Category: art lessons

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Artworks, brushworks, paintworks

Golden sidewalk, fall painting in acrylic

Essential aspects of artworks

Painting isn’t just brushing around. Many different things go into a single painting. That’s why nobody can learn painting within a few hours.

Painting process includes idea, concept and composition, choosing and mixing colors or deciding on palette, paint application using different tools and brushes of all types, brushstroke, blending and creation of values, contrast and adding highlights. The painting process also includes understanding of abstracted parts and backgrounds, ability to see and understand what is more important and what should be left out of painting. Each one of these aspects involves continuous work and ongoing elaboration.

Loose isn’t sloppy

I sometimes get the impression that by liking loose painting style, it is understood that we can apply sloppy, coincidental and not targeted brushstroke (when there is a brushstroke). In fact, any part of putting paint on canvas must be targeted and have some intention behind it. Moving paint around is probably the worst habit one can have or develop. The first step is always to learn practical use of brushes and tools. That refers to painting in any medium.

Flat brush for acrylic painting

Flat brush is magic in that regard that it can carry out numerous functions. Flat brush has a few surfaces and edges. We can make it work fast and create smooth color and values transitions. We can use two different colors or shades of them on each side of the brush. We can draw thin lines using the edge of flat brush and holding it so that it is perpendicular to canvas. We can use it for easy blending with clean water and as a dump brush. We can use any edge or side of it to paint small parts. I assume a decent flat brush an essential tool for acrylic painting,

Fan brush, sponge and paper towel

Any of these tools can be used for textured prints and also for quick cover of large areas. It makes sense to learn using fan brush in a sensitive way. Most people won’t rotate fan brush and won’t use just a part or corner of it, We use in classroom fan brushes which I have specifically cut out with scissors to create more impressive prints. Such brush also controls amount of paint better. Paper towel is our best friend with any medium. It is very important to have many sheets of paper towel around the painting surface as soon as you start working.

Understanding values, contrast and direction of light

If somebody has done a lot of drawing and sketching to establish the composition, focal point and also value pattern in a painting, they will understand these aspects much easier. I find that a value sketch is probably the most useful. Once we have done a value sketch, we do not need even a photo reference. Value sketch will identify all areas which are of great importance. I know that most beginners assume ability to draw and creating value sketches in color a waste of time. Yet, I can honestly say that nothing else helps more than such sketch.

Fall sunset, acrylic painting
This painting which we did in art classes, uses contrasting colors with distinctive temperature, as well as extra simple composition.

The most important part of painting

The most important part of painting is decision making. When somebody has plenty of experience, they apply paint in an automated manner. It is predictable what each color combination, each type of paint application and each element of composition will do for our painting. Until we have gained sufficient experience, it is mostly guessing whether something will work well in your painting or not.

Acrylic painting, red country barn in fall
Red barn, maple gold, acrylic painting on canvas
Red barn, acrylic painting
Red barn, maple gold painting with small bit of background

Layer it on

Acrylic is a friendly medium. Acrylic paint can be applied (in fact, should be applied) in many layers. Each layer will bring out more or neutralize colors and values appearing underneath. If canvas fabric is visible in the final version of painting, it is clear that one has used too less paint and too few layers. That is a common beginners’ mistake: to believe that one layer of paint will do. One layer of paint is not sufficient, especially, because acrylic paint becomes flatter as it dries. We have to go over and over some part of painting for a few times until we have established the correct proportion of colors and values.

Golden sidewalk, fall acrylic painting
Golden sidewalk, acrylic on canvas. We were painting Golden sidewalk during adult acrylic painting classes. This is my demo painting, I always add more layers after class.
Golden sidewalk, fall painting with acrylic
Golden sidewalk painting got lots of attention on Facebook. I must admit it looks very good also in reality.

More about recent acrylic painting: Paintings in progress

Sign up for art classes: Art classes, schedule and registration

Thanks for reading! Enjoy!

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How to choose what to paint and barn painting

Barn watercolor

Choosing painting subject

Art instruction and art classes will definitely help because the painting subject is everything or almost everything. Why it is so difficult to choose what to paint? That sometimes takes, hours, days and weeks, even months. I know how some potential artists would procrastinate for long time just because they cannot stop at a particular painting subject, make a decision and start painting. Choosing your painting subject is crucial to get started at all. I am saying: use whatever you have around and take the first photo which makes sense.

Suitable features

When we go through images or sort our memory and imagination, we find the potential painting subject too difficult, too complex or too simple. There is nothing to paint. Nice colors, but bad view, no foreground or no background, boring or too detailed. These and similar thoughts might rush through your head. One of the worst ways to help you choosing what to draw or paint today is just to check out what others do or have done today.

Scrolling through online images

Scrolling through online or your own images can consume one completely. There goes your day and there go the best hours for painting. Internet images will suck you in; you will end up watching lots of YouTube videos which you neither wanted to watch, nor needed. You will look at endless Google images. That is a big distraction which we call inspiration. I will just get some inspiration on this painting subject, you say and nothing gets done.

