This video will explore both the subjects of Mud and Neighboring Colors on the color wheel. If you are still not quite sure about the color wheel feel free to check out some of the videos we have done concerning colors. When practicing mud we learned that it was very easy to make mud when we used complimentary colors or even secondary colors which held a compliment in it. This video will use 3 colors that touch each other on the color wheel (neighboring or analogous colors). Remember when we make the bubbles we are not trying to create a piece of art. We are learning how the pigments we choose relate to one another. We learn the strength and weakness of the pigments. Learning the characteristics of the pigments will help us when we paint a picture. The colors I chose had been out on my pallet to complete an assigned painting for Jean Haines Online Watercolor School. For the past week I had been thinking about waterlilies. Before I knew it that is all I could see in the wash I did. We will end the video with a fast forward through my painting on my wash with a purpose.
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While this is drying we will talk about the instruction of Let It Dry Naturally. You will need a hairdryer and a power source for this next step.
Analyzing our work
We are learning more and more about watercolors and how far to push the limits of what we are doing. I encourage you to join some watercolor groups and look at watercolor paintings. What type of watercolors excite you. What are you comfortable doing. We will look at all of these things in future watercolor videos. We have included a time lapsed video of Sandy doing her assignment for Jean Haines Online Watercolor School.
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Making Mud 103 continues to address the problem of “muddy” watercolors happening on your paintings. In Mud 101, we saw how over mixing our watercolors will result in a dull flat color. Even though we did not mix the colors on our pallets we saw that just moving the water and color on the paper will make “mud”. In Mud 102, we made mud using 3 colors. We discussed the term mud. To me, mud is what has happens when you can no longer see the original color shining through. The medium of watercolor uses both water and pigments working together to create paint. Your painting can be exciting (a lot of color shining through) or subdued (colors that are toned down, this can also be called mud). The key for making a successful watercolor painting is in learning to control how the water and paint interact.
Most watercolor paintings start out with “washes”. For that reason I will be doing a sky wash. I will be using these 3 colors we have been working with today.
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Making Mud 102 continues to address the problem of “muddy” watercolors happening on your paintings. I think it is important to understand that my definition for mud may differ from another artist's definition of mud. For me "mud" is when I lose the vibrancy of my original colors on the painting which results in a dulled down or flat color. I call this new muted color - mud. Watercolor artists need to understand how they end up with this result without ever introducing browns or grays into their pallet. In the Mud 101 tutorial we made mud using 2 complimentary colors from the color wheel, orange and pthalo blue. Over mixing those colors caused mud to appear. Using too much water will also made mud happen.
In this lesson we will use a yellow, a purple, and a green. The yellow and the purple are complimentary and will have to be controlled to avoid a muddy outcome. The point will be to let the colors mix without us manipulating them.
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In conclusion
We analyze how easy it was to make mud out of 3 colors. A simple recap of these problems are:
Making Mud 101 addresses the problem of “muddy” watercolors. I think it is important to understand that my definition for mud may differ from another artist's definition of mud. When I lose the vibrancy of my original colors on the painting which results in a dulled down or flat color, I call this color muted which results in mud. Watercolor artists need to understand how they end up with this result without ever introducing browns or grays to the pallet.
This series of watercolor tutorials will break down and analyze a few of the ways that we create mud. It is the understanding of how mud happens that will help you in avoiding this outcome while you are working on your future paintings. This is the first of 3 ways that we will cover how to make mud. In our tutorial we will never have a brown or gray in our pallet. It is interesting to see the browns and grays appear which we will discuss in the analysis. For this video It might be helpful to refresh your memories about The Color Wheel. Click on for further instructions Color Wheel Primary Colors , Color Wheel Secondary Colors .
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In conclusion we analyze what we did with just 2 colors to make mud. A simple recap of these problems are:
Now it is time for you to play and make mud. Use the colors I have used and then branch out to other colors on your pallet.
