Graphite drawing by Jordan. Learning to draw is not as hard as some make it. You need a good teacher; someone who understands realism and wants to teach you foundation. I can’t express enough how important Foundation learning is. You must learn to understand form and how to create it with warm and cool tones in graphite. Starting to draw with a “Hill and Valley” concept { which I created in my teaching experience } is key to understand more complex skill sets.
I guarantee I can teach you!!!
Starting to add tones and set form with values.
Oil painting is easy when you have knowledge about drawing forms. Realism in any medium is about layers and lighter layers of building forms. I will add more on this later, don’t have the time now, but stay tuned. This is titled, “The Un-sent Letter”. It is about a young woman sitting getting ready for her wedding day. She is holding a letter she never sent to an old love. It is about life decisions and “Letting Go” of the past’ heart wrenching. There will be several clues painted to add to the story, which line up with my recent photography. More to come.
In the past few days I have been able to work a bit more; fine tuning the details. I still want to recess the background some. 7/27/13.
This is how far I was able to paint. I really enjoy the lace and the material is moving. It’s pretty cool to see my growth as an artist since the first time I painted; better known as my first watercolor. Just the skill level alone……awwww right!
I want to share a few thoughts with you about drawing and painting. If you are becoming frustrated with your painting skills and it seems like you can paint to a certain point, but you know something is wrong? Something just doesn’t look right or you wish you just knew how to proceed and improve your skills. This is why you are frustrated, you do not have a solid foundation to work off of. Remember: VERY IMPORTANT; also draw in the direction of the form. Once you are a master of drawing then you may shade in opposite and various directions. Once you completely understand drawing and your skills can hold their own and understand form and shapes {how to bring them to realism} then painting will be easier and you wont be as frustrated. Trust me with this.*********
***********TRUST ME::::::::once you learn to draw and control value and use the warm and cool tones to your advantage the painting and form will be easier. Always draw in the direction of the form or shape of the objects you are drawing. I will be adding video demos in the next few weeks which will help.
I suggest and recommend you go back to learn the basics and fundamentals in drawing. Drawing 101…….I have several post regarding drawing and improving your skills, in the search tab in the menu. Also, in the menu there are tabs regarding drawing and papers.
Start with re-learning the values in graphite; the H graphite pencils, [warm tone] and B graphite pencils [cool tone]. Make a value scale from one to ten; the first block is just paper white and the tenth block is the darkest you can get the block. Number five is middle tone; therefore number two block light until block five and block six to ten shaded in gradual increments.as seen in the graph. Learn what each pencil can do for you. Notice the hardness and softness of the graphite. H’s are hard and B’s are soft.
Then work on perfecting a sphere. Use a 4H to begin, once drawn well, then add a 2B to the core, the darkest part.
This is how far I was able to paint. Two colors Ivory and Lamp black; warm and cool tones. I have a lot going on at the moment and haven’t had the time to sit down and work, but I will once I get things out of the way first. I am really enjoying the process of this painting and the strong light source with-in the composition.
The absolute best way to improve your artwork is to create a self-portrait! I know that can be scary and you may even think you can not because you don’t know where to begin. Start photographing yourself at various times. Set up a tripod with camera and when the spirit moves you just take a few pictures. Don’t worry about how you look and all of that, just shoot pictures and then regroup.
In the header of my website houses the first watercolor composition I ever painted and who knew? I see many mistakes now…..lol. The material is cool and painted well for the first time. I started a new watercolor from the original picture in a much larger size. I wanted to see how much I have grown as a painter in skill and technique since the first painting was created. I have about four hours so far, I hope to be able to make some time in the near future So far the foundation of watercolor is solid. 
So far Rose was able to get this far. The wall needed to be separated or to look as though there are two walls. Painting the wall coming towards you in a few darker tones allows the bend to take place. Adding purple to gray paint will allow a natural recess in distance space.
The problem with acrylics is they dry extremely fast. Unless you are looking for fast drying paint then you are in luck, but for artist that need more blending from the paint then try to use a blender extender in the paint. The extender has a shine to it though even when dry. So, play around first to see the results for yourself. In the following pictures these are Rose’s acrylic painting she wants to finish from years ago. The problem can be in matching tones and values of the colors used in another time. It can be done if you can read value and tone in color. I suggest using glazes to add the realism. Use this technique for oils as well. If you try to match existing colors you most likely will be repainting the painting. This is where I can teach you to improve your artwork.
Okay, lets break it down:
1. Use the blender extender to equal parts to a paint color you want to use. You can use water but the color will dry flat and a value lighter. For example;
We worked on the bottom of the urn. we added a thin layer of a terra-cotta color with blender mixed in a shade darker than the urn. You can even use two shades darker to start to shade and develop depth to create more form or realism. So the darker color went into the cracks and around the sides of the urn. The value of the lightest will be on the highest closest part of the form and the values will reverse in paint; lightest to darkest in value and color.
REMEMBER: the dark values are towards the back/sides or the parts of the forms that are the most far from you. Anything cool tone color will sink in space and appear away from you. Light values will come towards you in space. This is physics, law of the universe and the way God designed it!
In the above picture you can see a shine which is the blender. It does settle a bit once completely dried, but you can steal it once dry with a protective acrylic spray and the blender wont be seen. In the picture below look closely at the bottom two leaves against the urn. These two have been glazed with paint and blender to start to create form and shape of the leaf itself. Look at the upper leaves they are flat and need realism. Stay continued to see this painting develop.
TIP: You can place a wet paper towel over the paint, cover with tin foil and place in the refrigerator. Should last a good twelve hours.
TIP: If your canvas becomes rippled because of being sketched from leaning on something all you need to do is water the spot on the back and use a hair dryer to tighten up canvas. That should work, may need to do twice.
This is a friends artwork, Karen’s artwork, color pencil and oil pastel. Really nice job Karen!
I must testify how great Our God is; as today’s world is…. most people have many issues, circumstances on their plates. We all need a bit of divine help and God in our lives. God loves you and He is not mad at you, any of us! I have been praying about a situation that needed much clarification and after praying with John Haggerty on TV yesterday within twenty minutes God had made a path to reach the right person to answer and help.
God will always answer our prayers when we come to His throne with a pure heart. Invite Jesus into your heart, ask him to forgive you of your sins, ask Him to be your Lord and Savior and watch what happens in your life.
Here is the progression of Elvis the goat in graphite pencils; 4H {warm tone}, 4B {cool tone} and a HB Neutral tone. Notice how I only have an outline sketched and not set in stone. When you have trouble sketching a form out start with one shape such as an eye. Work from one eye out, therefore allowing it to be easy to erase an outside form lines. If you try to draw the outside lines first and then go back and “TRY TO FIT” in the eyes in later in an open space it will not work unless you have Mastered drawing and realism drawing. Work from one form such as an eye and work from the eye and outward.
In the following picture this is how far I was able to get in two hours.
I can not stress enough if you are an over-sketcher on cheap paper of 140lbs. or less you are wasting value sketches turned into a drawing on CHEAP paper. You are not doing yourself any favors by doing this. Get yourself a really good drawing paper pad of 140lb or better. Even buy Illustration hot press drawing board this way when your over-sketched doodle is over-sketched it can become a serious composition because it is on good acid free paper or board. Use the cheaper drawing pads of 140lb. or less for Doodles or thumb-nail sketches. You have better results from the graphite on better paper too. Cheap papers are not made to hold serious artwork.
Roxanne 