Hiding From The Storm – new landscape in oil
Dec 31, 2009 oil
New oil landscape, a big ‘un too – 19″ x 14″!
Hiding From The Storm. Oil on paper, 19" x 14"
It’ll take several days to dry, but once it’s dry it’ll go up for sale on eBay, miniGallery etc…
TIP: you can click the image above to see a larger version.
Tags: clouds, cover, grass, green, house, landscape, oil, protection, rainy, storm, stormy, trees, wet
Watercolour pencils – the best of both worlds
Dec 30, 2009 art, pencil, watercolour
Derwent Aquatone watercolour pencils
Yes, I know ‘watercolour pencils’ seems impossible, but so did ‘drawing with an eraser‘ and it worked!
If you use watercolour, you’ll know that when it comes from a tube it will harden to a solid state but still be reusable when made wet. Watercolour pencils work in the same way, instead of using graphite, they use a solid core of watercolour which can be used, in this case, like you would with a normal coloured pencil. The main difference here is that when you wet the pencil drawing, the ‘graphite’ will dissolve leaving you with watercolour.
Here’s a quick example I sketched this up just last night using my Aquatone pencils (click here for a quick report on them and the Derwent Inktense pencils), it’s part landscape, part abstract (hence the odd colours):
Tags: aquatone, derwent, drawing, inktense, painting, pencil, pencils, sketch, thumbnail, watercolor, watercolour
Drawing… with an eraser?
a Kneadable/Putty Eraser
Drawing with an eraser may sound like an oxymoron, but it is possible.
In the drawing below, Allosaurus, I’ve used smeared graphite for a background then added more smeared graphite to the subject to create the shadow areas, the residue graphite that is still on the cloth is then rubbed in to the mid-tone areas. Any areas that need to be highlights are ‘drawn’ with the putty eraser (more on kneadable/putty erasers here), effetively removing the mid/dark-tone graphite.
Tags: allosaurus, dino, dinosaur, drawing, eraser, graphite, kneadable, pencil, plastic, putty, reptile, sketch
Kneadable (putty) eraser, or plastic eraser. Is there a difference?
An ordinary plastic eraser
I’m sure there are many times when you’ve been drawing/sketching and had to erase a large area, or even redo an piece several times. All that rubbing and blowing off the pieces of eraser that are in your way… not the most pleasant of tasks.
Plastic erasers, while they do the job, can seriously damage the surface you’re drawing on as they are quite stiff. They also disintegrate as you use them leaving all those tiny bits of eraser on the page.
There has to be a better way… and there is!
a Kneadable/Putty Eraser
A kneadable (or putty) eraser is the exact opposite of a plastic eraser – it’s flexible and doesn’t disintegrate, nor does it damage your drawing surface.
The idea behind the putty rubber is quite simple, think of it as being a soft, pliable, eraser, similar in texture to Blu-Tac, that you can shape. This means that not only can you erase large areas, and nothing will break off, but you can shape the putty to be more precise in what you’re erasing.
You can even ‘draw’ with the putty eraser by removing pencil to create negative shapes, but I’ll write a separate article on that.
To continue using the putty rubber, you simply stretch and manipulate it until you have a clean piece to work with, which won’t last forever as eventually you’ll have a black putty eraser with no clean parts!
At that point you have to erase it, and buy a new one…
Tags: drawing, eraser, graphite, kneadable, pencil, plastic, putty, rubber, sketch, sketching
Cartooning – ink pen, brush pen, or both?
Many people who do cartoons or ink outlines to their pencil sketches often use mechanical/technical ink pens (shown below), also called ‘liner’ pens.
While I do use these myself, I thought I’d show the difference that using a brush pen can make.
Brush pens come in different shapes, sizes, and makes. The one I use is shown left and is a Pentel Water Brush. Normally you fill it with water and use it with watercolour paints/pencils, but I fill mine with Indian ink and use it for cartoon/illustration work. You can also buy a ‘brush-pen’ which comes with ink refills, but I find the water brush more cost effective and I can fill it with whichever brand of ink that I prefer.
Technical/mechanical pens give a constant line thickness, this is handy if your an architect drawing out house plans, but not when it comes to cartooning/illustrative work, you want your lines to be of varying thickness to make it look less-technical.
Tags: brush, brush pen, cartoon, cartooning, cartoonist, illustration, illustrative, indian ink, ink, liner, mechanical, outline, pen, pentel, technical, water brush
Atelier Interactive – acrylics for oil painters?
Dec 25, 2009 acrylic, art, oil
If you’re anything like me, then you love how you can noodle with your oil painting hours, sometimes days, later, and you’ll also hate how acrylics dry so unbelievably fast. Well, Atelier may well be on to something here with their ‘Interactive‘ acrylic range.
Atelier Interactive is a relatively new acrylic paint from Atelier, the main difference between plain Atelier and this new Interactive paint is that Atelier claim that you can keep the paint active by misting it with plain water.
I bought a set of these paints several weeks ago and gave them a quick try, and I have to say: I am impressed with them. The only problem is that, even when I’m using oils, I tend to use very little paint… so little in fact that my oil paintings are usually dry within just several days, but having forced myself to blob Atelier around, it really does stay active as long as you keep an eye, well… a finger, on how it is drying.
The idea is this: you gesso your painting surface and, once it’s dry, begin painting. The trick, is to gently dab your paint with your finger and if it is becoming tacky, it’s time to mist. Not very scientific, but it works. Even after I’d left my test painting for an hour, I could still slightly reactivate the paint.