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We are finishing up our adventure into the art of journaling. During the first 2 sessions we talked about planning and preparing ourselves to start a journal. If you are working in a journal all of these different videos that have been presented could be done at the same time. For the purpose of the film’s organization we have broken this process into page sections and filmed each one individually. Our last page spread will be concentrating on “Gratitude”.
Give yourself a few minutes to reflect anytime you open your journal. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary a journey is "the travel or passage from one place to another". We use our journal to record this "trip". It does not have to be a get up and go trip. It can be our "journey" through life.
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Your journal is off to a great start! Your journal follows your perspective therefore it is unique to you. This is your way to organize your life and feelings. If you need weekly or daily calendars you can create it here! Organize your thoughts and feelings here, use this as your safe place. This is the perfect place to keep your notes together if you need to plan an upcoming event or assignment. Your journal is your journey. Make it a great one.
]]>We are continuing our adventure into the art of journaling. In the last lesson cut apart old magazines, stickers, ad flyers and anything with words on it to create our pages. We then organized the words and phrases into categories, some of the sets of words were put aside and others were used on the page we worked on. If I were actually journaling my thoughts I would arrange the words on the pages that I needed and glue them down instead of putting them aside for the next week. Since each video session concentrates on a theme I have started each lesson with a new page.
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In this lesson we have learned how to use directional arrows to follow and make a path to our thoughts on paper. Please remember that your journal is very personal to you. Make yourself happy when you write in it. We will do one more video on journaling. We are grateful to have you following us at Gazing Through Glass and our final journal spread will feature Gratitude.
]]>As we get ready for the new school year, we at Gazing Through Glass thought it would be a good idea to talk about artistic journaling. According to The University of Rochester Medical Center the term journaling is the modern term given to "keeping a diary". By journaling you can reduce stress, deal with depression, organize your thoughts and life, improve your mood and track what makes you happy or sad. Journaling does not have to be the plain old “right a paragraph” about your day. Creative journaling is in itself an art form. You are encouraged to doodle while you think, draw tracks to lead your way through the page and in general make it unique.
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Journaling is a very personal form of art. We are creatively putting our words on paper as an artistic means of expressing ourselves. It is up to you if you want to share your journal with someone, keep in mind that you are telling others about your most "inner" thoughts and feelings.
]]>In Basics of Watercolor Pen and Ink Part 2,Geranium Study in Pen and Ink, Geranium Planter Study in Pen and Ink, and Sketching - Hatch Marks we concentrated on sketching using hatch marks. This lesson will take all of those hints and tips and move on to a new medium called Scratchboard. Although you can buy scratchboard at your local hobby store we talk about how scratchboard is made. We will be using “tools” to scratch into the board. I used tools that you can find around your house, anything with a point will work. If you shop at Michaels and Hobby Lobby you might look for something like this. Scratchboard can be bought at many craft stores but looks like this. At one point I mention using paper that can be scratched. For this project I suggest using the board for a sturdier scratching.
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When you finish your bear face you should have a piece of art worth framing. This will need to be framed with the art behind glass, a mat will not be necessary as anything other than setting it away from the frame edges. There are many more methods we can use to create scratchboard art. This was only “scratching the surface”.
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While working with pen and ink, Sandy realized that everyone might need a little more detailed instruction on hatching marks. Hatching marks are the main way that you add shading and shadows to your sketches. In this lesson we will learn 6 of the basic forms of hatch marks and put them to use in our sketch of a teddy bear. Sandy takes you from the planning stage of a picture to actually beginning your piece of art. By talking through her thought process, we hope that you will not feel overwhelmed when you look at a blank piece of paper.
We finish this video off by talking about evaluating your own work. We all do projects and often forget to really look at it after it is finished. It is now time to study it and give it an honest critique. This isn’t the fishing for compliments type of critiquing. Study your work and find the things you did really well. Nice work. Now look at the things that are not so good. What can you do better, now is the time to address that issue. Sometimes it is best to simply start over and plan better. Do not over correct an already beautiful piece of art. Finally, we talk about your signature. You as an artist need to sign your work. Claim it but don't let the signature over power the art.
