#painting techniques

[kundst]

Jan van Eyck (Be. 1390-1441)

Detail from the Van der Paele Madonna (1436)

Oil on panel (122 x 158 cm)

[helsfantasyart]

I am so glad I did this little experiments.

For years I have just stuck with blue as my underpainting, knowing in theory why it was a good thing to do, but I don't think I really appreciate what it did. I definitely didn't reckon on how much of a difference it would make with each colour of underpainting side by side!

Brown makes things warmer. And I think pink makes things brighter!

Pink was the most challenging to paint on, but I'm so happy with the result.

Blue makes things cooler.

I want to do more! And more different colours!

What shall I do next?

[sepdet]

thank you for your tags on the anhedonia post! reading that van gogh was adapting other mediums' techniques for his painting style was cool, especially bc it really helps ground how and why his style was so unique. <3

i got to see two of his paintings in person the first time i went to moma, pls enjoy the pictures i took of them:

Great photos! i'm regretting not taking good ones when I went to the Met last year, although I took a lot of details, figuring there's good overall reproductions online.

For example, I took a photo with the label (as I often do in museums) just to remind myself it's The Olive Trees, but mostly focused on closeups and oblique angles that show brushstrokes in relief:

I think it was the first lecture on this playlist that alerted me to van Gogh's ink drawings. That's how he started as an artist, with pencil, pen and ink, and charcoal studies, sometimes adding watercolor.

After that I began looking up "van Gogh ink drawings" online and on an app I use called Art Authority, from which I grabbed these two drawings from 1881 and 1883:

Sometimes van Gogh would do a pen and ink study before a painting, labeling what colors he planned to use. (Fishing Boats, 1889)

At other times, he would describe recently-finished paintings in letters to his brother Theo and draw a copy in pen and ink, as he did in this drawing of Starry Night:

He flirts with pointillism, too, but he didn't take to what Seurat was doing, placing different color dots side by side for certain light/color effects. Van Gogh was drawn to the energy of complementary colors, but colors meant and FELT something to him, so (I think) he couldn't be so detached in how he used them. I believe he was using hatching (parallel lines in rows) instead, or other forms of mark-making, which he had learned early on as a way to fill space with texture, indicate planes, and suggest energy and movement.

And just like Cezanne and Picasso and a lot of other very creative artists, he was always experimenting.... he doesn't always use the same techniques! So this doesn't apply to all his paintings, and often it's only in parts of each painting!

At any rate, there's quite a few lovely ink drawings by van Gogh that most people never see, and they helped me see his paintings in a new light.

PS I'm glad you don't find my going off on tangents in my #comments annoying; I often respond to a post by relating to something I understand, but in the process I can go wheeling off away from the original topic!

[pixelbrushartstudio-elgn]

"How can art education be a canvas that shapes a imagination—the brush, and yet remain open to the paradox that artistic freedom is both out of the color that paints the future and the very essence that may challenge the boundaries of that canvas?" @elgnartpixelbrushtudio

@elgnartpixelbrushtudio, Illustration ""

@elgngraphics

[stone-cold-groove]

Page 35: Watercolor paint mixing suggestions.

[the-cricket-chirps]

Vincent van Gogh, Wheat Field with Cypresses, 1889

Fig. 2. Detail from center of canvas showing blue stroke through impasto between hills and field

(Left) Fig. 3. Detail from right foreground showing varied brushwork

(Right) Fig. 4. Detail from left foreground showing weave imprint in impasto

(Metropolitan Museum Museum of Art, New York)

[canat-yerhasan1]

Head of horse. Oil, canvas. 35 x 35 cm. #canat_yerhasan

[g-m-kaye]

Hello! I absolutely love your art, especially your Lord of the Rings art. Your landscapes and backgrounds are gorgeous, with so much detail and life! As an artist who is good at characters but bad at backgrounds, do you have any advice about how you make yours look so eye-catching and realistic? And how to make the characters in them seem natural?

Hello there! Firstly, please allow me to apologise for this ridiculously late response 😵 Secondly, thank you very much for your lovely compliments and intelligent questions! I’ll answer both in turn:

- the trick to eye catching scenery (and any art in general!) is to have a firm grasp of visual composition. There are techniques/ rules that balance the scene and “lead the eye” and are pleasing to look at - things that make the viewer say “oh wow that’s cool! But I’m not sure why..!” :) This alongside a strong use of what artists call “values” in the industry (essentially light and darkness). For more detail on this please feel free to message. Or I’ll do a post on it sometime if people are interested!

- the way to make characters blend seamlessly into a landscape or scenery is to view them *as part of the landscape* even if they are a focal point. The compositional principles carry through to the characters :) paint them in and plan them at the same time as you’re painting and planning the scenery. As in traditional painting. If you’re adding them in afterwards, follow the composition.. and make sure (if working digitally) that you match and colour grade the characters to blend with the background. Again this is a brief reply, with little detail, but that’s the general advice! Let me know if you want more detail! Xx