What is the direction of light in an artwork? Do you pay attention to it when you are drawing and painting? What are shadows in a drawing or painting? Do you know how they relate to the source of light? These are simple things, but pretending they do not exist or forgetting about them makes your drawing and painting flat and unconvincing.
Direction of light
For me personally, light must come from the left or from the left and from behind. That is when values and shadows in my paintings work well, and I intentionally and sometimes subconsciously would choose only such views and subjects. Why? When you know where the shadow falls and how to create it, you can use memory and imagination for that. If you struggle with shadows, most likely they are not cast from the correct side.
Creating art from photo
If you are creating your drawings or paintings from photos, you should know that there is no clear source of light or it comes from the right side very frequently. The direction of light can be also hard to detect on a photo. If your brain does not feel the same way about the source of light as it is on the photo, you will be struggling with every shadow and every detail you include in your composition.
Adjust the subject, not your perception
Generally, light and shadow is an important feature of any drawing and painting. Experienced artists use it automatically and they create set-ups or paint views where the light direction matches their visual perception. If you are just starting out, pay attention to the point where light comes from, its source. Outdoors, it is often the sunlight, but we do not normally paint the sun, we just indicate this area with color.
Sketch and quick watercolor for shadow testing
Watercolor and sketch are the easiest ways to test your perception of light and its representation in an artwork. It is much faster than doing the same in pastel, acrylic or oil, especially if you are a beginner and you have to learn everything: composition, values, contrast, perspective and color mixing, as well as brush stroke. Adding visible areas of different values helps. Most people, who draw and paint frequently, assume it an organically critical and absolutely necessary aspect of painting.
Below: some of recent paintings and projects
I usually create a rough drawing to use as a reference
Spring walks in the village, watercolor, ready painting, 24 x 18 in or 61 x 46 cm
Spring colors, cheerful and lovely, yet simple
All of these paintings make use of perspective: linear and atmospheric. Therefore, direction of light becomes very important.
Illustration or sketch can be simplified in order to get it done outdoors or to complete indoors because sometimes the weather can be quite bothersome and not cooperating with our intentions. I would love to share some observations because they might inspire somebody to just get a pencil, a brush and paper and go ahead.
Do we need rules in art?
It might sound strange, but most people believe there are many strict rules when we draw or paint. Maybe the instruction on some sites makes one feel that if you do not follow these rules you cannot paint or draw. That is not true. While there are lots of tricks, shortcuts and favorite ways to get things done faster and better, one should not try to stick to something which we call strict rules. Not with creativity. Not in art.
Learn freedom from children
That would mean the small kid who does not have an idea of rules and instructions should not be able to draw. But the small kid is able to draw. Every kid is able to draw and paint. As people grow up they find out that life wants us to comply with requirements, regulations, rules and certain instructions. It’s no surprise they want to apply rules to everything what we do. I know artists who would call every step of drawing or painting a rule.
No rules, but observe principles
I would love to encourage these who want to try art, to just go with their intention. I hear quite frequently: I don’t know anything about painting or drawing. Well, you don’t have to. You just have to start trusting your eyes and trying to draw or paint whatever you intend to. We discover all main principles of art along the way. These principles are composition, color theory and mixing, values, contrast, direction of light, shadows and perspective.
What to use for watercolor sketching?
You can use for sketching everything you can afford or like. If you do not know whether you will continue or not, why would you buy watercolor brush at $75? We always use the largest watercolor brush that still allows achieving what we want. It’s pretty much common sense. You could live with just one number 10 synthetic, soft watercolor brush if it has a good fine tip. 20-brush sets from Dollarama won’t do anything, don’t go for these.
Decent watercolor paper
If you are applying wet paint on your sketch, traditional sketching paper won’t allow that. It is too thin. That’s pretty much common sense, as well. It could tolerate dry pencil or some pen, but not washes, especially repeated washes or paint lifting. I would advise to always use watercolor paper for drawing, sketch, illustration, practice, color or flow practice because it is thicker and can be made wet. If you are a beginner, you can use just beginner’s watercolor paint set.
You can do illustration or sketch any way you like
If you are afraid to draw right away with pen, do the initial drawing in pencil and go over with pen afterwards. Keep the best lines and erase everything else, and there you have a nice, clean, attractive drawing. Why to use pen? It is simply easier. Pen makes the outline clearly visible, the entire image looks finished and elaborated even when the drawing is far from perfect, but watercolor washes will bring your artistic attempt to life.
There is no wrong or right way to sketch, to draw or to paint
All artists develop their own style over time. Should you expect the first attempts to be perfect? No, don’t do that. Always tell yourself: let us see what happens. Treat all of your first year’s art as practice, as experiment. Some will be god, some will fly into the wastebasket, and that is absolutely fine.
