So. sketchbook, visual diary or art journal… what's the difference?
Which one should a beginner take up?
Let’s investigate and find out which one is right for you.
learning to draw
Do You Need to Draw to Paint?
art tipsIf you want to paint with watercolour, do you need to be able to draw?
Well, in short no.
But why wouldn’t you want to?
There are a few options available to get you painting even if you feel you can’t draw yet, which we’ll discuss.
But please know that being able to draw provides a satisfaction that is hard to beat. (And it’s really not as hard as you may think.)
Let me explain.
Is Tracing Cheating in Art?
art tipsDo you consider tracing to be cheating in art?
That’s a question I have heard a few times before. It makes me chuckle.
Cheating who exactly, I always want to say?
Let’s figure out when and if tracing might be useful to your art practice and then discuss the advantages and disadvantages of tracing.
How to turn a simple line drawing into an easy watercolour painting
art tipsWatercolour painting needn’t be complicated - in fact sometimes it doesn’t take much more than a simple line drawing.
This comes in handy rather often, for instance…
What is an Art Collaboration and Should You Participate in One?
art tipsIf you are feeling a little creatively stuck, find yourself procrastinating in your lonely studio and struggling to make art, then an art collaboration might be just what you need.
Let’s talk about exactly what an art collaboration is and what benefits it might have for you.
Drawing for watercolor painting - what is an underdrawing and do you need one?
art tipsDrawing is the first stage of watercolor painting - so pretty important! Let’s find out what an underdrawing is and whether you actually need one.
I have lots of tips about drawing for watercolor painting to share with you - so let’s get started!
Art Challenges - Pros, Cons and How to choose the best challenge for you
art tipsThere are a lot of good things about art challenges, but let’s be honest - that is only half the story.
Before diving into an art challenge you might want to consider these pros and cons of art challenges and how best to make an art challenge work for you.
How to add a watercolour background to your paintings
art tipsChoosing the right background for your watercolour painting can make or break the whole painting.
Don’t be alarmed though - even though the background is important, it doesn’t have to be complicated. There are lots of options available to you and once you know what there is to choose from I am sure you will find the whole process far less vexing than it might once have appeared.
Let’s review your options…
How to draw people for beginners (to add to your paintings)
art tipsLearning how to draw figures for beginners can be something of a daunting challenge. If we are honest, it's not just beginners - I have met quite a few experienced artists that still have some reservations about drawing and painting a human figure.
I have a few tips for the terrified to get you on your way, if you think you fall into this camp.
How to paint a portrait in watercolor
art tipsEver thought about having a go at a portrait in watercolour?
Good thinking… and these 10 tips for beginners are sure to get you off to a flying start.
Painting farm animals with spirit (and watercolour)
My art journey, Series of the MonthI know we understand each other. It means I can talk freely about my online class addiction. Phew. So this month, I took another class with Miriam from the Inspiration Place. It was called 'Farm Animal Spirits'. I'm not sure I really got what Miriam meant by this initially. I was more than happy to just start painting cute little farm animal babies... like these adorable little balls of fluff
7 Things You Need to Know about Drawing in Perspective
art tipsBeing able to add perspective to your drawings instantly adds a touch of realism and invites the viewer into your picture. But when you are starting out, learning about perspective can seem terribly daunting.
Here are 7 things you need to know about drawing in perspective that might help.
Plants in Pots
Series of the Month
Drawing plants in pots has made for a really enjoyable little series. I think 'little' is part of the reason it was so enjoyable. Scaling down your task into something manageable makes it far more approachable. Also, as we all know, it is one of the rules of the universe that small things are cute. Like this funky pot for instance...
Within the parameters I set for myself this month (small watercolour illustrations of plants in pots) I did have some room to experiment. Most of the time I started with a complete pencil sketch. Often I added an outline in pen - this gerbera for example.
The cartoonist in me likes the pen. But sometimes it doesn't feel right, in which case sticking to pencil seems better. These geraniums feel so loose and abundant - I couldn't possibly trap them in a harsh ink outline.
By the middle of the month, obviously on a day when I was feeling bold, I painted rather than drew most of the plant. It can feel a bit scary sometimes to go straight onto the page with a charged paintbrush. But the golden cane palm has fronds which are far more easily achieved by a brush than a sketch. I put in light pencil lines to indicate where the central rib of the palm frond would be. Then I let my lovely springy Chinese brush do the rest of the work.
