Can Repetition REALLY be FUN?! Painting & Drawing Tips

You love to paint but your drawing Sucks. 

Not much fun painting something that really doesn't look right.  Despite what they say, colour doesn't hide mistakes. 

TULIPS IN THE SUNSHINE - Sketchbook Practice

Improving your drawing skills requires only 1 thing, PRACTISE.  No surprise there, we all knew that.  But how to make that practice interesting and exciting is the challenge.  

I know where you're coming from.  I am a self taught artist and learning to draw well was a huge learning curve for me.  Pushing myself to practice was something I had to learn to do. 

Things I do to make Drawing Practice more fun.  

1.  Have a special spot with supplies handy.  I have a drawing table now but early on my drawing place was the kitchen table or the couch.  I had my portable kit packed and handy so there was little set up time.  I started with a small basic kit: sketchbook, erasers, set of pencils and a few pens. As I worked I added more things.

 

2.  Have reference material handy.  I always had a collection of 8 or 10 pictures I was interested in drawing.  These are usually in a special Album on my ipad but sometimes I print them out as well.  Depends on what you like to work with.  Using the special Album in your Photos means you can find your picture quickly, no scrolling. 

Tulips in the Garden - I love it when the Tulips start to grow, they are the first big splashes of colour in the garden.  

3.  Be easy on yourself.  Tell your Inner Critic to take a break and just draw.  See post: Turn your Inner Critic into you BFF

4.  Challenge yourself.  I make mini-challenges for myself.  When I judge my drawing it is based only on my challenge. I try not to be critical of anything else.  

 

To me these Tulips are friendly and happy - makes me feel good to work with them.  

A Challenge that can turn Repetition into Fun

Take a picture of a subject that is not too complex.  For this example I used a picture of my tulips from our garden last spring.  Fill you page with tulips.  To provide variety I reversed the picture and drew the same tulip.  

Reversing the image gives variety to your practice

Why draw the same thing?

a.  Your drawing improves as you become more familiar with the subject

b.  Easier to focus on things like colour, values and mediums if you are comfortable with drawing the subject

Sketchbooking - TULIPS IN INK - Trying different mediums brings new ideas in focal points and composition. 

c.  Composition Skills are tested as you try different placements of your subject.  

d.  Inspirational thoughts will begin to bloom. "What if I make them . . ."

A Free bonus offer, I have prepared a Free Download of my Tulip Pictures to help you get started on your practice. ( I know you will have trouble getting tulip pictures at this time of year.) When picking pictures, you need pictures of your subject that show a few different views. They need lighting that shows shadow patterns. And enough information that allows you to build a few different kinds of compositions  (It is important that you inspire yourself with good references when working on a challenge.)  

For lots more ideas and inspiration check out my video: Repetition Can be FUN!! 

Take the Challenge and Enjoy your practice - You will be amazed how quickly you get caught up 'In the Moment' and your drawing becomes FUN. 

See you next week.  

Get Free Download of my Tulip Pictures HERE.

Christmas Shopping Online with FREE Shipping in Canada!!

HOLIDAY SPECIAL - 15% on all sales

FREE SHIPPING IN CANADA TIL DEC 15

Lots of One-of-a-Kind items, original art, art prints, art cards, jewelry, pottery, painted scarves, and more. Anything that inspires an artist to create.  
Get your Christmas Shopping Done and Shipped Free 

Art by Wendy Original Work, Art Cards & Prints, Memo Pads and Doodle Cards will be available   

Looking to Move your work to NEW LEVELS?  

  Online Coaching/Teaching  (3 sessions 30 minutes each $75)

Are You and Your Inner Critic looking to expand your discussions.  Here's how it works: Send me a few pictures of your paintings.  I will prepare material to facilitate a discussion.  We meet on Zoom for our sessions and discuss your work. I am a sounding board and coach with suggestions, techniques and tips to help you meet your goals and move your art forward.  More info here.   Looking forward to working with you.  

  
Many find this post helpful: Turn your Inner Critic into your BFF

Be sure to like and share my posts.  You won't miss a single post if you Follow by Email 

Have a great Artful Day,

Wendy  

How to have some fun with Colour Mixing Theory

NEW WORKS FROM THE STUDIO OF ART BY WENDY

Working on Theory,

Having Fun,

Should they really be in the same sentence??!!

Are you wanting to learn more about colour but tired of doing colour patches?

I am.

I want to have fun!!

My latest experiments have really got me excited.  As many of you have noticed over the past few months I have been dabbling with coloured pencils.  (Actually, I have spent a fortune on a few large sets of pencils!! Prismacolor and Faber-Castells)

THE SECRET PLACE - Coloured Pencil, 5 x 7 

The problem is I was tired of working with patches of colour.  They told me lots, I agree, but seeing them in isolation did not help me understand how they work in the picture.  You know what happens, you put a colour combination down and it looks awful.  But once you get things happening around it and coordinating with it, things are not so bad.  In fact it often turns out to be the right kind of colour for the spot!!