Artistic mistakes can be interesting
People call everything which did not come out perfect: a mistake. That does not always apply to art either. Some artistic mistakes and flaws can become the foundation of your personal style. Some experiments can set the tone for anything you do in the future. Therefore: experiment, experiment and experiment!
Use any style
Illustration or sketch can be carried out in any style you prefer. Illustration can be done easily. I am advising to use pen just for simplicity and speed. It really helps. I also love the accomplished look of such sketches which can be definitely used as completely finished art on the wall or for any other purpose.
A few steps
Barn illustration, step 1, pen drawing
First we draw with pencil the main lines. We draw lightly without using pressure. After that we repeat the best lines in pen.
Step 2, adding background color
Choose whatever colors you love and would want in your sketch. Activate with water. Test on testing paper how transparent the watered down mix is. Apply small amount of water onto the main image area. You can use spray bottle if it creates mist. Check against light: if the shine is about to disappear, that’s the best time for first washes.
Illustration is ready after adding more washes with less diluted paint
Adjust and correct
If you allow first layers to dry and then make your paper wet again, nothing will happen to the first dry layers. It is safe to go over with water. Don’t rub or scratch with the brush; that will definitely take off some paint. Corrections are done with paper towel when the painting is wet: pressing paper towel onto watercolor paper will take off most of wet paint. When paper is completely dry, apply washes and use damp brush or paper towel to lift color or remove paint. Repeat until you like it.
Large 18 x 24 in or 46 x 61 cm sketch, done in a few minutes for demo
Pen and paper
The thicker the watercolor paper, the more things you can do with it. Cheap watercolor paper is for tests and practice only. It is simply too thin to do something more. You can choose any pen you can afford or like. Your pen can be different color, too. Black simply fits any other color and makes it stand out more.
All watercolor illustrations and sketches look great. If you want them to be better, practice more and don’t expect immediate perfection.
Perspective in art is much easier to implement than perspective in life. In fact, there is nothing much to it as far as we are aware of how it works and what it does for a painting or drawing. Linear perspective creates depth and dimension in any drawing and painting which deals with suitable subject. Traditional linear perspective uses size, overlap of objects and their placement in composition, as well as convergence of lines.
Black pen drawing of simplified 2-point perspective building
Where to use it
If you love landscape, street scenes, rural scenes with farms and barns, simple roads, streams or rivers and so forth, you will need to implement linear and atmospheric perspective because they both contribute to dimension and volume of your painting. You will also use color values accordingly to perspective principles. If you are drawing and painting outdoors, you are most likely applying some perspective already.
Old countryside house in pen and watercolor, 18 x 12 in or 46 x 30.5 cm
Vanishing points and front view
Some people are confused: how many vanishing points to use: 1, 2 or even more? The answer is that will depend on the placement of your shapes and forms on different planes. 1-point perspective uses 1 vanishing point on the horizon or reference line. Horizon line can be called eye-level, but I like to call it reference line. You have to remember that vertical lines are parallel to the sides of your paper (if it’s straight) to make look building stand up correctly. Horizontal line creates 90 degree angle with the vertical line in front view. Horizontal lines of front view are parallel to the bottom and top of your paper. Therefore, in 1-point perspective, the straight lines at the bottom of your building and corresponding lines higher up will always create a 90 degree angle with the vertical line.
1-point perspective in landscape
Most often, we use 1-point perspective with roads, streams, tree and fence lines and buildings on both or one side of a road, that is, with views where something disappears in the distance. That creates an easy perceivable and visually attractive composition which is a breeze to create. In 1-point perspective, all lines which lead into distance, meet in the vanishing point. The front angles of the building on the respective plane are 90 degree angles. It sounds more complicated than it is when you draw it. Start with closest end of the building, drawing a rectangle. Connect the points on one vertical line (in my case the left side where I mark height of any element) to the vanishing point.
Pen and watercolor wash of barn, 16 x 12 in or 41 x 30.5 cm
Plein-air drawing, 2-point perspective. Photo does not show all lines correctly since camera draws the front edge closer. To draw it correctly, vanishing points on reference line are placed outside the drawing. That we do always when the subject is large. I usually draw intuitively since I know where approximately these lines meet and where the vanishing points are. Starting out? Mark up vanishing points on each side and connect with respective points on vertical lines. I teach this all in my private classes because it is simply not easy to describe.
Pen and watercolor 2-point perspective sketch, it was mostly done outdoors, since this building is next to my studio entrance.
Many buildings in a landscape or street scene
When drawing close-ups of buildings or placing many scattered buildings in composition, we use rather 2-point (angular) perspective. We use drawing separate buildings most often 2 vanishing points. We adjust the eye level or reference line placement as needed. It can be higher or lower depending on your view. We can move it up or down, and we should use this feature in our favor. That will allow achieving plenty of depth and dimension.