]]>We have worked on sketching the extra’s positioned in front of my door. We are now proficient with sketching a geranium and a pot of geraniums. Now we are going to put these individual pieces together and do a whole scene using my front door as the focal point. In this lesson we are talking a lot about shading with “hatch” marks. This is going to be a very important technique to master and in our next couple of lessons we will be working more with this skill.
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This technique is called pen and ink. A lot of artists will do cityscapes using this method. We used our sketchbook which has inexpensive paper. Once we have worked out exactly what we want to do with our door sketch we can switch to a more premium paper. When using a premium paper after you have the ink on you will be able to use traditional watercolors to finish it. In the coming weeks we are going to delve further into using “hatch marks”. Understanding shadows is the most basic part of mastering sketching.
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We have done a study on a single geranium flower. This lesson will take you further into the world of geraniums by sketching a pot of geraniums first in pencil then in ink.
Click here for the reference photo
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We have now taken a simple study and expanded on it. We might not have needed to know exactly how a geranium flower is put together because we had 6-7 of them in the pot. But we were all more comfortable with the idea of having to draw these flowers since we had studied them last lesson. So now get ready because we have worked up to draw the door next lesson!
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Creating a composition requires many elements working together. We are working towards creating a painting in pen and ink of my front door. Your job will be to work along with me in these lessons. When it is complete you will all have a painting of my front door that you can be proud of or throw away. True learning will have happened. After you have completed the front door painting you will be ready to take a picture of your front door and create a picture unique to you. Now we need to learn how to break down the individual elements in our painting. There will be a door, wreath, and a planter of geraniums. Let’s start breaking down the elements by looking at a single geranium.
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Congratulations! You have completed a single geranium study. Now you are ready to practice this flower over and over. The more you practice the easier the next step will be. The purpose of doing this is to get comfortable with your geranium. Most people need to practice this over and over to achieve mastery.
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We have another special occasion coming up this month. In America the third Sunday of June is set aside to celebrate Father’s Day. The lesson will give you another technique to use in card making. We will take the card from the planning stage to the finishing stage. We will be using a plastic fork that we will break a tine off and use the remaining pieces to create letters, please be mindful when disposing of this small piece of plastic.
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Your finished card will fit inside a 5” x 7” envelope. Take your time and enjoy the process of card making. Your neatest lettering will give you the best results. So many times when we write something our mind work faster than our fingers. Therefore, I pencilled in the words and then went over them in Uniball Signo Gel Pen. This is important because we were working with water. We want to make sure that the ink would not bleed if the card was slightly damp.
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Last week we used Arteza Water-Based Real Brush Pens and tried to learn the techniques necessary to make a successful painting. This week I wanted to see how using actual #WatercolorPaints would compare to using of the Arteza brush pens. It is an interesting experiment when analyzing and comparing these 2 products. Both mediums have pros and cons and will take practice to become proficient.
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Now we compare the last week’s lesson with water-based Arteza Real Brush Pens to this lesson with watercolor paints. The brush pens control the amount of water that mixes with the color, this eliminates the learning curve you will initially experience when using watercolor paints. These Real Brush Pens have a true brush tip letting you feel like you are watercolor painting mores than if you were using a water based felt tipped marker like the @Tombow Dual Brush pens we used in the Mother’s Day Card lesson. When using water-based brush pens, you have more reliable color consistency from project to project (you know that you will get very close to the pigment color readily available in the pen). Watercolor paint must be reactivated with each use and the color will vary depending on the water:pigment ratio. This ratio is a variable that you have the ability to control more precisely with practice. When we create a watercolor painting I prefer to be able to control the color concentration by adjusting how much water I use. For this reason, I will never trade in my watercolors. I can see how useful and convenient the water-based brush pens are and will plan to use them in future projects when indicated. I also see how they might be the preferred tool for others. For example, I do not want to carry my good watercolor brushes, watercolor paints, tray and water when traveling. There is great convenience with a pack of brush pens and a pad of watercolor paper allowing you easy access to supplies you need to create a beautiful picture on the go.
