Category: HOW TO PAINT
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Can I Use the Same Artist’s Brushes on Oil and Acrylic?
By Marion Boddy-Evans There are two ways this question can be meant: 1: Can you use the same set of brushes in both your oil and acrylic paintings rather than having separate sets? 2: Are there types of brushes that should be used only with oil or acrylic? I put a piece of masking tape around […]
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How to Write an Artist’s Statement
An artist’s statement is a short piece written by the artist to accompany a particular painting or group of paintings. An artist’s statement shouldn’t be dismissed as insignificant or dashed out in a hurry as it’s a vital selling tool, promoting and explaining your work to people looking at your paintings, whether they’re potential buyers, […]
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How to Sign a Painting
Adding your signature to a painting is like adding a stamp to it that reads “finished”. It’s a sign that you’re satisfied with the painting and no longer consider it a work in progress. Is It Really Necessary to Sign a Painting? It’s not a legal requirement, but if you don’t add your name to […]
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How to Create a Body of Work and a Distinctive Style as an Artist
If you’re looking to get gallery representation, or to sell your art in some other, more innovative way, we have to assume that you already have a body of work that consists of at least 20 or 30 works in a style, medium, colors, and subject matter that distinguish you from every other artist in some way. […]
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Amateur vs Professional Artist
After visiting two art exhibitions, one put on by my local art club and the other by a group of professional artists, I realized that whilst the amateur show had many ‘nice’ paintings, and showed a high level of painting ability, the professional show had many more paintings that had that ‘wow’ factor that made […]
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How to Create a Body of Work and a Distinctive Style as an Artist
If you’re looking to get gallery representation, or to sell your art in some other, more innovative way, we have to assume that you already have a body of work that consists of at least 20 or 30 works in a style, medium, colors, and subject matter that distinguish you from every other artist in some way. […]
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How to Test if a Paint Color is Opaque or Transparent
Different pigments have different covering properties. Some are extremely transparent, barely showing on top of another color. Others are extremely opaque, hiding what’s beneath. Considering this, and not just what the color is, can enhance a subject. For example, using a transparent blue in a sky gives a greater feeling of airiness than an opaque blue will. […]
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Color Theory Lesson: Avoiding Black for Shadows
Think about how much is truly black in nature. Shadows are not simply black nor a darker version of the color of the object. They contain the complementary color of the object. Take, for example, the shadow on a yellow object. If you mix black and yellow, you get an unattractive olive green. Instead of using this […]
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Color Theory Lesson: Using Black and White
While it may seem logical that to lighten a color you add white to it and that to darken it you add black, this is an oversimplification. White reduces brightness so although it makes a color lighter, it removes its vibrancy. Black doesn’t so much add darkness as create murkiness (though there are instances in […]
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Elements of Composition: Balance
By Marion Boddy-Evans Balance is one of the easier Elements of Composition to see, and you’ll soon discover whether your natural inclination is towards a perfectly balanced or symmetrical composition or an unbalanced, asymmetrical one. It’s not that one is better than the other, but whichever you choose as the underlying component of your composition has an impact on […]
