Pen and Wash - Choose the Right Drawing Pen

What kind of the lines do I want to produce on your next pen and wash? Will it be a technical pen that produces specific line width? Or will it be a bamboo pen that gives a variety of lines as you swirl the pen in your fingers? Ink lines express as much emotion and style as the watercolor wash. So let's look at a few kinds of drawing pens to get you on the right path.

Technical pens

Technical pens are excellent for pen and wash. They produce a uniform line of thickness that comes in different nib sizes. These range from fine lines, like the 005, excellent for hatching and stippling, to thick lines, like the 08. Technical pens come in a wide range of colors, too. Read the labels; not all are water-proof.

Ballpoint, Roller ball and Gel ink pens

Ballpoint pens are for writing, but are a good choice when you want to work with something other than a technical pen. They are readily available for quick drawing and sketching and come in a wide range of colors. They usually come in 3 sizes; extra-fine, fine and wide. Most are water-soluble so can be diffused in your pen and wash to create beautiful effects.

I like roller ball and gel pens. They have the appearance of technical pens because the ink does not shine like ballpoint pens. Roller ball and gel pens are not permanent and will diffuse with your washes.

Dip pens and fountain pens

Dip pen and fountain pens come into two parts, the holder, or handle, and the nib. The holder can be fitted with a wide variety of nib sizes for a wide range of marks. Dip pens uses a dip pen ink bottle. Fountain pens also uses bottled fountain pen ink to refill their reservoir but also uses pen ink refills. Try out the many different nibs to find their flexibility and behavior.

Bamboo and Reed pens

Bamboo and reed can make a wide range of marks. Reeds are more flexible than bamboo and are able to produce sensitive marks and will soften after much use to produce broader line, so handle them with a light touch.

Bamboo is more solid and can create firm lines as well as different widths of marks. You can find these in your local art supply store or you can make your own.

Quill Pens

Quill pens make their own distinctive lines; they are easy to control and inexpensive. You can buy them or make your own from a variety of feathers, like turkey, geese or swan. Do not run out to a nearby farm or pond and remove a feather from our feathery friends. A quill pen has to dry out for many months before they are stiff enough for any drawing purposes. Your local art supply store should have a fine stock at hand.

Fiber tipped pens

Fiber-tipped pens come in a huge selection of nib style, sizes and colors for either lines or filling in areas. You can spend a whole day experimenting with these. They come in regular colors, skin tones, glitter, neon and fluorescent!

All others

Sticks, slivers of cardboard, string, a small tree branch, popsicle sticks, cotton swabs, just about anything that can be dipped into ink, will make exciting lines or marks. Some are around your home right now and others won't cost you anything to make. Enjoy.

Pen and wash is an expressive art form and drawing with a pen of your choice will make your experience more so. Enjoy.

And now I like to invite you to my website: http://penandwashpassion.com/ for more revealing articles on pen and wash, and neat essential art products you'll want for a rewarding experience. Hi, this is Harmon Thompson and I love pen and wash! Also, check out my blog: http://watercolorpaint.wordpress.com/ where you can share your passion for pen and wash painting.

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Acrylic Paints Are a Great Option for Budding Artists

Acrylic paints are quite a new medium in the world of art if you compare them to the likes of oil paints or watercolours. The paint itself has only been available on a commercial basis since the 1950's after the acrylic resin which forms the paint was invented by a Dr. Otto Rohm. The medium has been recurrently developed and refined ever since. Many new genres of art were developed after the paint was utilised by the likes of Andy Warhol, who set the standard for 'pop art' in the 1960's. This medium also adheres to attributes of other types of paint deeming it very versatile and perfect for anybody starting out. Art is all about experimentation after all.

Many reputable art suppliers will definitely stock acrylic paints, given their popularity, and they will often vary in price and quality. You can also purchase sets which offer a variety of colours and sometimes include acrylic brushes also, great as an initial starting point for the absolute beginner. It is very easy to manipulate this particular medium given its dexterous qualities. With the addition of water, acrylic paints can be thinned to a consistency that mimics watercolour paints. You can also layer very easily; allowing one layer to dry you can immediately add another on top of it. The only downside to using this particular technique is that unlike watercolours, the colours cannot be blended again once dry. Acrylic paints are water resistant once dry, great for stencils or block colours but not so flexible if you want to continuously blend colours together. As long as you keep it wet this should not be a problem.

