Painting techniques
By: Everything Cj
Tags: Brush, Airbrush, Guides And Tutorials, How To, Painting

Painting techniques

Painting techniques

Contents:

Wood napkin technique — practical advice from experts for beginners

If you want to spend quality free time with your little one, it wouldn’t hurt to combine the useful with the pleasant, bringing to life — through colour and creativity — old wooden pieces that you have in the house. We will teach you how to apply the napkin technique on wood , an easy-to-follow DIY project, as you will see in the steps below.

In addition to the explosion of colour that you can get in the middle of your own house, you will also bring a new breath to the old wooden pieces, which the passing of the years has stolen from the former brilliance. So, let’s see what exactly the technique of the napkin on wood involves and how you can perfect it, practicing with your child every time your free time allows it.

Wood napkin technique

Before you get down to business, you need to make a list of all the price aids you need, so that the wood napkin technique can give amazing results.

Okay, so don’t forget to get the following:

Brushes of different sizes

Napkins with various prints

Adhesive that can become transparent after application

You can also add an emery to the list of necessary things

Okay, let’s get to work now:

1. Carefully unfold the napkin layers

You may have never noticed this before, but you should know that a napkin with a print is made of 3 separate layers: two simple layers and a third with a print. In this step, you must very carefully peel off the simple layers from the one with the print, so that the latter can be applied later on the wood surface.

2. Apply a film of adhesive on the wood surface

If you have passed the first step (the layers of the printed napkin may come off quite hard, so if you have long nails, do not hesitate to use them), it is time to take care of the wooden surface on you work.

Apply an even layer on the entire surface of the piece of wood, covering with great care every square centimetre of it. Don’t forget the cracks, because they must also be covered with great care by the adhesive film.

REMEMBER: the thicker the adhesive layer, the better the napkin print will stick to the wood surface you want to bring back to life.

3. Place the napkin on the wooden surface

It is time to apply the napkin (the layer of print that you have already peeled off at point 1 from the other two simple ones) on the surface greased with adhesive. Press the napkin well on the wood, but with gentle movements, because you work with an extremely delicate material. How do you know that the napkin sticks very well to the wood? You know this happened when:

The texture of the wood begins to be seen through the applied napkin;

The applied napkin is starting to become more and more transparent.

Even if you notice air bubbles on the surface of the applied napkin, do not stop what you are doing. The result will be amazing and anyway, you do not want a 100% uniform design. Small mistakes give a special note to the surface you brought to life through the technique of the wooden napkin. After the napkin has printed very well in wood, you can go to the last step:

4. Rub the wooden surface with a sandpaper (optional step)

Do you remember when I told you a little above that you can have an emery on the desk? Well, I suggested this because if you want to get a vintage air of the wood surface, you have to rub it very well with an emery (80 or 100 grit). But this is just a step you can take or not, depending on your tastes.

Here’s how easy this technique can be to apply, which you can use every time you want to bring back to life an old wooden surface in the space of your home! Good luck with that!

6 ways you can create the illusion of depth in your painting

The artist has the grace to transpose the third dimension on a flat surface, canvas, so as to attract the viewer into a world of colours. But how can he do this?

Creating a realistic, deep landscape is not done with the help of magic, but by adopting special painting techniques. For more than a century, skilled artists have used the following techniques in an attempt to bring a compelling landscape to life:

Stratification and overlap

Stratification and overlap

Colour layering and overlapping are two particularly effective techniques for obtaining a contrast of hue or texture when two objects in the painting overlap. This contrast better highlights the two objects. In Edgar Payne’s dramatic painting, presented above, the smaller boats in the foreground partially hide the larger boats. Illustrated in this way, it gives the painting depth.

The winding route

The winding route

A meandering river or a curved path in a painting can be used to “steal” the gaze of the one who admires the painting. Charles Warren Eaton’s tonal painting, “Winter Solitude,” is the perfect example of this technique.

Diagonals

Diagonals

Lowell artist Birge Harrison used diagonal lines in “Moonrise on the Beach.” The waves that roll on the beach, moving away, create the impression of distance and depth.