We look forward to seeing your beautiful creations and welcome any questions, comments or feedback. Share your finished projects with us in the comments, tag us(Sandy, Jacki, Gazing Through Glass) on social media, and/or use hashtags #GazingThroughGlass and #FreeArtForAll.
This is an honest review and comparison of these products that we purchased and is not endorsed or sponsored by any company or supply.
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Lesson 84 Basics of Watercolor Pen and Ink Part 1
We are still working with pen and ink while creating art. The ink is permanent and allows us to use water based colors on top of it. This is a legitimate form of art. Pen and ink allows the artist to control the amount of contrast in the artwork. By adding color you can also add more visual interest. If you do not have brush pens refer to “making Mother’s Day card” for information on how to use markers like watercolors.
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Using the pen brushes lets you get the feeling of using watercolors. When you use regular markers you have as much control as if you were using a crayon. The brush pens are a cross between the 2 methods. We used several of the methods about watercolor that we have previously covered. Please refer to Throwing Paint , Scribble Art in Watercolor II, and Scribble Art in Watercolor.
This image gives a little more detail to the different techniques used in this video.
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Lesson 83 - Sketching - Doodles
After weeks of learning about 15th century artists we are moving into just having fun with art. What better way to have fun than by doodling. If you are using the word “doodle” as a verb it means you are drawing or scribbling idly. According to the dictionary to a doodle is a waste of time doing an aimless or foolish activity. We are definitely not wasting time here. In fact, we are going to learn how to doodle effectively. You can doodle using pencils, pens, markers or anything that makes a line on a piece of paper or any surface you can draw on. The thing we need to learn about doodling is how to simplify the subject. We will start this lesson with a very simple greeting card design that has a birdhouse and fence.
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Some people might think that doodling is a waste of time. Nothing can be further from the truth. Many artists start out a project simply doodling ideas. The creative process is working here. Doodles let your fingers give form to what is playing in your mind. The important thing about doodles is to follow through and see where it will lead your art to.
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We finish up our Renaissance Series with Michaelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni 1475-1564. Michaeloangelo wanted to be known as a sculptor. He studied Da Vinci’s David and created a larger one. At this time in history these artists pushed each other to achieve excellence but with that came animosity. Michaelangelo’s best customer was the Catholic Church. He was commissioned for statue’s, tomb carvings, and church designs by Bishops, Cardinals and Popes. Even though he worked for these people he remained true to his art and created beauty as he saw fit. He was just 33 years old when he started working on the Sistine Chapel. The Creation of Adam is his most reproduced work of art. In this video we will concentrate on just a small portion of that beautiful painting.
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Too many times young artists rush to complete a project and never go back and look at it with “fresh eyes”. We will ask others what they think or we will put it aside and forget about it. An artist needs to learn to look at their work and understand how to improve it. This video instructs you to make 1 correction at a time. Stop. Look again with fresh eyes and make another correction. If you try to fix everything at once you will most likely overwork the piece. This self control allows you to enjoy your piece of art.
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This video concentrates on the works of Renaissance Artist Raphael Sanzio de Urbino. 1483-1520. His first major piece was commissioned by Pope Julius II in 1500, he was just 17. He was the youngest of the 4 painters we are focusing on. He probably studied and tried to learn their styles. He was hugely popular and extremely “cute” and was known as “the prince of painters”. Today we are going to sketch a face and study the proportions. In order to become a portrait artist you need to know how to sketch a face and keep the porportions correct. You might get a picture of a face and take notes about how I obtained my measurements on it as you watch the video.
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Anatomy of an Eye starring Renaissance Artist Leonardo about sketching an eye.
We start the face with the eyes. At the wides part of the face it measures about 5 eyes across. We put 5 “eye areas” in.
Raphael knew exactly how a face was constructed. He was able capture the character of the model and give it life with just a few strokes of his pencil. The only way that can happen is with practice. With practice you will be able to draw any face and find the characteristics that make it unique.
*Special thanks to Pixaby for the allowing us to use their photos.