3 vanishing points in one-point or two-point perspective
When some buildings are close, some distant or scattered all around, you could use 3 vanishing points. It does not mean that your drawing becomes extremely complex. It means that you will have freedom to place things in your composition wherever you want them.
Where to place rooftop?
Often, demo drawings that involve 2-point perspective do not explain that the rooftop line runs through one vanishing point. That was also the most confusing part for students since they had a problem placing the roofline where it belongs. Please enjoy the recent paintings and sketches which involve perspective. I will prepare online materials for understanding better how to create linear perspective in drawing or painting.
Perpendicular and parallel lines
The most important aspect is to understand what lines are perpendicular, what parallel, what is obtuse angle, right angle and acute angle. Remembering basics of geometry is really helpful because perspective in drawing is simply achieved once you know how to create it. I am posting some of my recent works that involve creating perspective to illustrate the concept.
Uphill, rural house, size of this painting is 21.5 x 16.5 in or 54.5 x 42 cm
Outdoor painting
Many drawings, sketches and watercolor paintings are done outdoors or plein-air. Perspective is an important part of any painting, sketch or drawing which displays buildings, street views, roads, fences, bridges and similar subjects. Learning how to create perspective is not difficult or overwhelming. You really need to master perspective if you ever do a realistic painting or drawing with buildings and man-made structures.
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:
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.
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.
Thin and thick black pen and watercolor for creation of perspective sketch, 1-point perspective
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.
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.
When somebody says they attend art classes, other people usually understand that it means practicing and learning to become an artist. That’s pretty much incorrect because as the current research reveals, there is no other activity more beneficial to prevention of brain aging, avoiding loss of memory and related disorders than drawing, painting and sketching. Art projects in art classes are usually suitable for beginners, for hobbyists and for anybody with interest in creation.
Brain exercises
The unique features of creation boost ability of the brain to create new neurons, as well as the existing have longer life span. Do you believe that brain aging is not inevitable? That is not true. Our brain is just as any other part of our body, yet, it contains all the vitally important tools for regulating and managing the other systems. Therefore, it’s crucial we keep exercising our brain every day, every hour and every minute. Anything which is not in use deteriorates and loses flexibility, it degenerates.
How drawing helps the brain flexibility
Drawing connects the brain function with our fine motor functions, and does even more than language. It allows expressing feelings, emotions, states of our mind, mood, our character, hidden thoughts and memories. As we draw, our hand transfers the ideas onto paper. It is a reflection of the most intense mental work, conversion of one type of energy into another. That is why drawing is used in determination of our brain health. It signalizes earlier than any other tests whether everything is still fine, or maybe it’s time to get advice.
Mental fitness
We need to move and exercise all our body parts, but mental exercise increases the rate at which our new brain cells survive and make functional connections to the existing networks of neurons. The more active a particular brain cell is, the more connections it develops with its neighboring neurons. That is where art classes come in. As we learn, we intensively think about each line we are putting down on paper or brushstrokes. This boosts our memory cells, thus, preventing them from cell death. Activities that require using all our senses, breaking our routines and engaging in new experiences are extremely good for brain health.
Age is not of essence
Age does not matter because it is equally important to have good memory in young and even more so in old age. Creative exercises like our Fun and Pleasure acrylic painting afternoons or sketching and watercolor exercises should not be undervalued. It seems like a play or some brushing around with different colors, but, in fact, it is a very strong brain ability booster. Images show my still life sketches, but students did very well, too. I’d like to simply publish only my sketches in this post.
My journey
I can share my own experience. I was reading a book a day and painting or drawing every single day for about 1 hour between ages 8 and 16. I was reading systematically through everything library had to offer. That involved history, geography, art, music, science of the corresponding century starting with ancient Egypt. We didn’t have internet back in the 70-s. When I moved on and started to study at the University I was only 17 because I could and I had developed extraordinary visual memory thanks to reading, drawing and painting,
Best memory booster
I hardly had to study because I was able to remember up to 60 pages of text which I read through within some half an hour using the diagonal approach. I still can remember every single tough term in texts which I was translating 5 years ago. I never have to make any lists and write notes to myself. In my case, drawing and painting showed an enormously positive effect on memory, cognitive function and reasoning so far.
Art is important part of learning
For young children, artistic activities are as important as physical exercising, especially because they are under-using their own cognitive ability due to the overuse of mobile devices. We are always welcoming new participants in our art classes!
Plain and simple: creativity unblocks the pathways in our brain and gives us a chance to use our hidden resources, and there are so many. Therefore, I expect everybody getting involved in new art projects: simple, colorful, uplifting and very rewarding. Thanks for reading!
