How to Paint Snow With Watercolor

By Sue Doucette
Painting winter scenes with watercolor can be an enjoyable experience once you know how. The light shining on pure snow and the shadows, both form and cast shadows, give the painting a sense of depth and clarity. There are several ways to achieve a beautiful, snowy landscape.

To begin, wet both sides of your watercolor paper. (If you do not wet the back, your paper will curl when you paint the front.) Some artists prefer to soak the paper then tape it to a board when dry. Consider your light source and be consistent with it throughout your painting. Lightly sketch your scene on your dry watercolor paper. I find 140 lb. cold-pressed paper works well. You will need to spritz the back of you paper every so often as you proceed.

Determine where your form shadows; those found on an object itself, and your cast shadows; those cast beneath your object, will be placed in your watercolor composition. Allow for both hard and soft edges for interest.

Preserve some pure white paper for your brightest snow. The eye goes to white first. Make a light wash of Aureolin Yellow and paint some of your sunlit areas in your foreground with this. Keep it very light. Next paint a sunny section towards the middle with a light wash of Rose Madder Genuine. Light washes of pure transparent color may be added after these have dried. Let your painting help you to decide what it needs.

Drop in some cooler colors such as Cobalt Blue into your shadow areas. Mix some Rose Madder Genuine and Cobalt Blue together for a soft violet color. Add this to your shadow. Allow it to run and blend into your blues.

Now consider some options for making your snow sparkle. These include techniques such as spattering masking fluid, dropping in salt, and using a light-grade sandpaper. You may want to select just one of these, to avoid "over doing it." Although these techniques can enhance your watercolor, you will want your snow to appear natural. I will describe how to use each of these, and after practicing with them you decide which you prefer.

To mask out small specs of white in your snow, dip the ends of the bristles of an old toothbrush into masking fluid and flick with your thumb onto your paper. Practice this first on a piece of scrap paper to get a feel for it. Once your masking dots have dried they can be painted over. Once the paint has dried the masking fluid can be removed with an eraser or rubbing with your finger.

To give your snow sparkle with salt, experiment with the following. Paint an area of snow with a violet color and drop in some table salt while it is still wet. Allow this to dry then brush off the excess salt. See how you like the result of using this technique.

To use sandpaper as a tool, choose one area of your completed watercolor and firmly move the sandpaper across this section with one motion. Do not go back and forth with the sandpaper, as this can ruin the effect.

Painting winter scenes with watercolor can be an enjoyable experience once you know how. The light shining on pure snow and the shadows, both form and cast shadows, give the painting a sense of depth and clarity. There are several ways to achieve a beautiful, snowy landscape.

To begin, wet both sides of your watercolor paper. (If you do not wet the back, your paper will curl when you paint the front.) Some artists prefer to soak the paper then tape it to a board when dry. Consider your light source and be consistent with it throughout your painting. Lightly sketch your scene on your dry watercolor paper. I find 140 lb. cold-pressed paper works well. You will need to spritz the back of you paper every so often as you proceed.

Determine where your form shadows; those found on an object itself, and your cast shadows; those cast beneath your object, will be placed in your watercolor composition. Allow for both hard and soft edges for interest.

Preserve some pure white paper for your brightest snow. The eye goes to white first. Make a light wash of Aureolin Yellow and paint some of your sunlit areas in your foreground with this. Keep it very light. Next paint a sunny section towards the middle with a light wash of Rose Madder Genuine. Light washes of pure transparent color may be added after these have dried. Let your painting help you to decide what it needs.

Drop in some cooler colors such as Cobalt Blue into your shadow areas. Mix some Rose Madder Genuine and Cobalt Blue together for a soft violet color. Add this to your shadow. Allow it to run and blend into your blues.

Now consider some options for making your snow sparkle. These include techniques such as spattering masking fluid, dropping in salt, and using a light-grade sandpaper. You may want to select just one of these, to avoid "over doing it." Although these techniques can enhance your watercolor, you will want your snow to appear natural. I will describe how to use each of these, and after practicing with them you decide which you prefer.

To mask out small specs of white in your snow, dip the ends of the bristles of an old toothbrush into masking fluid and flick with your thumb onto your paper. Practice this first on a piece of scrap paper to get a feel for it. Once your masking dots have dried they can be painted over. Once the paint has dried the masking fluid can be removed with an eraser or rubbing with your finger.

To give your snow sparkle with salt, experiment with the following. Paint an area of snow with a violet color and drop in some table salt while it is still wet. Allow this to dry then brush off the excess salt. See how you like the result of using this technique.

To use sandpaper as a tool, choose one area of your completed watercolor and firmly move the sandpaper across this section with one motion. Do not go back and forth with the sandpaper, as this can ruin the effect.