Aerial perspective (atmospheric perspective)

Aerial perspective (atmospheric perspective)

A mountain in the distance will look brighter and more hazy as you look up. This visual “game” is called aerial or atmospheric perspective and suggests depth only by changing the quality and brightness of colours depending on the distance. The purpose of this technique is to create the impression of a real space by illustrating more distant objects with less clarity, in weaker contrasts, but keeping the well-defined contours. You can learn more about this technique by studying Edgar Payne’s compositions.

Placing a centre of interest in the plan

Placing a centre of interest in the plan

When the subject of the painting is placed at a medium or even large distance, the painting can take on a flat appearance. It includes a focus of interest in order to enhance the impression of depth. Thus, the gaze of the one who admires the work will gradually move from the object in the plane to the one at a distance. It is recommended to use, however, when fewer details and a subtle texture in the background. Artist, teacher and author John F. Carlson exemplifies this technique in the painting above.

Size changes

Size changes

In the painting above, “The Road to Sluis, Holland,” Charles Warren Eaton uses the technique of resizing. If, in essence, the viewer knows that these trees (no. — from the painting) have the same size in reality, Eaton manages to create, by reducing them, the impression that they move away, easily, from the viewer. The trees whose size changes in the painting give the illusion of depth.

8 valuable tips for artists who paint on canvas

canvas

A clean canvas can give rise to a whole wave of creative ideas, but it can become, just as easily, a real source of stress for any artist, generating a whole series of questions: “what do I paint?”, “Where do I start?” “ to. To make your job easier, if your favourite medium for painting is canvas, we present a series of eight useful tips:

1. How to prepare the canvas

Spread the canvas on the wooden frame or buy a support with the canvas already stretched. Remove the plastic foil in which it comes packaged and start the process by applying synthetic glues or a layer of plaster designed to protect the fibbers of the canvas and smooth its surface. These substances can vary depending on the paints used later on the canvas.

2. How to prepare the background

After applying the plaster, you can prepare the background for your painting. If you plan, for example, to paint a stormy landscape, you can “dress” the canvas in a shade of light gray. If, instead, you intend to paint a sunset landscape, you can paint the canvas in a warm shade of beige.

3. Prepare work tools

work tools

How do you work better? When your canvas is supported by an easel or when it is lying on a flat surface, with a colour palette next to it? None of the options are wrong, but the whole process will be easier and more enjoyable if you prepare the work environment before you start working. Prepare your brushes, paddle, water and any other utensils you will use during your activity.

4. Choose the right brushes

Some brushes are more suitable for painting on canvas than others. The canvas may be too hard, for example, for the brushes you normally use for the watercolour technique. Therefore, brushes specially created for the use of acrylic paints and oil paints are recommended.

5. Overlapping painting

Overlapping painting

The technique of underpainting often creates an outline of the elements in the painting, giving depth to the painting. The effects will not be visible immediately after the completion of the work, but once it will dry.

6. Choose the right colours

If the colours in the oil are almost the same colour before and after application, the acrylics darken after drying. Choose the right colours taking into account these changes to make sure that the shades used will not be much darker in the end than you wanted.

7. Experiment using medium

Medium is an oil for painting produced on the basis of natural binders that can be added in acrylics or in oil colours to create unique effects in the case of paintings on canvas. The medium gives texture, a glossy effect or a matte effect, depending on the type chosen.

8. Choose a safe place to leave the canvas dry

Before you start painting, make sure you have a dry space where you can leave the canvas to dry. Otherwise, your artwork may be damaged. In addition, paint stains can be quite difficult to clean.

Colour Theory — basics part 1

Primary and secondary colours

We know that many people find colour theory extremely complicated and become confused when mentioning terms such as colour wheel, complementary colours, tertiary colours, opposite colours in the colour wheel. In reality you will discover that it is very simple and that following a few rules you will get much better results in your paintings.

Every artist should know at least the basic principles of this theory. Although both Leonardo da Vinci and Leon Battista Alberti used the principles of theory, the colour wheel was not invented until the 18th century by Sir Isaac Newton. He showed that white light contains several colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple).

