Drawing Archives - Page 4 of 6 - INESE'S ART STUDIO

October 8, 2018October 17, 2024

Supplies for watercolor painting, sketching and drawing

Less is more efficient!

I have always students who believe that having everything is a guarantee of good result. That is not true! Until you have found your favorite brush, your favorite watercolor paper or your favorite watercolor paint brand, use whatever you already have, and get only things which are necessary.

Graphite pencil drawing

You can use Bristol drawing paper by Strathmore, the small size is 14 x 17 in, 300 Series. The large size is 19 x 24 in which is a great size. Also 300 Series. This paper is fairly smooth and suits drawing well. It makes erasing easy. Other option is using CANSON XL cold press, 140 lb watercolor paper. Size 12 x 18 in. If you rather keep your drawing at a sketch level, you can use CANSON Universal Sketch paper in size 18 x 24 in. That is a perfect size.

Pencils can be just regular pencils from 2H, including HB and up to 3B. Softer pencils leave too much graphite on the paper. You will most often use just HB pencil because it’s not too hard and not too soft. For eraser, please, get the artist grade soft eraser which absorbs graphite. You buy it at the art store. If you feel you have hard times keeping long lines straight, please, take with you a ruler. Paper towel under hand helps not smudging paper on which drawing is created.

Pen and watercolor sketch or color sketch

For sketch without paint, you can use CANSON Universal sketch paper, 65 lb. For pen and watercolor sketch, you can use CANSON XL cold press, 140 lb watercolor paper. Please, note! It will not work for watercolor painting or painting in layers! It is too thin and doesn’t absorb paint or water sufficiently. It can be used for drawing only and with watercolor pencils. Strathmore 300 series paper will work well for pen and watercolor wash.

We use simple graphite pencil, H and HB, they work well because we shouldn’t have too strong pencil lines.

For pen, you can use any black pen which does not bleed with application of water, but I am using MICRON from 02-05. You can test pen before buying it and see which one you like.

We use only the soft, flexible, artist’s grade eraser. It is very important to have such eraser.

Watercolor painting supplies

We use in watercolor painting classes the following art supplies.

Watercolor paper

Strathmore 140 lb, cold press watercolor paper, 400 Series. 400 series paper is thick watercolor paper which is important. I use it in size 18 x 24″ for all demonstrations You can cut the paper sheet in half, and you get 12 x 18 inch paper. Perfect size for beginners!

Strathmore sells also 12 x 18 inch paper blocks, cold press. It works well for starting out with watercolor painting. However, if you’d like the best, you could use Arches 140 lb, cold press watercolor paper. It comes in sheets and blocks and is expensive.

Please, make sure your paper is at least 12 x 16 inches in size or larger.

We cannot create anything meaningful on a tiny size paper. Saunders-Waterford is also an option, but bright white is not always available, but it is a cotton paper, therefore, results are better than using watercolor paper for beginners. For this purpose, Canson, Fluid or similar papers do not work. Never have paper lighter than 140 lb. It will warp, buckle and there are many things you simply cannot do on thin paper.

Brushes

We need 2 round brushes with fine tips for watercolor painting (soft, synthetic), size 12-14 and size 4-6. Some brushes don’t bounce back, so they won’t do what you need. Especially, lifting. It’s best to test. Synthetic brushes work very well and are very suitable for watercolor painting. Just make sure it is not oil brush with stiff and rough bristles, but the tapered drop-like watercolor brush.

Watercolor paints

If you have paints in tubes, you will need palette. It must have a decent size mixing area. Small kids’ palettes do not work well because they have too tiny mixing wells.

Essential watercolor paint colors

Cold yellow, like Hansa yellow or Lemon yellow

Warm yellow, such as Brilliant yellow or Cadmium medium yellow,

Burnt Sienna,

Payne’s Grey,

Quinacridone Crimson,

Carmine Lake or similar red,

Cerulean blue,

Cobalt blue

and Prussian blue

It’s possible to mix absolutely any other colors from these ones. Primary colors are yellow, red and blue. Any secondary color is already a mix and can be got.

Yellow or Gold Ochre is optional, as well as more red colors. If you can have only 1 blue, get Cobalt blue.

Set of watercolor paints

Sets of ready to use watercolor paints are fantastic for beginners.