This brush took a bit of getting used to, but I must admit it is one I keep coming back to. Apparently it is made of weasel hair. Hmm. Not sure what I think of that. But it is a lovely brush. It's the smallest in this set, if you were wondering.
Drawing a cactus was great fun. I am pondering an entire cactus series. When it came to the spikes for that I decided to get out one of my coloured Sakura Micron Pens. They are available in quite a few colours - not just black. For the cactus I used the sepia cone.
There is a surprising array of foliage that you can draw in potted plants. It is a chance to practice adding textures on a tiny scale. Take this bonsai. They are very textured things, bonsais, so do them justice I used pen scumbling (that's scribbles to you and me) for the gnarly trunk and a stiff spiky brush to dab in leaves. Of course it sits in a porcelain dish, so that offers a chance to suggest the smooth shiny surface by paying attention to the light and shading.
I also abandoned my paint set entirely for a couple of the illustrations and drew directly onto the page with my beloved tombow markers. I love their bold colour. I could have activated them with water to give the variation that we associate with regular watercolour. I didn't do that, probably because they were so small.
I was drawing fuschias which are quite complex blooms and that is what made me think of using markers in the first place. While trying to draw these complicated little beauties I was wondering how in the world I would manage to add the colour with a paintbrush. The brush tip tombows seemed the perfect solution since you can effectively do the drawing and the painting simultaneously. Hurrah!
I did miss the effect that the water brings so I only did two paintings like this and then returned to my lovely Schmincke watercolours. How wonderful to be spoilt for choice.
The final potted plant in my series was this little topiary. Spheres are fun to shade. So are square pots. And the long shadow cast by a setting sun seemed an apt conclusion to the full series.
Which one is your favourite?
See more plant paintings in the shop.
Recently I have been drawing more plants in pots in my sketchbook… want to see?
Are you on your own painting journey?
One of these might be just what you are looking for.
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Value drawing - why it pays to know your way around a value scale
art tips
This month I have been drawing yoga poses. A great way to practice figure drawing. And since I recently took a lovely class on Scribble Art with Julie Johnson, I have also been practicing putting in my values with scribbles.
It has been a fun series to do. Quite challenging, given that it is figure drawing in fairly complicated poses, but that is why I wanted to do it in the first place. That and the chance to do some scribbly values. Because those are just fun.
Values are... well very valuable in your arty arsenal. It is the values that can bring mood to what you draw. More importantly they also indicate form, changing a flat image into something more dimensional.
One ends up doing a lot of squinting while trying to put in the values. When you squeeze your eyelids together you reduce the amount of information that your eye can take in. You are left with what is important - the values.
Value is the darkness or lightness of a colour. In a monochromatic image you rely mostly on value to identify what the image represents.
I am finding that it takes quite a lot of practice to be able to see all the values and replicate them in your own drawing. The advice is often to use a value scale. Something like this:
Want to try it?
Take out your smart phone and take a quick photo.
Now use your phone camera or something like the Snapseed app to change the photo into a black and white image.
See if you can pick out each of the values from the value scale in your photo. It can be deceptive. Sometimes an area looks like it is darker or lighter than it actually is because of the value that is beside it. It's one of those tricks our eyes play on us.
I put in the value using scribble, but it can be done with all sorts of techniques like shading, linework and cross-hatching. The paper is white so one of the tricks is to avoid scribbling in the areas that are going to be closest to the first value in the scale (white).
Then the finest pen you have will make a lighter value scribble, while a thicker nib pen will make a darker value scribble. The more dense the scribble is, the darker the value and the more open and lacy the scribble, the lighter the value will appear.
If you go too far you might have to get out a white pen and do a bit of white scribble to lighten up a value.
It’s all rather fun. And by the way, if you are really serious, you can use a wider value scale - 10 instead of 5.
I kept my yoga values series close to being monochromatic to keep things simple. Actually I had planned to make sure it was just black pen in various nib thicknesses.
However, I don't seem to have managed to muster up sufficient restraint to keep it at that. I couldn’t help adding in a bit of coloured pencil here and there. But in the end I stuck to just the chocolate brown colerase pencil - one of my favourite things to draw with - and the pen.
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