Later Johann Wolfgang Goethe began to study the effect they have on people. He discovered that some colours (eg yellow) create the feeling of warmth and are attributed to emotions such as passion and joy, while others (eg blue) create the feeling of cold and implicitly feelings of weakness and fear.

The colour wheel arose out of the simple need to easily show the relationships between colours. The fundamental rule of theory is that there are three colors that cannot be obtained by combining other colours. These, red, yellow and blue are known as primary colours.

Of course, you can find different variations for red, blue or yellow. For example, blue can be cobalt blue, sky blue, ultramarine or Prussian blue. Red includes alizarin, crimson or cadmium red, and yellow includes cadmium, medium yellow, light cadmium or lemon galmen.

All these are primary colours, just different versions. There is no right or wrong notion of primary colour, each colour variation being different, as well as the result obtained from their mixing. Each pair of primary colours will produce a different colour, even if sometimes the difference is very small.

You may be wondering why black and white are not called primary colours, as they cannot be obtained from a mixture of other colours. They were excluded from this theory and called non-colours because they cannot be used in colour mixtures to obtain new ones.

Adding white to a colour opens it and adding black darkens it (although it is not recommended to use black at all in painting).

From the mixture of two primary colours a secondary one is obtained. Mixing blue and red we get purple, from red and yellow we have orange, and from blue and yellow we have green. The exact hue of the secondary colours is determined by the hue of the primary colours and the proportions in which they were mixed.

Of course, if you add to the mixture a primary colour in a larger amount than the other, it will be seen in the result obtained. For example, if you mix red in larger quantities than yellow, you will get a reddish orange.

Colour Theory — basics part 2

The complementary colours placed next to each other create the maximum contrast, appearing brighter, more intense. However, Chevreul’s colour contrast law states that: placed next to each other, the colours will appear altered, as if one was mixed with the other. Thus, if we place a piece of yellow material on a blue background, it will have a slight orange tint, because orange is the complementary colour to blue.

Primary, secondary and tertiary colours Also, the shadow of an object will contain the colour complementary to the predominant one, for example the shadow of a red apple will also contain this colour.

It is simple to remember: in the colour wheel, those opposite to the primary colours are their complements. Complementary to a primary colour is obtained from the mixture of the other two primary. Therefore, the complement of red is green, its blue is orange, and yellow is purple.

Complementary to a secondary one is the primary colour that was not used in obtaining it, i.e. for red green, for blue-orange, and not for yellow-purple.

Tertiary colours are obtained by mixing a primary colour with a secondary one (the secondary ones being obtained in turn from two primary colours).

The proportions in which they are mixed create different tertiary colours. They are named by combining the names of the primary and secondary colours used in the mixture. For example, mixing red and orange we obtain the red-orange tertiary colour.

The brown and gray variations are also considered tertiary, containing all the primary colours. The easiest way to get brown is to mix a primary and complementary colour, in other words orange for blue, purple for yellow and green for red, getting a different brown from each pair.

Gray is most easily obtained by mixing orange (or yellow and red) with blue and then white. You will always need more blue than orange, but you will have to experiment to find out the amount of white.

You can mix blue and an earthy colour such as burnt sienna or raw umber. Of course, in watercolours, to lighten a colour, add more water, but don’t forget that the gray will lighten up after drying.

You may get “dirty” shades if you mix too many colours. If the gray or brown obtained is not as expected, it is preferable to start the process again, than to add more colour in the hope of success.

You can print a colour wheel scheme that you can colour yourself. Successful colour mixing is a good exercise, although apparently it’s not worth wasting time with. Keep the wheel in sight when painting.

You will realize the importance of these few notions after using them. The results will be just right.

Oil painting, tips…

In my search for painting materials and techniques I found an interesting article written by a Russian painter named Alexei L. Antonov . He has studied art in Russia, Azerbaijan and Italy and has been living in the United States since 1990. On his page he offers a short lesson on oil painting that I thought I would translate and share with you. I would appreciate your comments.