Practice these techniques and decide which works best for you. I think you'll enjoy painting snow!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Japanese Calligraphy Tools

First of all, if you don't know what calligraphy is, here is a three sentence summary: Japanese calligraphy (shodo) is a branch of calligraphy (visual art), using the symbols of the Japanese language (Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji). Today, there are three styles used: Kaisho, Gyosho, and Sosho. Japanese calligraphy is mainly a hobby for adults, and taught to elementary kids in Japan.
The Four Treasures of Japanese calligraphy. This is the name for the basic tools needed. Which are: Brush, Ink Stone, Ink, and Paper.
The brush (fude) is the main tool for Japanese calligraphy, although you need the other three of course! It is a tool used for both drawing and writing in ancient Japan. A traditional brush is made up of bamboo body with a head of animal hair, although other materials may be used. A brush is used over a pen or pencil simply because it is softer. Strokes with the brush are more suitable for the style of Japanese characters.The size of the brush may vary. A large one is used for the art of calligraphy, while a smaller one is used for signatures. In modern times, you can buy Japanese calligraphy pens, although you won't get the natural look.
The ink stone (suzuri) is a tool used for ink grinding. It is not only made out of stone however, it may also be created from ceramic or clay. This tool is used to grind an ink stick into liquid ink. It comes in a variety of colors and designs. and is also bought and used for decoration.
Ink (sumi), well the ink stick, is made up of charcoal and glue. These days, ink can be bought in bottles, but it is not as durable as ink from an ink stick, very low quality. And as I stated, won't give it that natural feel. This ink is used by the brush on paper (kami), or Washi specifically.
It is a soft paper suitable for a brush! This paper can be made up from several materials, such as bamboo, rice, wheat, gampi bark, mitsumata branches, or mulberry bark. Rice paper (hanshi) can also be used. Paperweights are a good idea to hold it steady while you work.
Whether you choose to use the Four Treasures of Japanese calligraphy, or a calligraphy pen and paper, or a brush and some bottled ink, is entirely up to you! Just practice and enjoy creating calligraphy!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

MUSIC,TALENT AND LIFE

The Artistic concept of this design came into mind when listening to all types of music for example:-rap music,reggae,blues and jazz and the rest.The description of drawing shows a happy face that represents youthfulness,enjoyment,gladness of an event.The speakers represents the active music blend that came from withing to bring out the solid mixes of danceable sounds of music.                                                                    

THE BACKGROUND-On the background you will find circles,dots,coils,cursives and shadow designs of different kinds that brings out the enjoyment of music in all youths and adults of today.The background of the drawing brings out the connection of music to life.

SPEAKERS/CORDS- Hearing of the music sounds from far and near makes people rediscover the youthfulness and active ability to dance at anytime.The speakers and cords shows the depth of joyful connection in music sound coming out of both speakers which makes the young and matured mind to flow with the rhythm.                                                                                                      

SPEAKER-It shows the people who enjoys music always.The black shadows of people,dots shows how connected music and life is always.The freehand drawing is a MASTERPIECE which have never been seen anywhere in the whole world by any creative artist.The drawing design was by me for a OGQ2 CLOTHING COMPANY in Nigeria.The drawing was done by me FALODE OLABODE.                                                                                         

Tribal Marks -Design of the week

TRIBAL MARKS came into the OYO Empire in Nigeria as an inscription of the face for fashion. The Kings,Princess,Princes and also for the people in general.It is also used to distinguished between families during these Era.Some tribal marks were for the kings and also his people.It is also on the face of the OBA of OYO kingdom in those days.People believed it was a fashion trend but later after so many years coming to the computer Era or IT Era of the 21st century the tribal marks inscription was already fading out of  History of the OYO People.Today Sons and Daughters of the OYO Empire do not have these tribal marks any longer.Things have changed because we are now in the developed world.The freehand Drawing is a masterpiece which has never been seen anywhere in the world from any creative Artist.The freehand drawing was done by FALODE OLABODE  TAIWO.

How to Draw Comic Book Characters

By Pamella Neely Everybody wants to learn how to draw comic book characters. The secret to doing it well is actually much simpler than you would think. All you need is a certain kind of paper. It is called tracing paper, and you can get 100 sheets for five dollars or less. To some people, using tracing paper may seem like cheating, but actually copying a master's work is a time-honored tradition among artists, and a superb way to learn the secrets of your trade. You use tracing paper by putting a sheet of the semi transparent tracing paper over whatever image you want to draw. And then you follow your pencil along the partially covered lines underneath the tracing paper, tracing the lines as you go, thus re-creating the image. For your first trace, just copy all the lines, pulling the paper away every few minutes to see how you're progressing. You won't end up with a very attractive image, but you will be teaching your eye and your hand to work together in a co-operative way to create the image that you want to be able to draw freehand. After you've done your first trace, you can either move on to do a second trace that looks better than the first one, or you can try to draw the image freehand. You will find that even with one practice trace under your belt, you measure the distance between the lines were accurately. The same image that you had trouble drawing before suddenly starts to look a lot better. Give yourself some congratulations. You can either keep practicing freehand or you could go back and do some more traces until you really master the way the original artist created the cartoon. That's how to copy existing cartoons. Even if you want to create your own cartoons, it's a great way to learn how the masters drew their cartoon characters. But you probably want to learn how to draw your own. That takes an awful lot of practice, but here are some pointers to get you started. Start sketching everything you see. Start simplifying images so that you can render, say, a cat, in less than six lines. Study the character of your subjects, and try to show animals' and peoples' characters through your simplified drawings. This may mean making some body parts, like hands or feet or ears, larger than they are in reality, in order to accentuate different personality traits of your subject. It also means studying the body language of people and animals so that you can depict some of their emotions simply by how they hold themselves. Being able to convey emotion in your comic book characters is essential, so you should study facial expressions and learn how to convey a smile or anger or surprise with just a few lines of your pencil. Learn to tell a story. As a cartoon book artist, your images convey a story. So in addition to being able to simplify images and convey emotions, you need to create images that tell a story in a clear simple way. The time-honored technique for doing this is to use frames, usually 3-6 frames for each cartoon strip. Let yourself do a couple of drafts before you finalize each phase of the story you are telling in a single frame. Also be willing to redraw your cartoons when you get a better idea for how to illustrate a certain part of your story.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Pencil Sketches - A Popular Tool Among the Artists