This medium can also be utilised in crafts, not just simply canvas painting. One dry it is permanent, so it is perfect for small projects or painting miniature models and such. Many professionals who use it will have perfected techniques and methods which suit their painting style. As an amateur artist or student of art finding the right brand of acrylic paints and forming your technique and ideas is just as important. Another great attribute to this medium is the immensely quick drying time. A perfect quality for those who are new to arts and crafts, meaning you can work quickly and see the dry finished results straight away. Most sets available will offer a range of colours and of course the more you get used to the medium of acrylic paint, the more adventurous you can be.

iArtSupplies are established suppliers of high quality acrylic paints and other art materials.

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What Options to Consider Before Buying a Field Easel

The majority of field easels available from art suppliers today vary from all shapes and sizes, but because there are so many available nowadays it can get a tiny bit confusing if you are a budding artist looking to start out and gather your materials needed for hobbies such as outdoor painting. You want to get the best out of your hobby or indeed profession so choosing the right options to suit your needs will help you enjoy and settle into your artwork much more productively.

When considering field work, and an easel to accompany you bear in mind the medium you may be working in as for paints that don't dry too hastily you will have to think about transportation and storage when you are finished up. For most watercolours and acrylics that dry out fairly quickly, you'll only have to consider what size of field easel you require. If you are looking at producing larger pieces of work outdoors then it's generally advisable to opt for a more heavy duty easel that won't topple at the tiniest hint of wind.

You have to consider where you might use your field easel and what type of environments you might encounter. If you are looking at painting vast landscapes or views you might prefer to choose an easel that is lightweight and portable. Most art supplies overcome this by offering metal lightweight alternatives to the more traditional wooden easels that conjure images in one's mind. An easel with adjustable legs that is adaptable to any ground surface is also great in more rural circumstances.

Another important factor is that of the sturdiness of the field easel you choose. This ties in with the earlier suggestion of weight consideration. If your personal methods of making art are delicate and intricate then again a lightweight easel might be perfect for you. In contrast if you are very direct with your surface, using larger brushes and applying quite a lot of layering and pressure to the surface you might be best considering a more robust easel to withstand the pressure and ensure you achieve the best results.

Obviously if you are a frequent or professional artist then it's pivotal that you consider the best quality long term option coupled with the highest quality materials, your easel could potentially last a very long time if you are prepared to spend a fair amount of money on it. Alternatively students and individuals new to art might want to try a less expensive easel and see how they get on before indulging in something which might be a bit to specialised for them.

iArtSupplies are established suppliers of high quality field easels and other art materials.

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Van Gogh's Summit Period

Arles 1888.2 - 1889.5

In Feb.1888, Van Gogh in the recommendation of his friend came to Arles, a small city in south of France and he soon fell in love with this place. Fierce sunshine and harsh wheal field made him crazy and embraced his art summit. Even if deep influenced by French impressionism and Japanese Ukiyo-e, his artworks were still labeled with his personality, which was originated from his unique perspective and sensitive character. He loved nature and adored life. He was not satisfied with imitating the external image reasonably, but intended to "express the artist's personal opinion and feelings via painting, and made the artworks full of personality and instinctive style." Thereby, he was a great master painting with his soul.

During this period, he rented a "yellow house" by the city's square with the purpose to organize a "the home of painters". Afterward, Gauguin moved to live together with him. Unfortunately, Van Gogh suffered a mental disease from time to time. As a result, he quarreled with Gauguin day and night, what's worse, later "Ear-cutting even" happened.

Under the protest of the Arlesers, our great artist had to leave and went to Saint Paul Mental Hospital at Saint Remy, not far away from Arles, for treatment.

In Arles, he created lots of paintings, but failed to sell out enough to support himself. "The sunflowers", "The Cafe Terrace- Outdoors" and "The Cafe Terrace - Indoors" are all his masterpieces at this period.

