Creating Clouds.

1. Create A Wash of Colour that you want to use for the sky. For example if you want to get the effect of a summers day I would probably use Ultramarine Blue.
2. Then with a tissue, scrunch it up and dab out some of the sky colour to create cloud shapes. DON'T be tempted to draw outlines for the clouds as this could make them look slightly fake and cartoon like.
3. Once you have done that add a touch of black or grey. To create this colour mix burnt umber and ultramarine blue. Don't use the ready mixed blacks as they can knock areas DEAD! Add this colour to the bottom of the clouds, this will give the impression that the clouds are rounded, and that there is an "underneath".

I will upload images soon to go with this step by step.

Click here to go to visit my other techniques and step by steps.

Some Arty Terms....

Cockling - If you don't use proper watercolour paper then the paper cockles because of the water. This means that the paper goes wrinkly and wavy.

Rigger Brush - A VERY thin brush that you can use for fine detail on pictures.


Keep a look out for new terms as they come onto my blog.

If there is any other terms that you would like explaining on the blog then email me here to get them answered.

Click here for the more techniques and step by steps.

Easy Step By Step on how to Paint!

Step by Step Landscape

This is the front page of the book that contains the picture that I am going to use for my first Step By Step on my blog. I got this book for Christmas and it was from QD Stores.  

This is the Original Picture. As you will see I have changed some of the colours in my version. My Picture is loosely based on this picture from the book. This is something that you can adapt to any picture; you don't have to copy every single detail of the picture.

1.       As you can see here I have used masking tape to attach the paper to my drawing board, which in actual fact is just a piece of plywood! Anyone at home can use anything really but if you don't have a board you could use a lap tray or even an old book. You place the masking tape to the board leaving a small border. This means when you take the tape of you will be left with a crisp white border.

2.       This is the pencil sketch which you might only just be able to see, but it is there. And you don't want to necessarily see the pencil lines on the finished painting. Draw out the sketch, don't worry if its not that precise as this painting only really needs "silhouettes in the distance"

3.       The Next step is to add water to the whole of the painting. There is NO care whatsoever involved in this just slap it on and have a bit of fun!

 

4. Again even this bit doesn't need much care!! What you now need to do is add French Ultramarine to the top, make sure it doesn't go on to hard (dark) but also don't put it on too light as watercolours dry 50% lighter. Next create a mix of Alizarin Crimson and Cadmium Yellow. There is no precise recipe for this just to make an orange. Do the same with this as you did with the Ultramarine. The next step is to leave it to dry. It must be 100% dry before you continue. If you are a bit impatient (like me!) you can use a hairdryer to speed up the process.

 5. Then create a purple mix for the buildings and clouds. You do this by mixing Alizarin Crimson, a touch of Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue.  Then with a smaller brush paint in the shapes of the background. This is perhaps what might look like the trickiest step but don't worry if you go "out of the lines" in a couple of places because remember this is in the distance so it won't be precise! While you are there use some of the same colour to add lines and various shapes to make clouds. When the purple for the buildings is still wet go in with a stronger orange. The purple and orange WILL run don't worry. Get a piece of masking tape and press it on a piece of clothing. This won't damage your clothes and this is just to get the stickiness from the masking tape off. Then lay the masking tape on the building to sea boundary. This is just to create more of a shadow from the buildings in the sea and to make it more defined.

7. Next add the silhouette of 3 boats in the front with a strong mix of Burnt Umber and ultramarine. But this has to be when the picture is dry. Let the whole picture dry taped and on the board. This is to prevent cockling of the paper. Once it has dried you can take the tape off. Always tear the tape of towards you rather than the painting as it could rip. See opposite for the finished painting! If this is your first painting then you could frame it.

Happy Painting!