By Murtaza Habib

The aim of sketches is to record some valuable information for the study purpose in the long term. It's like a rough work of final product and it is a free hand drawing with many overlapping lines. Sketches are series of many disconnected lines that produce to develop an image. The tools used to create sketches are pencil, pen, watercolor, clays and many more. The most preferable painting tool is pencil by most artists from the day when graphite was found.

Here are some points that an artist needs to consider, if he wants to draw sketches using pencil...
1. Pencils: - The hardness of pencils varies from 2H to 6B.
H pencils are very hard pencils; the grades available in this kind of pencils are H, 2H and HB. B pencil are soft pencils, the grades available in this pencils are B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B and 6B. An artist can select the pencil grade by considering the different factors like atmosphere, paper quality, drawing subject, etc.
2. Sharpener: - Sharpener is very important tool while creating a sketch using pencils.
It helps to sharp the pencil wedge for the better quality of images, make sure that you do not sharp the pencil point.
3. Eraser:- It is a useful tool to remove extra lines or soften lines.
The best eraser for sketches is kneaded eraser. This eraser has a very soft and sticky surface that can easily remove graphite from the paper. The best feature of this eraser is, it will not create smudging. Plastic erasers are also used to remove the lines but the worst part is, they create smudging heavily.
4. Paper:- If you will use best quality paper then it will give you attractive image.
Make sure that the paper should not be totally smooth. If you use slightly rough paper, then it will give nice appearance to your sketch.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Ten Useful Tips For Beginners in Sketch Making

By Ginger Stokesk , If you have just started trying at hand on sketching, you should read the valuable tips given here. These will help you in sketch making.   

1. You should first understand that sketching cannot be learnt in a day. It is an art. To become proficient in this field, you need to work hard and practice a lot. The more you practice, the easier it will be to draw.
2. Sketching is a free hand drawing made with pencil on paper. For making good sketches, you should have proper supplies like sketch pencils and paper. The quality of supplies can affect the end results.
3. Sketchers hold pencils in different styles like tripod grip, overhand grip and underhand grip. However, there is no best style. You should choose the style that you are most comfortable with.
4. You should start practicing with simple figures like straight lines, curves, circles, ellipses, squares and triangles. Though, most people think that it is easy to draw such figures and they do not need to work hard, but it is not so. Many people cannot even draw simple figures with free hand. Mastering simple figures will help you to control your hand movement, which is the first step to drawing a good sketch.
5. Once you become proficient in drawing geometric figures, you should start drawing figures of landscapes, homes, and pets. Gradually move to the type of sketches that you want to draw. For example, if you want to get into fashion designing, you should start making free hand drawings of mannequins draped in different outfits. Similarly, if you want to become a landscape artist, you should spend quality time in natural settings capturing its beauty in your sketchbook. If you want to become a cartoonist, you should draw caricatures of people and scenes.
6. Proportion is a critical part of drawing good sketches. For example, if you are making a portrait, you need to have a proper idea of distance between eyes, size of eyes and length of nose. Even a mere change in the angle of face changes these proportions. Therefore, a sketcher should be able to properly estimate the measurements.
7. While making a sketch, you should first focus only on the outline. Always work on detailing afterwards.
8. Shading helps to give a three-dimensional look to a drawing. It also helps a person to visualize whether the object is close or far away, whether it is stationary or moving, what is the texture of the object, what time of day it is and so forth. Therefore, you should pay particular attention to shading. Learn different styles of texturing. Invest in good quality soft pencils of different grades for shading your sketches.
9. During the initial learning process, do not be too critical of what you have sketched. Learn from your mistakes and improve with every drawing.
10. Last but not the least, get training from an expert. You can join a drawing class or learn some skills and tricks from a private tutor. You can also take the help of online drawing tutorials for learning how to sketch.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

T-shirt Design screenprint.