Saint-Remy 1889.5 - 1890.5

On 8th May, 1889, Van Gogh went to Saint Remy, 25 kilometers away from Arles at his will for mental treatment. What should be noticed is that he had fallen into the horror about his mental disease and the lost about his future. His disease broke out every few months, but he was very clear afterwards, even went outdoors for painting.

More amazingly, even under such disadvantages, he never gave up, but painted more maturely, boldly and shockingly. His oil paintings in this period were filled with strong emotions and visual shock, such as spinning lines full of power, which made viewers sense of the artist's strong affection and impulse of expressing.

His masterpiece:The Starry Night, The Cypress, etc. It is worthy mentioning that critics began to commend his works and right in this period, he sold the only one oil painting during his lifetime.

Auvers-sur-Oise 1890.5 - 1890.7

On 17th May, 1890, Van Gogh went back to Paris and met with his little brother Dio, Dio's wife and his niece Venticent who had the same name of Van Gogh. He then went to Auvers, a small town near Paris for treatment and went on his painting. Luckily, he went on well with the locals and his treatment also went on well. But at the afternoon of 27th July, he went out for painting and made suicide. On the morning of 29th, he died beside Dio at 37 years old.

So far, there are many arguments about the reason for his death.

Some believes that Van Gogh killed himself not for the mental disease, because some famous oil paintings such as the Starry Night, and the Cafe Terrace were finished when he was clear, but with something of hint of his death. Van Gogh's suicide on the eve before he became famous may be mystery forever. But keep in mind his will, "The sadness will last forever..."

Huang X Cai is an experienced content writer on the topics related to hand made abstract oil painting and amber crafts for a long time. For more information, welcome to visit http://www.oilpainting777.com/

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Elements of Design - The Landscape Painter's Principles

Just as athletes must learn the rules and then spend many hours in practice to develop their precision and style, so must the artist learn the rules and then practice. This article is about some of the rules of design that artists must know in order to have a successful painting.

The simplest element of design is the line. A line is a one-dimensional mark. It has only length. If we draw another line, not on top of the first, then we are creating form. Form has both length and width; form is two-dimensional. Lines and forms can be organized into shapes, the third element of design. Complex shapes are often built from simpler shapes, such as circles, ovals, squares and rectangles. The distance between shapes is called space, another element of design. Space also refers to the illusion of depth, or three-dimensions. Thus when properly placed, shapes can give the feeling of three-dimensions in a two-dimensional surface. There are several ways to create visual three-dimensional space. One way is by using one-, two- or three-point perspective. Another is by using overlapping shapes. The landscape painter uses all these elements of design when creating a landscape painting.

In addition to line and form, shape and space, there are other elements of design. The amount of lightness or darkness of an object is the value. A good exercise is to draw a series of ten squares, put black in the left-most one and white in the right-most one, then try to paint shades of grey in the middle blocks, going gradually from dark to light. This is called a grey-scale, but the same could be done with any color. Similarly, we could paint a sphere with the lightest light on one side and the darkest dark on the other, going through all the shades of grey between the two.

Next is the element we all love - color. Color has three characteristics - hue, value and chroma. Hue refers to the color, such as red or green, blue or yellow. Value refers to how light or dark the color is (how it compares to the grey-scale). Chroma refers to how bright or dull the color is - it's saturation level or purity. The landscape painter must understand color in order to use it effectively.

Texture is the last fundamental element of visual design. A surface might be smooth or rough. We might represent a rough surface with thick brush strokes of paint, use of a palette knife or even by adding objects to our painting.

There are other principles of design that the landscape painter uses, according to Mitchell Albala in his book Landscape Painting. These principles refer to the painting as a whole. They are motion, balance, proportion, unity, variety, harmony, pattern, rhythm and emphasis - the focal point. In order to have a successful painting, the painter needs to be aware of all these elements of design and see that his/her painting observes them.

At Mary's Art, Inc., we have a large variety of original hand painted oil paintings on canvas. These inexpensive, colorful paintings were created en plein air (French for "open air") to capture the spirit and emotions of nature and bring them to you for your enjoyment. They are modern in style, somewhat abstract, and with expressionism overtones. Please visit http://www.murphyartstudio.com/ and find paintings you love.

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Replicate A Favourite Painting With Art Supplies

If you would like to put your very own spin on a famous piece of art, you may want to replicate a favourite painting with art supplies.