You can use them easier than tube paints, and you most likely will have all basic colors in a set (12 color set, for instance). You can get started faster also. Which brand you choose, probably depends on how much you intend to spend on paints. Please, do not use chalky kids’ or craft watercolor paints, they do not have the specific pigments which we use and they do not have the ability to create good washes. That would be all sets which do not list name of a particular paint. Half-pans are popular, but painting is very difficult. They are too close together, and there’s too little paint.

Supplies for watercolor painting and sketching

Pencil and eraser

You will need graphite pencil. HB pencil works well. We do not want too much graphite on watercolor paper, therefore, avoid using soft and very soft pencils. We use only the soft, flexible, artist’s grade eraser which is sold in art stores. It is very important to have this eraser which absorbs graphite, not damages paper.

Extras

We need quite a lot of paper towels.

Paper towel has many functions with watercolor painting, so, definitely do not forget that, 6-10 sheets per class. You will learn how essential paper towel is with spontaneous watercolor and watercolor washes, as well correcting some areas. Finally, attach your watercolor paper to a firm, light base, thick cardboard or similar with painter’s (green) tape. Having paper for testing colors helps.

You will eventually find your brand and your most favorite brushes, paints, pencils and papers. The better quality your watercolor paper, brushes and paints are, the easier it is to paint and create good art.

I hope seeing you in my art classes: Sign up for art classes

Private art classes: One-on-one class

Check out the other benefits of drawing and watercolor art: Drawing for ageless brain

September 27, 2018October 17, 2024

Drawing, watercolor, inspiration

Learn drawing to create original art

Drawing is probably one of the most important skills to learn if you want to sufficiently use pencil, brush and any paints, not to mention pastel painting. It is almost like writing: we start with letters, and we finish up creating breathtaking poems and meaningful stories. Being skilled in manual drawing also allows not to depend on any devices, any editing, any tracing.

Drawing still life

Once you manage your lines, you manage your brush strokes, composition and values, as well as contrasts. Drawing still life or simple things around us is a good start. People sometimes say: I do not feel like drawing vegetables or fruits. However, that is the shortest way to make one’s eyes perceive the multi-dimensional reality and recreate it on a flat paper or canvas. We draw and create volume and dimensions. Becoming good with still life subjects is a base for more complex subjects.

Painting is drawing with a brush

Drawing teaches us about shadows and light, light direction, values and contrasts. It teaches us very fast how to create a powerful composition. We generally need to become familiar with a good brush stroke. I have noticed that most beginners apply paint as if painting a wall: back and force, to the left and right. Painting requires using elegant, long or short, soft or powerful brush strokes which make our subject more impressive. That also helps with blending, composition and values.

Realistic art is based on drawing

Even people, who love painting abstracts need to create a map of the intended painting in their mind. In order to move paint somewhere, we need to rely on composition elements. That sure does not apply to bad abstract art which is present all over the internet. Therefore, sketching out our plan, helps achieving good results faster.

Pen and watercolor: beautiful art without struggles

I have mentioned in my previous articles that using pen and watercolor is a perfect way to obtain basic watercolor painting skills. Why? It contains all the most important parts which one needs to be aware of in order to paint and create art. It is much faster than, for instance, acrylic or pastel, therefore, it makes a lot of sense when testing our ideas.

Pen and watercolor paintings:

Shop watercolor paintings, floral watercolor

Take it easy, go outside

Fall season offers us colors and shapes and subjects without limitation. They are not only beautiful, but they also allow practicing all kinds of shades and color mixes.Take it easy, go outside or watch nature through your window. We can place beautiful fall bounties on our desk: that is all we need. Fall is rich and generous, we simply shouldn’t be lazy, but take advantage of all the natural inspiration around us. Remember: drawing and sketching will take you anywhere in art.

New studio

Although, I have not completed arranging my new studio yet, and there are still unpacked boxes, not to mention, boxed in hundreds of paintings, I managed to get something new done over the last two days, and I hope you can get inspired by these artworks which I will most likely post separately at a later time point.

Original watercolor paintings for sale

July 4, 2018October 17, 2024

Five stages to becoming an artist and summer art

I have found five stages which allow becoming an artist. For illustration, this post includes beautiful images of summer art in watercolor.