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Mother’s Day is coming up in America. It is a great time to work on our card making skills. We will be concentrating on the importance of lettering and I will walk you through the way I plan the card’s front and inside page. I will also take this opportunity to introduce the different markers that may be available to you and talk about the care of them. All markers are water based and washable. If you need more background on Lettering in art you need to check out Lettering in Pop Art and Comic Strips . Much of this video came about from Jacki’s work with Loveleigh University, Loveleighloops.com. I really dislike videos that are longer than 40 minutes. I am sorry to say that this video is 90 minutes. However, it has very detailed instructions. Therefore, thanks to my wonderful videographer, Jacki, we were able to give links to a short version and a long version. It is up to you to determine which video you will need. I also encourage practicing the lettering before putting it on your card. So much of the long video is me showing you how to practice and how to correct your mistakes.
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Card making is an art in itself. Not only do you have to be an artist to illustrate it you also have to be a writer o convey your feelings. These are just some of the tools that a card artist might use. The best thing to take away from this experience is the importance of practice. Your practice will improve your efforts and give you a card you can be proud of. But I know mothers, they love anything you make them. I can guarantee that this card will be kept for years and years!
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The Golden Ratio starring Renaissance Artist Leonardo DiVinci
Leonardo DiVinci surrounded himself with brilliant people. He used his God given talents to enhance his friends talents. During the 15th century many mathematicians were inventing mathematical equations explaining things that happened in nature: the center of a sunflower, a conch shell, the top of a cactus, pinecone, snail. Mathematicians and DiVinci noticed that these patterns, which occur naturally, were pleasing to the eye (Aesthetically Pleasing) and something that the human brain is innately drawn to. Leonardo’s friend, Luca Pacioli (1445-1517) wrote a book called Divine Proportions. DiVinci illustrated this book which talked about the “golden ratio’s” appearance in the human body and also in architecture. The Golden Ratio is the ratio of a line segment cut into two pieces of different lengths such that the ratio of the whole segment to that of the longer segment is equal to the ratio of the longer segment to the shorter segment. This lesson will break this idea down in terms we can use with our art. There will be no math required to understand this. But if you are a math person you might find the mathematics behind it enlightening.
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No one is saying that this is the only way to make a piece of art that will be valuable and pleasing to the majority of people. This is only a tool to help you figure out why you like a picture or what you need to do to make it work better for you. I critique a number of paintings I have done and use the Golden Ratio to analzye why it has not captivated its audience. If you look at some of the most famous works of art you will see this tool is used by the masters. DiVinci’s Mona Lisa has a number of “coils” within the main coil. He is directing your attention exactly where he wants you to look first. In Van Gogh’s starry night you can see how he used that “coil” to direct his placement of the air movement and stars. Some artists do not need to use the coil. Their work is natural and it just happens. But most artists are not genius’ and will need to rely on all of their tools. These art lessons are made to give you tools to use in your art world. I leave it up to you to figure out if you need to use them or not.
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Leonardo da Vinci studied anatomy with Doctor Marcantonia de la Torre, ironically Dr. Marcantonia died of the plague and over 240 detailed drawings and 13,000 words were never published. Leonardo da Vinci had to get permission from the Pope in order to dissect corpses in order to study human anatomy. Leonardo is know for his pen and ink sketch of the Vitruvian Man. We talk about how this pen and ink drawing is not usually seen in museams. Today there are artists who do detailed drawings for Anatomy Books. In todays lesson we will explain what is needed to do an anatomy drawing and concentrate on the anatomy of an eye. Instead of dissecting an eye we will use an anatomy book called “The Anatomy Coloring Book” by Wynn Kapity and Lawrence M. Elson. We have done a couple of videos and talked about the sizes of human bodies, if you are interested you can view Lesson 15 Stickmen and Lesson 16 Beyond Stickmen.
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An artist has to study how something is made before they can accurately portray it. By understanding that the eyeball is a curved shape and not a flat shape we are able to make the eye look 3D. Once again daVinci’s talent with perspective has improved his overall depiction of the human body.
