Most paintings (especially portraits and figurative paintings) benefit from a good preliminary drawing before you ever pick up a brush. The traditional way of doing this is to draw on your canvas using charcoal or graphite, and then paint over it—but today we’d like to show you an alternative method.
In the video below, Pat Weaver starts her preliminary drawing by putting down a medium-value wash over her entire painting surface. She then uses paper towels to “rub-out” or “lift” the paint, which creates areas of nearly pure white against the medium-value background.
As you’ll see, Pat carefully studies her subject matter (a small puppy) in order to replicate the highlighted sections on the puppy’s head, nose, and body with her “lifted” areas. Once she’s finished lifting the paint, she goes back in with watercolor pencils for additional detail. Take a look:
Finally, my "big project" is finished! It’s been a crazy day with a lot going on, but foliotwist.com is finally live and online! Since I’ve kept it a complete secret up until launch, here’s a quick (mostly visual) overview of what it does. . .read more
Today, Jean Pederson gives a brief demonstration of how she layers various pigments of transparent watercolors to produce a realistic, three-dimensional image on paper. Her subject matter—an eye—is tricky under the best of circumstances, but as you'll see, she starts with a fairly . . . read more
When painting from a photograph (or from life) it's not always necessary to include the exact background that appears behind your subject. In many cases a more abstract, two or three-color background can be more pleasing, and help focus the viewer's attention on your subject. In the following . . . read more
Before you start a painting, it's often a good idea to draw out a preliminary sketch of your subject matter with all the right proportions and measurements. In the follow video, Craig Nelson demonstrates how he uses gesture drawing techniques to quickly sketch his figures. He also explains how. . . read more
Every watercolor painter should know how to properly apply color washes to their paper. In the following video, Susan Bourdet shows the entire process, starting with a preliminary drawing that has already been protected with masking fluid. Susan explains how to mix several colors of paint in p. . . read more
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