Front Cover of My Arts Award

This is my front cover of my arts award. To create the cover, it involved many different parts to it. First, I used a pink pastel in  various places across the front page then I fixed the pastel using hairspray. This gave the black a varied shade to the cover. Then I created my own art wordle. I did this on http://www.wordle.com/. The wordle involves as many words as I could have thought of related to art. Then on a white piece of card I used a red pastel to create the pink and red shades on the lettering. I then fixed this to the card through the same method.Next, using acrylic paints I added purple areas to the darkest peice of paper. I then wrote the title, "My Arts Award" and cut the words out individually. I also, once the ink had dried went over the titles in a white pen so through the middle of each letter was a white line. I found that this helped the title stand out. I then glued each peice onto the cover. As I did this I mounted the wordle on orange card as it made it stand out more. It also managed to capture the overall colour scheme of the wordle. Once everything was glued on I used metallic pens to doodle around the edge, the doodling  had to try and mimic the motion of leaves.  

Mini Countryside Scene

This is a scene that I have created as a space-filler in my portfolio for my arts award. I have done this picture in watercolour paints. The scene depicts a series of fields that are in front of the sea and sheep grazing in the foreground.

Snow Scene

This is a pastel painting of a snow scene that I have created from inspriration from previous paintings that I have done. I might also use this picture for fronts to Christmas Cards.

Merry Christmas!

The Tower of London

This is the London with the Thames in the front. I have completed this to go with my other London  townscape images, which can be found on my London Townscapes Page which will be updated with more as I continue the series.

Tower Bridge Sketch - London

This is one of the longest sketches that I have EVER done as it took me over 2 months!! But never mind, I am really happpy with the result as with the next sketch I do I will upload a step by step guide, so I hope you will like it! With this picture I did the base sketch, as I always do then I went in with the shadow and  various tones. Please take a look at the rest of my London collection on my London townscapes page.

Dover Castle

This was actually done quite a while a go, during this year's summer holiday. It was inspired by a visit there which was AMAZING! There where great views and from Dover you can see france and all the ferries going back and fourth from there. One piece of advice I do have for anyone off to Dover Castle is to take very good notice of the map and look at things in sequence, as the length of the castle is very long and you don't want  to be walking it too many times like we ended up doing!!  Anyway back to the image! This is a tonal pencil sketch I did on a very cheap A5 cartridge pad, £2.50 to be precise but it does the job, which in my case is pencil sketching!

Ballerina

Here is my second pastel painting, the inspiration came from the next issue of the "Paint Magazine". The image depicts a ballerina, lit up and figures on watching her in the distance. However if I was to do this again, I wouldn't do it on rough waterclour paper where it is going to leave a slightly strange effect.

My Art Wordle

This is the Wordle I am using for the front page of my arts award portforlio, check it out and PLEASE leave me some comments!
 
http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/4444116/Art_Wordle_
 
 

Hylands Park

Today we went to Hylands Park to a craft show. We arrived at Hylands park and went around the grounds of Hylands Park. The show was actually held in the house. We looked around the house as there was still the usual exhibitions in there. The crafts ranged from knitting to watercolour painting. We saw aa couple of stands with watercolour paintings on. Many of these paintings had a watercolour theme of winter paintings. This gave me quite alot of inspiration for christmas cards. Some of these ideas included robins and a fireplace scene.The fireplace scene included a fireplace with a cat on christmas eve with stockings hung up. That particular picture was painted by Jenny Henderson, a member of the Essex Guild of Crafts. Also in the crafts fair were also things like these really nice knitted scarfs, but they were knitted loosely on very thick needles so looked very lace like. Among the other crafts were photography, clothing and felt crafts.

Dog

This is my first but recent soft pastel painting I got this picture from the front page of the "Paint" magazine that comes montly from the SAA. I have blended different colours of pastels to create the brown on the dog. Please leave lots of comments!

My Dad

I couldn't be doing my art hero without including my Dad. He has been painting for about 3/4 of a year longer than me and focuses on watercolour painting. He bases his ideas from pictures in magazines and painting books but adapts them to create his own paintings. Click here to visit his gallery on painters online and please leave him comments!