Just do it

Whether that is a photo or real item, just get started. Just do it: the first line, the first brush stroke. Who cares? You can change colors. You can add or remove the background. You can disregard details or add them to your pleasing. Anything which is related to your computer or phone is here to distract you. Therefore, the only way to paint is to start painting.

Discipline

No wonder we wake up 4 hours later and we have not done one single line of a sketch, drawing or underpainting. I sometimes think people are way better off going to a class because that will remove all troubles. There will be a prepared image, subject or concept and you just go with it. That image will suit your intentions well.

If class is not an option

Assuming, you are alone and you do not have intention attending classes at the moment. Get a picture, good, perfect or not that great: it does not really matter. The only thing that matters is to get started. Once we are over the starting point, we will keep working. Just take the pencil or pen and start drawing. Take the brush and start brushing. The first step is what matters. After that point you will be fine because the inner “you” will not allow taking a break until you are done.

For inspiration, see the progress of recent barn and spring watercolor

Watercolor techniques barn painting
Watercolor painting, painting steps
Barn watercolor
art classes: barn watercolor
Barn watercolor
Barn watercolor
Watercolor painting, Barn painting
Barns and buildings: great painting subject

We start with sketch, then do very light line drawing, apply first washes, add more or less color, define more and that’s pretty much it. Total time: about 5 hours. I did not like how the first version looked pale (not in photo, but in reality) the next morning, so i added stronger background and more layers to buildings and front.

Art classes: barn watercolor

That’s how it looks, watercolor on Saunders-Waterford paper, 22 x 16 inches, or 56 x 41 cm.

Art classes

Good luck!

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How to choose art classes

Choose art classes, watercolor painting classes

Many benefits of art classes

Many people who feel attracted to art, sign up for art and painting classes in the fall. Certainly, days are getting shorter and the weather gradually changes from very pleasant to quite nasty, rainy and chilly. I will not list all advantages of joining an art class or painting group this time because I’ve been mentioning them multiple times, and there are so many: from building your confidence and self-esteem and finding a great thing to fill up the long nights to effects similar to meditation which allow one floating away from daily troubles and problems, to mental fitness and rejuvenation of brain cells. The created art becomes just another gain along the way.

Choosing an art class that suits your preferences

When choosing an art class, you should first check out what art instructor does. What are his or her favorite subjects, style, colors, approach? If you generally do not like such art as instructor is doing, you most likely will not enjoy it. For instance, if instructor is insisting on copying photos, you most likely will not be learning how to paint abstracts; or if she or he never do portrait painting, it is unlikely the class will provide with portrait painting skills.

Watercolor for beginners

Size matters

Make sure the size of group somewhat works with you. I hear people complaining that they signed up for an art class and never got any attention, therefore, never learned anything. Well, if a weekly art class is 2 hours long and there are 20 or even more students in the classroom, how would you get a lot of attention? You can count on about 5 minutes of individual instruction in the best case because no instructor can run around the class while they are demonstrating technique. It is obvious that you have to choose a small art class if you require much advice or want very individual approach.

Level class is designed for

Find out what level this art class is for. If class is intended for advanced painters, , but you are just starting out, you will not be able to catch up with others. Beginner is somebody, who hasn’t done at least 200 small size paintings or 150 larger paintings.

Realistic expectations

Next thing is: be realistic in expectations. That is probably the most overlooked aspect of any art class or studies of creative things. Learning how to use tools takes time. Although, everybody has seen a painting brush and quite frequently people have tried using it, it does not mean that you know what correct brushstroke is. Any brush (they come in very many sizes, shapes and are made from all kinds of materials) can be used for very specific things and also for very general approaches. That depends also on your personal preferences, medium and subject.

Art supplies

Materials are an extremely important thing for an art class, so, the best results will definitely be achieved using good quality materials straight from the beginning. I have heard this often: I’m just learning, so I will use the cheapest materials for now. Well, that might not work at all because using bad materials can easily become a torture and nuisance. Sometimes students struggle with bad watercolor paper and they think they are doing something wrong, but, in fact, it is the paper which prevents from getting acceptable results.

Your own art supplies

Equally important is also having your own materials. It might seem: what’s the difference? The answer is: there is a huge difference between paints, brushes, canvas, papers, pencils and even erasers, not to mention that is one of the most important aspects of learning. Tools matter, surface matters, paints and brands matter. There is no other way to become familiar with some materials in particular as using them.

Art classes, watercolor

Be motivated

The most important part is to sign up for something that you feel interested in. One should also be prepared to learn, practice and memorize things, be spontaneous, courageous, daring and fearless, as well as have enough personal time for not feeling rushed.

Fall nature and still life

Fall paintings in watercolor

I always work harder on pictures than actual paintings.

Drawing and painting nature

Colors in context images are much more like in reality.