Well, my coloured pencils have really opened up the Colour World for me.  Using my pencils on Mylar film has been a wonderful boom.  First of all my colours are vibrant, they can be mixed and best of all I can actually erase a mistake without wrecking the picture!!  (Well not completely but lots better than in watercolour and you don't have to wait for it to dry!!)

I have found that I now have "No Fear"!!  I found myself attacking each area with a "hmmmm... let's try this.  What about this?  What if I add that?"  Very exciting! And if I really don't like it, off it comes.

The Secret Place - detail showing the underglazing for the leaves

The Secret Place - detail showing the leaves after adding the greens. 

Take a closer look at the two detail shots of  "A Secret Place".   The leaves are a perfect example of some wild colour mixing.  I laid in some red, indigo blue, ochre, yellow as an underglazing.   Then used my two greens a really dark cold green and a lighter warm green, I coloured on top.  Sometimes varying the pressure and mixing the layers: the greens separately and sometimes a layer of each.  For the really shadowy areas I returned with the indigo blue.  It was very interesting to see how the colours reacted and changed depending on the mixture. Including the reds and yellows really tied my flower colours to the leaves and gave them lots of interesting colour variations.  And the darks really had lots of life. On the detail picture on the left I used a bit of black for the dark.  You can see on the finished one on the right, the black area is really just a boring dark hole.  No exciting colour mixing happening there.

 So have some fun. Learn some Colour Theory.

Let me know how it works for you, I would love to hear your comments.

Have a great day,
Wendy
Contact me to purchase my work.  Collectors enjoy a 10% discount on original work.
Please feel free to share my post using the buttons below.
Follow by Email using the sign up box at the top of  my page. 

How to paint the background?

NEW WORKS FROM THE STUDIO OF ART BY WENDY

Ideas are flying for the subject

the plans are ready

but 

what to do with the background?

It should be a simple answer 

but somehow 

it becomes the question of the century!

I am not sure but maybe it is more of problem for watercolour and dry medium work.  It always seems to plague me when working on my pencil work as well.

Spring Friendships - 13 x 17 - Watercolour

For Spring Friendships I decided to try something different.  Taking direction from oil painters, who block in  their values and shapes before moving forward, I decided to do some under painting. I wet my paper and laid in my colours in the background.  My main concerns were to keep the value in the low to mid value range and to have shapes that might suggest leaves and flowers.  I left the area for my bird open as I was still unclear how I was going to deal with it.  I also did not do the area of the leaves.  As you can see I changed my mind once I got under way and also did some light washes in the leaf area as well.

Just underway - note how the background wash is already beginning to suggest flowers, leaves and sky

 It really was quite amazing!  As I worked more and more on the flowers and leaves my background began to look more and more like flowers, leaves and sky.  It was like it was painting itself!!

Notice how the under painting adds interesting colours to the the leaves

The under painting in the area of the leaves also worked really well.  As I painted the leaves, some of the under painting showed through and they really took on a new life.  I was very pleased with what was happening. Looking back on it now, I am not sure I would do the under painting for both the background and the leaves at the same time. I did like having that control of where things went.  ( I know things need to be loose but I do like a little control!)

My little Chickadee - notice the pinks and greens on him to blend him into his setting

There was no under painting for the chickadee. This proved good and bad.  Once he was painted he stood out way too much.  I really had to work on blending him back into the picture.  I used pink and green for the reflections on him as well as graying down his white.  (Hard to believe as the white still reads as white.)  I also darken his surroundings so everything was a more similar value.

The final touch was to wet areas of the background and darken the colours and clean up a few edges.  The challenge here is not leave watermarks.  My solution was to wet a much larger area than I needed and use a light touch.  You don't want to lift that paint off!!

 Spring Friendships will be a favourite for me.  It combines two of my favourite subjects: the tulips coming up with all the bright promise of spring; and our friendly chickadees  the garden a feeling of life and excitement!  Enjoy.  

To see the planning process for this picture see my last post "Will a Tulip Leaf hold a Chickadee?"  

Contact me to purchase my work.  Collectors enjoy a 10% discount on original work. 

Have a great day, 

Wendy

Please feel free to share my post using the buttons below. You can now Follow by Email.  See sign up box at the top of my page.

Will a Tulip Leaf hold a Chickadee???

NEW WORKS FROM THE STUDIO OF ART BY WENDY

Not your usual question,

But very important 

to me!!!

Tulips have been on my mind.