Learning is a gradual process

Learning how to draw or paint is a gradual process. I have noticed five stages of learning process which result in being an artist. It is the same as with manual writing: the more you write, the less you have to think about the technical side of writing a letter. Once you are past the first attempts and know all letters, you can put your efforts towards expressing a thought. The less you think about how to do that, the better your story.

Developing manual drawing and painting ability

To some extent, drawing and painting are similar activities to manual writing. You have a concept and you use graphic characters and signs to turn your concept into visually perceivable and readable text. At first, you learn writing letters. You put letters together and you have a word. You line up words in a sentence. You study grammar and style, and your sentences become better over time. After long hours of practice and after many attempts, you are able to write a story or a poem. This poem is what people can read and understand. The same goes for drawing and painting. Becoming an artist takes time.

Practicing techniques

The more you draw and use your brush, the less you have to think about how to use your brush or pencil sufficiently. You feel that you can show the story behind your painting and focus on expressing your emotions, not struggles with getting the main shapes and values right or achieving contrast and good composition.. Drawing and painting become processes which progress by hour if you keep practicing.

The first stage

You draw something, paint something. You try, but either brush or pencil does not want to do what you tell them to. Many lines have to be erased and brush stroke does not work yet. This is the encouraging stage: I could draw or paint, but this will require work and learning. Long way yet to being an artist.

The second stage

You decide to draw or paint a particular subject. Artwork is satisfactory, but the successful parts are good because you got them right accidentally, not intentionally. You mention frequently: I’m not going to touch it again, otherwise I will destroy what I have. The stage of accidental success. This stage will motivate you to move on.

The third stage

You have a plan, and everything goes accordingly to it, but some areas of painting do not work. You work over parts of drawing or painting for many times. Subject could have less or more detail, colors could be much better. There is little distinctions in values. Your artwork shows mainly the same values all over. You notice still lots of flaws. The almost-certain stage. You know you can do it, but practice is necessary, however, you feel like an artist!

The fourth stage

You have decided to draw a rose. You go outside, find a flower and draw a rose that looks like a soft, gentle rose. You decide to add color to it. You mix and test colors. No rush. It works out well: no part is too strong or too weak. Brushstrokes lay on smoothly. You are very satisfied with what you have achieved. A month passes. You look at the same painting, and you definitely see that, it could have been better actually. The potential excellence stage. You are very aware that there is still space for improvement.

The fifth stage

You are not flying on clouds. You know that any painting subject takes work and some planning. You allow yourself making unexpected and unplanned steps, too. It is meant just to keep the hand sensitive, to keep your eye observant. You have no absurd expectations. You have become master of the process, the artist. You can paint anything which comes to mind.

To know what works

You do a value or color sketch. You transfer the drawing onto paper or canvas. You do the color test. You create dark and light color palette for the particular painting. You have your favorite subjects, but you step out of comfort zone. You know exactly what effect each color combination will provide you with. You know exactly where to place details in order to make your composition work.

Painting according to your plan

You start painting in a relaxed manner. You know it takes time, but when this drawing or painting is done, it will be exactly what you want. You raise your bar with every painting. You look at your first drawings and paintings and you say: what was I thinking! That is when you have arrived at the mastery stage. You can do it. You can achieve any results you want. You have no limitations in what you draw or paint. Finally, you are in charge. Rushing won’t take you to where you want to be faster.

Watercolors of summer nature to inspire

Summer barn, just finished watercolor 15 x 20 in or 38 x 50.5 cm

Summer barn watercolor painting, 15 x 20 in or 38 x 50.5 cm

Spring creek sketch which I used as reference for the large watercolor painting

This sketch became a large watercolor painting afterwards

The final spring creek painting is much larger than sketch.

Watercolor, spring landscape, watercolor artist

Spring creek with white anemones, 24.5 x 20.5 in or 62 cm x 51.5 cm watercolor

Self-care and no summer vacation stress syndrome

There is a huge advantage with manual drawing and painting: it is a perfect type of self-care and the best cure for summer stress syndrome when people feel lost and do not know how to spend their vacation. Many feel they have no idea what to fill all free time with, especially, if they cannot book a trip, travel or have a party. I’m inviting everybody to paint!

Apply for art classes: Art classes

Learn in private: Find out more about private art classes

Please, visit my art studio

If you are in the GTA, Ontario and have time in the afternoon. please, stop by at my studio.