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In this lesson we will advance from making a stickman drawing by using a stuffed animal to draw the basic shape of a stickman. We talk about the proportions needed to make the stickman body compare to a human body. Use your sketchbook to do your planning. That way you will always have a reminder of how you created your sculpture. Thanks to our model, Grover monster, who we can move him around and draw stickmen in a pose that will eventually be our sculpture. The key to a successful sculpture is a firm base. Your sculpture will have to be able to sit on a tabletop without a prop.
We finish up the lesson with a reminder of using simple shapes in our sketching. I chose to sketch an ink pen and talked about how I would draw it and shade it.
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Some of us need to learn how to draw a stick man. We start with the most basic of drawing tools; a line. A stickman needs does not need any embellishments to know that it is a stickman.
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Practice making stickmen. After you have the mastered making stickmen in the magazine and then stickmen on your sketchpad try to sketch out people you see in your world.
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Leonardo da Vinci #Renaissance Man , 1452-1519, was the son of Messer Piero Fruisino De Antonio and a peasant woman Caterina. Leonardo was basically home schooled and was not sent away to study until he became an apprentice to a painter, Andrea Del Verracchio in Florence. Gazing Through Glass revious videos that demonstrated how to do one point perspective: A view from above https://www.facebook.com/160139490687339/videos/198765664754092 A view from below https://www.facebook.com/160139490687339/videos/2617566848373112. Playing with Perspective https://www.facebook.com/160139490687339/videos/647965139326093. Find 1 Point Perspective https://www.facebook.com/gazingthroughglass/videos/?ref=page_internal. In these previous videos I used a blank piece of paper in which we controlled the vanishing point and the horizon line. This video will use graph paper in an effort to help us stay on the same ‘plane’.
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Leonardo kept journals of his thoughts, sketches, ideas and plans. He used mathematics to perfect the one point perspective. He could create 3D paintings and murals that astounded the public. Many of his paintings and projects remained unfinished. It is interesting to note that those unfinished works of art are valued and viewed in museums all over the world.
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*I have never done a wax carving before. This was a learning experience for both of us. I apologize that this video is so long. I encourage you to break it up. Do the sketch and prep work and then do the carving.
This lessons concentrates on Donatello di Niccola di Betto Bardi. In the art world he is known as Donatello. He was born in 1386 in Florence, Italy and died in 1466. Donatello was an artist, architect, mathematician and sculptor. He used 1 point perspective when designing a “Frieze”; not so it would show distance but so that a person standing on a street would be able to see all of the sculpture at the top of the building. He was hired a lot by the churches; therefore his sculptures were often of Saints and biblical characters. This lesson will give you a glimpse of what it might be like to carve a statue.
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Step 1. Sketch the “I love you” emoji included in video in a 5.5” x 4.5” size and then 2.5” x3.5”
Step 2. Position bar under the smaller sketch. Using a pointed instrument poke holes around the hand into the bar.
Step 3. Take off the wax in small shavings. Do not attempt to remove more the a shaving of wax at a time.
**it might be helpful to carve on a surface where you can roll up the shavings to either throw away or save for a later purpose.
Step 4. Round the corners of the fingers when you have the basic hand shape in the wax.
***You can make this as detailed as you want. Just keep whittling away till it is perfect in your eyes.
The images used illustrating the works of Donatello came from Wikipedia, History.com and we need to thank Cheryl Nielson at @paint my photo for the photo of The Cathedral of Santa Maria Del Fiore. You cannot really compare the tv show character Donatello to the artist Donatello. The writers of the comic did not set out to create turtles that would mimic the actual artists. Some of the jokes in which the TNMT make sometimes refer to an artistic attribute but the actual character actions do not follow suit.
COWBAUNGA!
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This lesson concentrates on using colored pencils to create a greeting card that is a great way to honor mom on Mother’s Day. This lesson expands on the lesson talking about sketching tulips. Click here to access that lesson. We encourage you to try to sketch your own tulip but feel free to use the pencil sketch I have included if you want to do a tulip exactly like mine. This lesson is concentrating on using colored pencils to complete your card. Included in this lesson will be a tutorial on how to trace the tulips, if you do not think you are up to drawing the tulips.