How to choose art classes

I loved them, I hope it becomes a source of pleasure for you, too.

This is the updated painting

Art classes

Clear white apples, available

Art classes, schedule and registration

Private art lessons

Enjoy!

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How to create better art with less effort

Watercolor sketch, line and watercolor landscape, one point perspective

Everything requires effort

Is it even possible to create great art with little effort? Yes, and no. The most important part is probably wasting less time and materials. We need a plan to achieve that. A good plan for creation of a painting means a sketching, drawing or a value sketch. In my personal experience, it is pencil, pen and watercolor sketch which is the best preparation stage for a painting.

Not only result matters

When somebody wants to apply for classes I am usually told this: “I’d really like to paint”. Something like that. Points to some landscape or floral, or still life. Basically, everybody is interested in the result and not that much in the path which led me to it. I spend a lot of time practicing and exploring the subject from different perspectives.

Exploring art supplies

If you are one of those artists-to-be who jumped straight to brushes and did not take your time to explore the elements of an artwork, I can understand you. People usually think watercolor and sketching is for watercolor artists, who mask out white spots or those who get ideal washes just by swinging around the brush with some paint on it. However, there is a missing link between the idea of our art and it’s draft.

Seeing subject artistically

The real life shows that any potential artist and anybody, who does art as hobby, would have gotten much better paintings sooner if they considered sketching as an important step. That refers to painting with any medium: watercolor, pastel, acrylic or oil. The truth is, they all originate in one place: in our brain, through our eyes and senses. Therefore, we should exercise our visual abilities and our visual perception. I’m talking more about importance to learn seeing in my previous posts:

Attraction of drawing and Overcoming painting issues

Lack of values, proportions and contrast

The problem with not well developing painting is not only the technique of applying paint. That usually works fairly well after a few attempts. The problem most often is in our eyes: we do not perceive values, shapes, proportions and potential composition; therefore, we cannot come up with a neat plan to make painting elements work.

Watercolor sketch
This sketch became a large watercolor painting afterwards

Advantage of sketching

Sketch is done much faster than a painting. Sketching out objects or just values, putting them in a draft composition allows making a decision momentarily if that will or won’t work. Sketch isn’t the entire painting, but by doing it one learns much more about their subject. We find out that we need to look at it more carefully, more intensely, more accurately.

Watercolor sketch
Thin and thick black pen and watercolor for creation of perspective sketch, 1-point perspective
Watercolor sketch
Rough black pen and watercolor wash sketch to use as reference for larger acrylic painting

Skills are based on knowledge

I can compare creating art with writing. When people say “I don’t want to sketch and I don’t want to know anything about drawing”, it is like somebody who intends to write a novel would say “I don’t want to know anything about spelling and grammar. I just want to write a novel, so give me the idea and off we go”. The entertaining painting events also do a bad service: not only the entire idea does not allow anybody to really learn anything about creation of art, but the approach is just so wrong and materials are so bad that many people get a wrong idea.

Sketch results in painting
White birches, recent class demo, 20 x 24 inches, painting is sold

Art is more than moving paint around canvas

When somebody is just moving paint around the canvas in hopes that it miraculously will take the right shape and become the right color, I must say, it won’t. Painting is a summary of things we put in it. It is also the energy we put in it. Therefore, the sooner one learns about values, relationship between light and dark areas, values, softness or roughness of edges, proportion and compositional layout, the faster their paintings take shape and have volume. The missing link between our idea and its incorporation into artwork is the value sketch. Creating value sketch and color sketch is not a waste of time and paint.

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Poppies pop and red color to lift our moods

Poppies and other paintings

Red color is eye-catching and warm. Poppies is a much-loved subject in art classes, and since November is the month which many people in Canada associate with poppies and Remembrance day, we just couldn’t resist and painted some, too.

Red color must be fantastic for lifting up one’s mood because I cannot remember when else we were joking and laughing so much.

Acrylic painting classes

Flowers and easy flowers, such as poppies, are excellent painting subject for beginners. Also, while red color is supposed to be difficult to scale down and up, it still works very well as contrast. We have painted poppy fields, individual poppies, bunches and arrangements with poppies: every time these paintings come out nice and attractive.

Poppy field, acrylic painting

The best part of being able to create is probably that we only depend on our intentions and goals. There are no limitations in subjects or ways to create something. It is almost an absolute freedom, and pretty much nothing but our personal situation can be a set-back. Freedom in creation means doing what one wants and prefers.  If it is technique that doesn’t work for you yet, you will just have to practice more.

Red color - Poppies pop

Work in progress adult painting class

Red is an attractive color. More so, if you want to explore all shades of red. Painting flowers is easier if you start on canvas which has already a layer of paint in medium dark color. It also saves time because you have to work on the dark and light colors without worrying white spots between some parts. Secondly, acrylic paint is applied easier also on a previous layer of paint.

Our classes are listed here: Art classes

A few of paintings for sale: Shop art