I am sure it is because tulips and chickadees are everywhere.  Both my husband and I have been picking up bunches of tulips whenever we go out!!  They are just so bright and colourful.  At the same time the chickadees have returned to our feeder and greet us every morning.  It  seems like a perfect partnership for a Spring picture!

A few of my chickadee pictures

 Planning is a big part of any picture. Sometimes it seems to take forever and all I want to do is "get at it!!"  This picture had been percolating in my mind for days, waking me up at night as I worked out how it could look.  But I always came back to the same question, 'would the leaf hold him"?  Could it really happen?  Would the chickadee sit there?  (Those little guys don't seem to sit anywhere very long. )  

So first I had to confirm a tulip leaf would hold a chickadee. 

After several experiments, without a chickadee (I used a small weight ) I determined that it could.  The leaf had to be bent and the chickadee had to be near the arch of the bend.  Fortunately the good weather had my bulbs sprouting.  This meant I could watch the birds flutter about and see if they would perch near the leaves.  They did!!

Now I needed tulip pictures with bent leaves.  Back to my picture files.

Tulips - Draft 1 - with cropping

Tulips - Draft 2 

I found a couple that could work.  Draft 1 had some lovely spots where a chickadee could sit but the stems would have to be shortened.   Draft 2 was my choice as I liked the lighting on the flowers and the leaves seemed more like a garden arrangement.  It too would need some adjustments but the main idea was there.

Finding my chickadee proved a little harder.  I searched through my files looking for a picture.  I love the little chickadees and see them all the time but some how I didn't seem to have many pictures.  None seemed to have that interesting stance to go with my idea.  I finally chose the little guy on the lower right from the collage above but. . .

He was facing the wrong way!  

I tried reversing him, the lighting seemed to work and I was ready. 

Well nearly!

My little friend after he was flipped!!

Now it was time to put him into place. I plopped him on the leaf and made my final adjustments: move a flower here; put a leaf there.  Things looked good and I knew I was ready. 

Chickadee is ready and markup is done. 

No, I haven't finished the picture, yet!  

After planning comes drawing and painting. Still lots of work!   It is well underway though and should be ready for next week's post!!

Tune in next week to see "Spring Friendships" completed!! 

Contact me to purchase my work.  Collectors enjoy a 10% discount on original work.  

Have a great day,

Wendy 

Please feel free to share my post using the buttons below.  Also you can now Follow by Email.  See the sign up on the box on the top right hand side of my page.  

Framing Watercolour Without Glass

NEW WORKS FROM THE STUDIO OF ART BY WENDY

TULIPS IN THE SPRING  4.5 x 6.5  Available

Tulips and daffodils just seem to be spring to me.   Bringing them home from the grocery store is always fun and we wait with anticipation as they open and then watch in amazement as they do their wonderful contortions while they mature and eventually fade.  Eight days is our record.  (Some may say we pushed it and really they were done sooner but . . )
I used this little arrangement as you know to run some experiments in techniques and I thought I would use the last one for the finish.  As I mentioned earlier, I am looking at framing watercolour without glass.   I have mounted my tulips on a wood cradle and then applied fixative, spray varnish and finally painted on several more coats of varnish.  It is definitely protected and ready to roll.  The big difference seems to be in the colours, they are now deeper, richer and somewhat brighter.  The cradle is kind of an interesting format to use as a substrate; one could also use a board and then mount the picture in any canvas frame.  My only concern is that my tulips will not be taken seriously in this format.   I am not finished with this and will try some of the other types of framing without glass.  Does anyone have a preference for this type of framing?

SINGLED OUT IS A WINNER!!

NEW WORKS FROM THE STUDIO OF ART BY WENDY

Singled Out - 4.5 x 6.5 Available

   Very exciting news, I just got notification that Singled Out has been awarded an Award of Excellence at the Blossom Juried Show which is on now at the Federation of Canadian Artists Gallery on Granville Island in Vancouver, BC.
   This little piece came about after our trip to Hawaii this winter.  It is nice to go away and enjoy some warm weather but when you get home you are totally ready for spring!  I was definitely feeling that way and went hunting through my files for flowers to paint.  These little tulips really caught my eye; they just seemed to give me that warm, spring feel. 
  As you can see I started with pouring watecolours onto my paper and just letting things go.  Then I tried to ignore the colour and place my drawing onto the page.  (I find that by trying to place a flower by a certain colour just doesn’t work.)  Once I start to develop each of the flowers with paint,  the undercoating provides happy little surprises that seem to work into the petals.  The results are this wonderful combination of colour that never could have been painted in any other way.  I hope "Singled Out" gives you those feelings of spring as well on this sunny Easter Day. The show runs until April 15, so check it out when you are in the area.