What is oil painting ? Without question some oil colours on a canvas. However, I think that oil painting is more than that. From the 16th century until the beginning of the 20th century, artists used the 7-layer painting technique.

Just as in music there are 7 musical notes and 7 keys and between each of them another 7, a week has 7 days, and a layer of colour dries in 7 weeks. The energy we receive when we look at old paintings in museums, like ghosts in old castles, is related to this figure.

1. Stop looking at modern art and stop loving it. The bright modern colours and the contrasts between them destroy the subtle vision of the painter.

2. Many painters receive energy from music. Stop listening to modern music and start listening only to classical music. try to understand and love her.

3. Brushes

You should have plenty of brushes so as not to waste time washing them while working. Use a new brush for each mixture. Use kolinsky round brushes # 1 to # 10. To cover large areas you will need a few brushes of size 20 to 35. For the final brushes you will need some very fine round and wide brushes of medium size with squirrel hair. Brushes must be treated with great care. After each use they must be washed in turpentine and then in warm soapy water.

4. The painting palette must be made of hard hair. After work, wash the palette with turpentine and scrape it with a blade. Before you start working again, wipe the palette with linseed oil.

5. The canvas should be additionally primed with a few extra layers and finally polished with a fine sandpaper. After that, the canvas must be scraped with a blade to remove the texture of the canvas until a fine surface appears, similar to the eggshell.

6. It is very important to have objects for still life's in the studio. Do not skimp on buying them from fairs or antique markets. You will regret it later.

7. The drawing is made on paper at the real dimensions, down to the finest details. It is then transferred to the canvas with the transfer paper. After that it is outlined with brown ink because the first layer of oil colour — Primer (transparent layer that is equal to the middle tone of the largest and lightest object in the painting) — will erase any trace of pencil, but the ink will remain visible until the last layers.

8. Before applying each new layer of cloth (ideally dry for 7 weeks) is carefully wiped with half a potato (to prepare the dry surface to absorb better) and then with linseed oil. After that the cloth is wiped with a soft cloth.

9. The primer varnish is made of 2% damar resin crystals and 98% turpentine. The paint varnish is composed of 5–10% dry resin and 90–95% turpentine. Add a few drops of lavender oil directly into the coloured container. Researchers say lavender oil stimulates the brain. I believe, however, that the old monsters added it to attenuate the smell of turpentine. The varnish for the last step contains 30% damar crystals, 3% linseed oil and 67% turpentine.

10. The basic colours you should have are: white, light yellow eye, red ocher, burnt shade, natural shade, ivory black and carbon black, and 4 other colours (when needed) that you use to final layers: flake yellow (cre can also be replaced with cadmium yellow deep), madder lake deep, vermilion, Prussian Blue. Be careful, use these last colours sparingly.

11. Primer, or first layer. The canvas is covered with a mixture of red ocher, light yellow ocher and ivory black (the mixture should have a shade of olive green)

12. The shadow (the process of making the intermediate layers) is made of burnt shadow in two layers (layers 2 and 3). In the second layer all the details are made excluding the texture. The third layer is made with a large brush.

13. Dead layer — the fourth layer is made of lead white, light ocher, red ocher and burnt bone. The goal of this layer is to achieve the penumbra. The painting should look as if the first objects were illuminated by the moonlight — olive gray. The colours are applied coarsely, with a half tone above, the shadows are very transparent, with a half tone below.

14. The seventh layer: details and textures, massive application of lights, strong reflections and signature. In this layer you can use other colours: Prussian blue, cinnabar red, light cadmium yellow, madder lake deep. Observation is a very important aspect in the process of learning painting in the classical style.

In order to master the technique, it is advisable to follow a master for a long time. In the current learning system the student sits down with a pile of brushes and a palette of paint full of colours and begins to apply them on the canvas while the instructor follows him and makes comments or suggestions from time to time.

That is why it is very important for those who really want to follow the classic techniques to simply sit and observe for a while.

