that this subject matter can most often be sketched and drawn according to your own comfort and pace. Knowing that, and with the tips below, you'll be well on your way toward making the most out of every moment you spend with pencil in hand.

Take down bits of information. Going out to a nearby park or meadow and taking note of different pieces of visual information is a great way to warm up for a flower drawing sketch session. These jottings can stay as they are in your sketchbook or become the basis of a more finished drawing later on.

How to draw a rose. A rose drawing is iconic, but sometimes challenging to create. The trick is in the gesture of each stroke. Drag your implement--charcoal, for example--in one gesture that captures the shape and position of the petals of the flower. It may take more than one try, but working to create the flower's bud with less strokes will make it look more realistic, believe it or not.

Start with an outline. Outlining the bold shapes of a leaf or flower is a great way to start a flower drawing or floral painting because it gives you a sense of how the forms create a pattern or visual rhythm. You can also begin to see the flower as a whole as opposed to its many parts, which can be helpful when trying to create strong cohesion in a flower drawing.

Resources

Free eBook: Painting Flowers with Artist Daily—How to Paint Flowers
and Create Dynamic Action in Floral Painting