Aspiring artists are always looking for the next thing to paint but it can be difficult to focus all of your creativity energies on one project with so many different ideas buzzing around your brain.

An area of painting that many artists might not have explored yet is the recreation of existing artwork but making it their own by using art supplies to provide the piece with a unique twist.

One famous artist who has achieved a successful career from creating her own take on classic paintings such as The Mona Lisa, Girl with the Pearl Earring and The Scream is Caroline Shotton.

Caroline Shotton's paintings replace the famous subjects in the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, Johannes Vermeer and Edvard Munch with cows and this approach has seen the artist become incredibly popular with the general public.

The commercial fine artist is now one of the biggest selling painters in Britain due to her unique method of recreating masterpieces with strikingly different subject matter such as beautiful bovines.

Shotton decided to select cows for her paintings because she confesses to be genuinely obsessed by them and they are very successful for grabbing people's attention especially when spliced into instantly recognisable art.

Creating your own versions of existing art is a great way to make the original accessible to other sections of society who may already have been alienated by perceived pretensions.

Imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery so most painters will probably see it as a compliment and not an insult if you decide to replicate an example of their catalogue of work.

Cows might not be everyone's favourite subject matter so it is important that you experiment with other topics and themes if you want to use art supplies to reimaging existing art.

The internationally renowned street artist Banksy is very clever at using art supplies to create subversive work that critiques society and makes people think twice when they first view them.

Famous examples of his cunning creativity include splicing Vietnam War victims in between American icons Ronald McDonald and Mickey Mouse to comment on globalisation and US imperialism.

Whether you want to cause controversy like Banksy or simply amuse like Caroline Shotton putting your own spin on paintings with art supplies is a very entertaining way to spend your time and develop your talents.

Buy the best art materials and art supplies from Turnham Arts & Craft. Click on the links to discover what products we offer!

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Portrait Painting, You Can Get Better Results Using These Two Simple Techniques

In the following article I am going to give two simple techniques to help you as an artist achieve accuracy in your portraiture. Sometimes as an artist you will start to evolve these techniques without even realising that you are using them, however, putting these techniques into words often helps the beginner.

The first technique is the application of negative shapes in your art. Essentially a negative shape is a shape formed around the head or body of a person that you can objectify. A classic negative shape would be the shape of the space between a body's arms and hips. Using negative shapes, you may see a curl of hair on the head you are painting. The curl of hair will interact with the background you are drawing. It may protrude into the spine of a book, half way up, on a bookcase behind the person you are drawing. As an artist it is easier for you to draw something you can define as an objective reality rather than something you feel emotionally about. So you would in this example draw the shapes formed between the bookcase, the head, the shoulders and the curl of hair. By drawing the negative shapes formed by the head and the bookcase accurately you will obtain a correct perspective and proportion for the head without even considering the head shape.

You can start to use negative shapes within the structure of the face and head as well. Take the effect of light for example. It is always good for an artist to draw a portrait in good directional light which casts shadows. This makes form much easier to see and define than a soft non directional light source. In directional light there will be shadows cast around the nose, around the forehead and the eyes. Start to look at the shadows and consider their shapes. Again by using this technique we are removing emotion from our work and making it easy to see an objective reality. The shadow cast by light on an eye often takes the shape of a triangle with one side flat down the side of the nose. Study and draw the triangle and not the eye. If this is correct then the proportions of the eye will start to fall into place without any worry on your part that you are not getting the shape quite right.

The second simple technique I would like to give you to use is called plumbing. Plumbing is imagining a vertical line on your drawing. You can if you wish lightly draw a vertical line to assist you further. For example imagine a vertical line from the outside corner of an eye. Follow this down. How near would this line approach the corner of the mouth. This technique is most useful if you are drawing or painting a head which is inclined from the vertical. It is also much more real for the viewer to see a head inclined slightly in thought than held erect like a statue.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this short article and if you start to use these two simple techniques you will be pleasantly surprised at the results you start to achieve.

Mark Robb is a practising artist based in Haworth. If you have enjoyed the article above then he invites you to browse the website http://firstforart.com/ where you will find all kinds of art materials, art prints and further advice and tips to help you become a better artist

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