My art prints and paintings on Fine Art America:

Art collections by Inese Poga

May 7, 2018October 17, 2024

How to use manually created art as a memory boost

How to use manually created art as memory boost

How to use sketching and drawing to improve our brain fitness

Manually created sketches and drawings can really help. I will try to explain how and why we should use this approach to improve the brain fitness and cognitive abilities.

Manual sketching, drawing or painting when done from real scenes and subjects use our brain efficiently, create new neurons and signal pathways since these activities are challenging, interesting, new every time, rewarding and pleasurable. When done in a group, it also gives one chance to communicate, learn new skills and achieve real meditative state of mind which in turn relaxes and calms.

I am somebody who always reminds: use your brain, keep it flexible, well-functioning and young. Therefore, I am always inviting people to join our drawing, sketching and pen and watercolor classes. There is nothing to lose, plenty to gain.

Artificial intelligence and human brain capacity

The artificial intelligence progresses very fast. It feels there is some new gadget, device or app every day. Artificial intelligence is supposed to make our life easier and more comfortable. We are required to memorize less, to decide less, to search our personal brain storage less because everything is on the internet. We do not have any need to remember or write down things that are important, and we are actually losing the specific ability and muscle groups to use our hand for manual writing or drawing. Fine and extremely accurate movements still matter, so does our ability to perform them. However, the performance of our brain is the factor that matters most.

What happens to our own intelligence?

As somebody who works with people and teaches, I can see that the human intelligence suffers actually a lot. Just in the last 5 years while everybody has been actively using mobile devices, I have noticed significant decrease in attention span, focusing ability, memory and ability to make decisions. All these features are significant brain and cognitive function markers. It feels that AI has a huge boost, but the human intelligence cannot keep up with it. People are getting forgetful, losing focus and their decision-making skills.

Manual drawing and sketching as prevention of memory loss

One of things we still can do, do easily and everywhere is drawing and painting manually by using our own visual perception. We should try no to depend on any devices while engaging in this activity. That is recognized as one of the best ways of keeping our brain sharp and flexible and cognitive function well performing.

Potential benefits

One to two times a week drawing outdoors is beneficial in all possible ways. Who knows that better than me? Time flies and I have created something to show for while being outside and enjoying nature. Small backyard birds are also an excellent subject: lovely, friendly and always around. It might be not that easy to always catch the right view of a bird, but still, – nobody is going to judge. If it comes out great, share it, if it requires more practicing, keep it as a learning experience. And enjoy your memory boost!

It is not that everybody is going to get involved in serious and time-consuming research or high difficulty grade studies which certainly are memory boost, brain flexibility and power. Language learning is a fantastic way of making brain younger again, but it is a very lengthy process before one can really see good results. I know that, too, because I speak at a native level 4 languages. Each one requires a lot of additional work and studies. That is a life-long process.

Overcoming fear of getting involved with a new activity

Much faster and simpler, as well as much easier memory boost is drawing and sketching. Some people start keeping an art journal if they prefer small forms, and that is such an adventure on its own. That, too, will be your memory boost.

Some people worry that they need to do a lot of preparation work before they engage in either drawing or sketching. That is not true. One has to start somewhere, and that is an excellent starting point – from zero. It means actually that there is a whole lot to explore, find out and enjoy. The only thing one should be not hoping for is to become a master within a few hours or days. Years might sound just about right, but who says one has to be a master or professional in order to draw, sketch and paint? I know fellow bloggers who do it for their own pleasure or to have good time.

Some of my pen and watercolor paintings that deal with perspective lines and involve man-made structures

Buildings make a superb subject!

We start with drawing, and I intend to publish guiding materials for drawing and sketching.

Here: making the drawing more visible with washes

This pen and watercolor painting is ready!

The pencil helplines are erased, but using them makes creation of black pen drawing easy.

More watercolor washes, here and there, and the painting is ready

My advice is: just do it! Along with creating art, it will serve as memory boost. After a while, you might have a new attitude towards many things, as well as see how well this is working for you. Good luck!

Link to drawing: Engage in drawing and watercolor

Link to art classes: Application for art classes

May 2, 2018October 17, 2024

Start sketching, drawing and painting

How to bring art in your life: start sketching and drawing

Are you creative?