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Your card should be a work of art on its own. It can befitted with an 8” x 10” mat and framed.
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Lesson 75 - Renaissance Art - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
We are beginning a new series of art lessons using the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT). Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo and Michaelangelo were the famous turtles named after famous artists who lived during the 15th century. During this lesson we will be sketching the cartoon character turtles and using colored pencils to color them in. For more information using colored pencils refer the lesson on creating a Tulip Greeting Card .
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Refer to the small inset pictures of the TMNT as your guide. Draw the basic shapes of all of the heads before starting to color them in. During the video we introduce the term “Renaissance Art” and talk about the years that happened (1400-1499). We introduce the names of the characters and talk about how they had been named after very famous Renaissance Artists.
For the next 4 weeks we will be studying each of the artists and talking about their contributions to the art world. We will also study their styles and do an art project to highlight it. Feel free to start your own research on Donatello. You can post any comments or questions you might have to make sure I cover the information that you found fascinating.
Cowabunga Dude!
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This lesson will examine how to make a color wheel that fits your needs. It will explain your need to buy additional colors of paint and then how to adapt your palette. This knowledge will help you make the most economical purchases of paints.
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Step 5 is your end result today. When you paint your paintings it is easier if you have a tube of the color rather than mixing it over and over. Color harmony is one way your paintings will be successful. Therefore, the secondary colors that you have mixed should be available to you in a tube. It will save time and frustration. By understanding your color wheel you know what the paints will do when mixed with each other before you apply it to your painting.
We ended the video by playing with the left over paint. I showed you how to play with the intent to learn without an expected outcome. The pressure to perform has been taken away and we all learn through play. Enjoy your watercolors. We will periodically use watercolors in future videos. We welcome your questions, frustrations, success and failures it helps us gear these instructional videos to your needs.
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This lesson will focus on the different types of watercolors available to you and help you decide what you want to work with. You can buy watercolor in premade pans of colors. Prang is a great student grade watercolor coming with 8 colors in a palette. Their colors mix well together and have enough pigment to give you an impressive painting at a nominal price. There are other pans of paints sets available. The important thing is to remember that it is up to you to understand how the colors provided with your set interact with each other.
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Instructions:
Decide which color you want to work with. We looked at the difference between using fresh wet paint (Green Appetite Genuine) and the same paint that was dry on my palette. Next we looked at the Prang paint. Water was dropped into the blue and allowed to set and “activate” the color. We did a simple wash with the blue. Then we compared it to getting purple without having “activating” the color. Next I tried the Art Philosophy paint, which I had previously activated. Then we switched to Daniel Smith Ultra Marine Blue tube fresh from the tube. We talk about how much fresh tube paint you need to load onto your brush to be successful and frugal. We end by making 3 roses; one from the Tube of Daniel Smith Perylene Red and Green Appetite Genuine, one from Art Philosophy Pan Set and the last from Daniel Smith Tube Watercolors that had dried on my palette.
Ideas to take away from todays lesson. Water is the key to watercolors. When using a tube of watercolor you need very little of the pigment:water ratio. You need to know how your colors blend with each other before you start your painting. Lastly, play - play - play, no pressure to perform.
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Click here for the free art tutorial
This lesson focuses on working on the skills needed to sketch a flower. For more information about simple shapes go to https://www.facebook.com/160139490687339/videos/267441784265561 . For more information on how pencils are numbered and which number on the pencil that you should use go to https://www.facebook.com/160139490687339/videos/594678134556214 .
You need to start by understanding how a real flower is put together. Look at the parts of the flower and see how sturdy or delicate it is, see how the petals fit together. How many petals are there in a row, how many rows in a rose. Understand the basic structure from the stem to the tip. Then draw the basic shape ( square, circle, triangle….) you see. After you have the basics drawn it is time to figure out where the shadows should be placed. Using little triangles find those shadows. The final part is putting it all together with the various shading techniques.
Supplies:
The only additional instruction necessary is to tell you to not press heavily on the pencil. Your best sketching will happen if you apply layers of pencil rather than 1 heavy line.
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