Airbrush

The first airbrush was invented in 1879 by Peeler and used a hand-operated compressor, the inventor patenting it for the purpose “for watercolour painting and other artistic purposes.” The instrument had a rough shape, being composed of various pieces of certain objects that were found in a jeweller’s workshop, such as old screwdrivers and burners.

It took 4 years to develop until a usable tool was created. It was marketed by Liberty Walk-up, which introduced Impressionist artist Wilson Irvine to airbrush techniques. The first modern airbrush model appeared in 1893, being introduced by Thayer and Chandler at

World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, invented by Charles Burdick. The instrument looked like a pen and worked in a different way from the one Peeler invented, being largely identical to modern airbrushes.

Function

The airbrush uses a high speed air stream (compressed) that passes through an air diffuser, thus creating a suction force that allows the colour to be pushed out of the tank. The high speed of the air sprays the colour into very small particles as it passes through a dosing device called a nozzle.

Thus the colour is applied on the support. The user controls the amount of colour by actuating a variable trigger which has the role of withdrawing more or less a needle with a very fine tip, a needle that represents the control element within the nozzle. The very fine degree of atomization is what allows the artist to create different effects using the airbrush.

This technique allows the mixing of two or more colours in a special way, without “joining” portions, in which a transition is made from one colour to another gradually. Hands-free airbrushed images, without the aid of templates, have an inhomogeneous appearance, with poorly defined edges between colours and between foreground and background colours.

A skilled airbrush artist can make paintings with a special realism, of a photographic fidelity, or he can imitate almost any painting technique. Airbrush painting at such a level requires additional tools such as templates, and a very careful planning in stages of the work.

Some airbrushes use low pressures, around 20 psi, while others use higher pressures, around 30–35 psi. Paint guns used to paint cars require pressures of 100 psi or more to be able to spray the thicker colour using less thinner. They have the ability to apply a thicker layer of colour in a short time over a wider area. However, certain spray guns called “High-Volume Low-Pressure (HVLP)” are designed to spray the same amount of colour without the need for increased pressure.

Types of airbrushes

Airbrushes are classified according to three characteristics: The first is the action that the user performs to trigger the colour flow, the second is the mechanism by which the airbrush is fed with colour and the third is depending on the point in which air and colour mix.

Type of action

The simplest airbrushes work with a simple action system, a system with which, by simply pressing the trigger, a predetermined mixture of air and colour is sprayed. Usually cheap airbrushes and spray guns are of this type.

Double action airbrushes have a separate function for releasing colour so that the artist first releases a jet of air by pulling the trigger and then gradually releases the colour independently. Most airbrushes have double action. With the help of the double action system, several effects can be achieved at the same time. Double action airbrushes are most often used by airbrushing artists due to increased control.

Power supply system

The airbrush can be fed through a tank placed above it (in this case the airbrush is gravity fed), or by sucking it from a tank mounted under the body of the airbrush (suction-powered airbrush).

There are also airbrushes powered by a cup located in one part of the airbrush (side feed). This last feeding mode gives the airbrush even more versatility, allowing the colour to be sprayed upwards (in the case of gravity-fed or suction-powered airbrushes, this is impossible).

Mixing point

According to the place where the colour mixes with the air, the airbrushes are divided into airbrushes with external mixture and airbrushes with internal mixture. In the case of airbrushes with internal mixture, the colour and the air combine inside the airbrush (in the nozzle) creating a finer spray.

In the case of airbrushes with external mixture, the air leaves the airbrush before coming into contact with the colour, which creates a coarser spraying effect. Externally mixed airbrushes are cheaper than internal mixed airbrushes and are generally used to cover larger surfaces with paint or varnish with a higher viscosity.

Compressor

The compressor is an installation that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume.

Modern airbrush compressors are designed to be as light, quiet as possible and to ensure a constant and dry air flow.

In airbrushing it is essential to have maximum control over the air pressure in the airbrush. That is why we recommend using the pressure regulator. This tool allows fine adjustment of the working pressure (between 0 and 8 atm).

For airbrushes with nozzles larger than 0.4 mm in diameter. we recommend the use of compressors equipped with a tank.

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