The only problem with this unscientific method is how much to mist, how often to mist, and from what distance to mist. That takes time and perseverance, but if you’re willing to tinker with them for a little while the Atelier Interactive‘s are definitely a step in the right direction for acrylics, and I’ll definitely be using them again in the future.
Tags: acrylic, atelier, canvas, interactive, mist, oil, paint, painting, spray, water
Why I love Winsor & Newton Artisan Water Mixable Oils
Winsor & Newton Water Mixable Oils
Disclaimer: I am not sponsored by, nor affiliated with, Winsor & Newton, so this article is what I genuinely think of their water mixable oil paints – having used them exclusively in oil painting now for several years.
Oil paints have been used in art for many many years and the formula for them has remained largely unchanged for just as many years.
The one down-side with traditional oils is that, in my opinion, you need to use some sort of turpentine or white spirit with them and, as you can imagine, using such hazardous materials is not only dangerous but can leave an awful adour in your home/studio. Yes, you can get odour-less equivalents but it is only really odourless to humans, the same can’t be said if you have pets in your house/studio.
One of the great things about the Artisan oils is that you can wash your brushes (and your hands!) using nothing more than just soap and water.
The old adage that oil and water do not mix does not apply here!
The paints themselves can be thinned down using water. In fact, in a recent issue of an art magazine, one artist used them to create a painting which looked as though it had been created using watercolour but was in fact done used watered down Artisan oils! You can also use special W&N linseed oil to thin your paint with too.
The paint itself looks and feels just like any other (non-water mixable) oil paint that I’ve used in the past, so there’s really no need to change your techniques or other equipment and the paints come in a rainbow of colours, all be it that I only use about seven or eight colours at most.
If you’ve always wanted to try oils but are maybe allergic to turps/spirits then give Artisan a try, you can buy them in starter kits with just a couple of tubes, through to larger sets with about ten tubes per box.
Good luck!
Tags: artisan, canvas, linseed oil, newton, oil, oils, paint, painting, paints, soap, turpentine, turps, water, white spirit, winsor
Why I prefer canvas paper blocks, over pre-stretched box canvases
Dec 24, 2009 acrylic, art, oil
The traditional pre-stretched, box, canvas
Most oil (and acrylic) painters use the now familiar pre-stretched (or box) canvas. This is a wooden frame with a sheet of canvas stretched across the frame and staped on the back of the frame, keeping the canvas evenly stretched around the frame, almost like a skin over a drum. This is them primed and painted on. Personally, I’ve grown to love and prefer canvas paper blocks…
The canvas blocks are pages of 230gsm (or more) paper which has a canvas texture to it and is specially made for oil/acrylic painting. Why do I prefer it? Here’s why:
Fabriano canvas paper block.
- storage – I can store 15 sheets in a space that is less than 0.5″ in depth. Imagine how much space it’d take for 15 canvases that are each 0.5″ thick!
- cost – I can (here in the UK) purchase 15 sheets of good quality, brand name, canvas paper for approximately £15. If I was buying box canvases I’d be lucky to get three for that price. This also means I can sell my paintings cheaper too, a big plus for customers.
- postage – it is so easy to post canvas paper. You could roll it up and post it in a tube, but I NEVER do that – too risky – I always post my paintings flat and with a heavy cardboard backing. Either way, it’s cheaper than posting a heavy, bulky, stretched canvas! This means I can charge less for postage, customer wins again!
- framing – an oil painting on canvas paper can be framed just like a watercolour painting, no big bulky frame (or painting the sides of the box canvas), just a thin frame with a sheet of glass. Also, since you are framing it like a watercolour you can use a nice mount to show off your lovely oil painting.
Clairefontaine canvas paper block.
The two brands that I use are: Clairefontaine (right), and Fabriano (above right). I find that they are excellent value for money, bright white, and easily available in most art stores online.
Give them a try, you’ve nothing much to lose… apart from a few pounds/dollars.
Tags: block, box, canvas, clairfontaine, fabriano, huile, oil, oilio, paper, pre-stretched, stretched, tela
Oil painting, wet-in-wet, with homemade liquid white
I first came across the wet-in-wet technique (sometimes called wet-on-wet) while watching reruns of Bob Ross’s Joy of Painting show.
Wet-in-wet is where you cover the canvas with a thin spread of ‘liquid white‘ making the canvas slippery and allowing the oil paint to easily slide across the canvas, mix with the liquid white, and be much easier to blend.
Unfortunately, liquid white is a secret recipe and quite expensive to buy, since it’s Bob Ross branded, but… you can make your own liquid white substitute. Here’s how I do it:
Tags: bob, happy, landscape, liquid, oil, painting, ross, trees, wet, wet-in-wet, wet-on-wet, white
A comparison of Derwent Aquatone, Derwent Inktense and Caran D’Ache Neocolor II
First of all, this test is far from scientific… it involved me doing a light scribble of each colour on some rough watercolour paper then applying some water to one half of the scribble. The idea being to show how the colours look, dry, on the paper, and to show the change in colour when the water is added. The reason for the light scribble is that a heavy scribble can not only damage the paper, it makes it harder to remove the scribble from the paper as the colour has become engrained in the paper. A heavy scribble will get your brighter, deeper, colour – but it is usually best to achieve this through layering. I’ve also tried to pick the same colours from all three sets, but colours (and names) vary from box to box, so I could only get similar colours.
So, on with the comparison…
Tags: aquatone, brush, caran, d'ache, derwent, drawing, ink, inktense, neocolour, painting, pencil, stick, water, watercolor, watercolour