If you love art, you should start sketching. Spring and summer are the best seasons to start, then, by the fall, you can already paint. While many people are specializing and trying to be experts in just one area of life, it is great to maintain some universality and balance. Adding creativity to daily routine changes everything for the better.

Being artistic

Being universal might not be that easy because everything has many aspects, whether it is art, writing and literature, music, or theater and dance. I still believe we need variety of uplifting things that make us more human and sensitive to happiness, sadness, joys and troubles of life. Art does that. It opens up one’s soul and redirects thoughts towards something unique, unexpected and beautiful.

New skills, new habits, new perception

We freshen up our life and bring something new into it. Why not sketching and drawing? These are the first steps towards painting and drawing. Sketches look great either small or big. The small ones we can use in art journals. The big ones can be framed or simply hang onto wall.
Adding visual images to your thoughts or at least having visual images in your head gives one’s life more color, more brightness and vitality.

My journey

Sketching and drawing are the areas I have explored since early childhood. I did not have a good paper or good pencils and pens, but I had a huge desire to capture everything around me. The urge to turn visual scenes into sketch or drawing was so intense that I would draw during school lessons and later at University lectures. I had drawn lots and lots of portraits of my class and school mates, as well as of my family and friends. When I was outdoors, I was sketching and drawing garden, streets, buildings, plants and flowers: anything, really.

Sketching supplies and what makes it easy

Sketching is much faster than, for instance, acrylic painting or even watercolor or pastel painting. It is a convenient genre to take outside because we do not need much: just paper, pencil or pen. It can be done with adding a little bit of watercolor. It can be done in pencil, watercolor pencils or pastels.

Using good art supplies

I never use paper which is called sketching paper and is supposed to work well for sketching. It is too thin to add paint, and tears and smudges very easily. Use of paper also depends on the purpose of your sketch. If it is just a quick reminder of a scene, sure, anything will do. I use for sketching watercolor paper that is a grade below the best watercolor papers which are heavy Arches and Saunders-Waterford papers.

Pen outlines

Pen works and looks better on smooth surfaces. Watercolor marker paper was available a while ago, I haven’t seen it recently in our local art store. That was excellent paper for pen drawing, and I do not have or use watercolor markers. I have watercolor pencils. That is a slow way of developing watercolor painting; however, it does the job for people who are very comfortable with pencil and not with brush.

Try not using eraser

I would advise also not to use eraser until the subject has gotten some shape. Otherwise, one just keeps erasing without achieving any results. Focus and draw, trust your eyes, think about contrast, composition, values and effects, and not that much about perfect drawing. You can adjust it any time. Forgetting eraser at home when you go out sketching, will increase focus.

Old countryside house in pen and watercolor, 18 x 12 in or 46 x 30.5 cm

Million reasons to start sketching, drawing or illustrating:

if you are alone, but do not want to feel lonely;

if you have hard times getting the me-time and letting it all go;

if you are facing issues that affect your life badly and you want to escape them for a while;

if you are young or old, but do not want to spend all leisure time in front of a screen;

if you would love to develop a habit that helps getting rid of addictions;

if you feel that your memory is worsening and you want to sharpen it up;

if that is your dream, but you never got to it;

if you want beauty in your life and art on every wall;

go ahead and start sketching and drawing.

There is no better time than spring and no better place than outdoors to start sketching or painting.

Rocks and water, size, 22 x 15 in or 56 x 38 cm

On this large test watercolor painting, I explored a new masking technique. This painting was simply a test whether packaging tape works as a masking tool. It does. I cut around with X-Acto knife and, yes, it really works better than any masking fluid. However, it is applicable only to large areas, not the tiny ones. So, I kept adding paint, and this testing piece ended up looking like a painting.

Testing colors for a large watercolor painting. Looks great!

Here, I was testing the color combinations and layout for a larger watercolor painting. It looks attractive, yet it is just a pen and watercolor sketch.

Perspective is easy if you know how to proceed. Old buildings make a perfect sketching subject.

These are some of demo paintings done during and for my pen and watercolor classes.

More sketching: https://inesepogagallery.com/2014/03/02/sketching-in-watercolor-whats-the-advantage/

Category: Drawing

Supplies for watercolor painting, sketching and drawing

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Drawing, watercolor, inspiration

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Five stages to becoming an artist and summer art

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How to use manually created art as a memory boost

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Start sketching, drawing and painting

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