Warm Art Diary

This post points out seven of the most essential painting techniques involving knowledge of tone, color, texture, brushwork and composition that will have you painting like a pro in no time.  1. Underpainting:  Try to avoid working from white, especially while using oils or acrylics, instead create an underpainting in acrylic(and hence quick-drying and permanent) burnt umber or  burnt sienna which help establish shadows and values. Also remember to work with thinner paint initially and gradually move to thicker paints and similarly add your brightest highlights gradually too. 2. Blocking:  Different brushes provide different results on a painting because of their shapes, fibers and medium used. The trick is to try a few different kinds in your painting so as to get familiar with their effect on different papers so that you can get results that align best with your vision. 3. Building up texture: Texture is a very fun way to make your painting interesting. I tend to use a lot of texture

When we talk about creating art, there's a difference between a 'complete' work and a 'perfect' one. A work would be complete simply if it explores the technique the artist wanted to experiment with or if it meets with the client's requirements whereas, when trying to attain perfection, the art has to live up to the expectations of perhaps its biggest, meanest critic: the artists themselves. This need to achieve perfection, unfortunately, is usually drilled into artists while learning their craft and it makes budding artists doubt the significance of taking chances, which is a huge hinderance for any skill development. In order to grow one has to learn to make mistakes, that is the best, most effective path to success. It is also important to know you aren't alone in this pursuit and what you need is to learn how to use this perfectionism to grow and improve, not abandon your work because it's not as good as you imagined it to be. Finding a balance betwe

As the Louvre Curator Jean-Pierre Cuzin once said, "The entire history of portraiture afterwards depends on the Mona Lisa. If you look at all the other portraits - not only of the Italian Renaissance, but also of the 17th-19th century - if you look at Picasso, at everyone you want to name, all of them were inspired by this painting. Thus, it is sort of the root, almost, of occidental portrait painting."  Leonardo perfected the technique known as sfumato , which translates from Italian meaning "vanished or evaporated", in a break with the Florentine tradition of outlining the painted image. He created imperceptible transitions between light and shade, and sometimes between colors, he tended to blend everything without any true borders- like smoke, with subtle, practically invisible, brush strokes. The veil, Mona Lisa's hair, the glowing skin -  all are created with layers of transparent color, none more than a few molecules thick, giving the painting an almost ma

This versatile and vibrant media gives artists the opportunity to work with a wide range to colors and textures. Being opaque and quick dry, they also allow room for any mistakes you might make, you can simply paint over them. Keep reading for everything you need to know about about working with this medium.  How to mix the paints:  Mixing paints is a precise process. It's important to know your color wheel so that you can get very specific colors while working without going down the hit-and-try  rabbit-hole. Using a palette knife or a plastic knife is recommended but even an extra brush works.(Remember to not use your watercolor or oil paint brushes for acrylics. Acrylic brushes are typically synthetic.) mix thoroughly and keep in mind that some paints dry a slight shade darker.     How to stop them from drying out:  Acrylics dry quickly which, while a blessing sometimes, can be too quickly hence, not giving you enough time to blend your colors properly. One effective way to avoid

Charcoal drawing is riveting, mostly because they are very fast and immediate and give impressive results. In this post we'll run through some key charcoal drawing tips you should know before you create your first charcoal masterpiece.     1. Find the essence: whenever creating something, you need to establish what your image is going to be about or what you want to say with it. Once you settle on this main idea, make sure you stick to it and everything you from this point on should strengthen the essence of the piece. 2. Understand the significance of Value: Value is simply a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the white page and 10 being Black. The best way to work this aspect is to start from the middle out- start by making 6 or 7 your darkest and 3 or 4 your lightest and once done with the sketch this way, start highlighting and darkening more and more. 3.  Keep in mind the hierarchy of value: Using value or tone allows you to direct the viewer to what you want them to see first. Use bot

 Vincent van Gogh, often famed for his bold and dramatic brush strokes which expressed emotion and added a feeling of movement to his works, focused largely on oil based-post impressionist, paintings. He was a unique artist who worked with a sense of urgency and in the 70 days leading up to his death, he averaged one painting per day. Largely self-taught, van Gogh started his career copying prints and reading 19th century drawing manuals and books. His technique came from the belief that to be a great painter you had to master drawing first. It was only when he was satisfied with his drawing techniques that he started adding in colors and this bold palette became one of the most recognizable features of his later work.  In his early career, van Gogh painted with dark and melancholy colors, however, his styles changed immensely when he moved to Paris in 1886. He began using a lighter palette of reds, yellows, oranges, greens and blues, and experimented with the broken brush strokes of t

Often, picking between Oil Paints and Watercolors can be a challenge, whether you are new to the world of paint or simply can't decide which media would be best for the project you have in mind, after all it's not hard being spoilt for choices considering the number of options we have. Here's a breakdown of the most important differences to keep in mind before you commit to one of them for your next artwork. Mistakes are easily reversible with oil paints:  Watercolor mistakes, although solvable, can often be tricky, especially with the added risk of ruining the entire paper. Oil paints are much easier to deal with in this respect; one can simply scrape the paint off with a palette knife or wipe it off with a rag. Moreover, since oil paints are more opaque, it's easier to paint over over your mistakes- even when painting white on a dark color.   Vibrant colors are often more tiresome to achieve with watercolors: Oil paints are inherently much more pigmented and hence vib