If design and composition isn’t generally something that you think about while painting, it probably should be. A good design ensures that your viewers will stay interested in your artwork, even over a long period of time—and the truth is, good design doesn’t have to be all that complex, either.
In today’s video, Mark Mehaffey shows us several simple design elements that can easily be incorporated into any work of art. He covers shapes, size contrast, value contrast, focal area, and eye movement. Take a look:
You can also find Mark Mehaffey’s full-length video tutorial at Creative Catalyst.
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
In this short video from Creative Catalyst Productions, Carl Dalio shares some great tips on painting realistic figures inside landscape paintings. As you'll see, it's not about adding lots of detail in order to create realism, but simply creating shapes that "feel" like human figures. Carl st. . . read more
In today's video tutorial, you’ll see how easy it is for acrylic painter Hugh Greer to quickly test out his ideas mid-painting, without the risk of ruining everything he’s done so far if his idea doesn’t pan out. You can do the same thing. . . and as you'll see in the video, all it takes is a . . . read more
In today’s video tutorial, collage artist Carrie Burns Brown demonstrates several ingenious techniques (which I believe she developed herself) for creating beautiful textured paper. Surprisingly, the materials required are cheap and easy to find—in fact, you may already have them on hand. . . read more
When you want to draw an object with realistic volume, or mass, it helps to be able to "see" the underlying shapes that make up that object. These aren't complicated geometric patterns—basically, you're just looking for shapes like circles, squares, triangles, etc, and combining them tog. . . read more
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