Art Tips

DRAWING TIPS – by Karen de Verteuil

1. Be sure to look at the subject, not at the paper, while drawing.
2. Practice drawing using something with unfamiliar shapes – A Congo pepper or a slice of tomato – being careful to copy exactly what you see and NOT what your verbal side tricks you into ‘seeing’.
3. Check your negative spaces for accuracy. The drawing will fall into place like pieces of a puzzle.

I have highlighted some negative spaces on the drawing below to demonstrate my point. You will find that a more complicated subject is actually easier to draw.

“I HAVE LEARNED THAT WHAT I HAVE NOT DRAWN, I HAVE NEVER REALLY SEEN, AND THAT WHEN I START DRAWING AN ORDINARY THING, I REALIZE HOW EXTRAORDINARY IT IS” Frederick Franck

Using the complementary colour instead of black to darken a colour makes for a more interesting painting as our eyes are naturally tuned to complementaries – so the use of complementary colours throughout a painting intensifies contrast. For example, ultramarine blue and cadmium orange mixed together can produce a colour quite close to black – so try using a bit of ultramarine to darken your orange, or purple to darken yellow, or green to darken red, an vise versa.
There is a simple experiment to prove that our eyes naturally see the complement of a colour: Take a plain white sheet of paper and put a red dot of colour in the middle of the left half. Stare at it for about 30 seconds, then look into the middle of the blank half of the paper. You should see the complementary of red appearing. (the variation of red would yield different results – a red with a bias to orange would produce an aqua green, while a red with a bias toward purple, would produce a more lime green). Try doing this with other colours too. This is an experiment we do in art class all the time.

If you stare at the blinking pink dots, you will see only one color, pink. If you look at the the + in the center, you’ll see a circle of pink dots and a rotating green dot.
Now, stare at the + without moving your eyes. The pink dots will disappear and you will see only a rotating green dot.
Your brain will see the complementary colour of pink: green

Marsha Bhagwansingh

Links to Colour Theory Homepages:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_theory

How to Mix and use Color by Tony Paul- online book- click here

Different drying rates occur in oil paints because each individual pigment reacts diffently when mixed with the oil. Typically, oil paint is pigment mixed with linseed oil which actually oxidizes rather than evaporates.

Examples of fast drying oil paints ( approximately 2 days) are as follows:

Cobalt blue, Prussian blue, Raw Sienna, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber and Flake White

Examples of medium drying oil paints (approximately 5-6 days) are as follows:

All Cobalt violets, and greens, Sap green, Cerulean blue.

Examples of slow drying oil paints ( approximately 6-10 days) are as follows:

Alizarin Crimson, French Ultramarine, Lamp Black, Ivory Black, Titanuim white, Cadmium colours.

Marcus Gooding

It is important to prep a canvas primarily for two reasons:

To tone down the harsh white canvas to a neutral colour which allows the artist to better ascertain the effect of the light and dark areas of the subject matter.

The neutral colour, preferably a mix of yellow ochre and payne’s grey, thinned out with turpentine assists with making the work feel natural.

Marcus Gooding