The Artist Painting Tips
To give you a taste of what's in the e-books, some tips have been posted up here. These will be added to as new e-books come out. We also include the tips on Chris's Facebook page, 'The Blake Studio'. If you would like to be added to the mailing list (We send out 2-3 e-mails a year listing all Chris's activities), send us a message from the 'Contact Me' page.
Drawing Figures (From the 'People in the Landscape' e-book)
An interesting and easy way of developing your skill at doing figures in different poses is to go to the sports section of the newspaper. There, you have sportsmen in all sorts of poses. Go over the picture – a circle or rectangle for the head, a rectangle for the upper body, rectangles for the upper and lower arms, more rectangles for the pelvic area and the upper and lower legs, and triangles for the feet. You will soon get a feel for how to draw the human figure in a range of poses.
A 21 Day Drawing Plan:
Good drawing skills are an essential part of any painting, in particular pastels. This is because pastel is essentially a drawing medium. Practice makes perfect, so for this, I recommend a 21-day drawing plan. It takes a hen 21 days of sitting to hatch an egg. My proposal is that you also spend 21 days drawing for 21 minutes every day. What do you draw? Just wait till the family has had their breakfast. The bowls, the plates, the milk bottles and the corn flakes are there on the table. Sit down and draw them before you clear them away. Work for 21 minutes. You can go over, but not under the 21 minutes. Put the date and time on your work and next morning, repeat. The objects will be in a different positions and it will be a different drawing exercise. Hint: best done at the same time each morning so it becomes a routine.
How to hold your painting or drawing tool:
This rule, although directed to pastel artists also applies to brush artists. As pastels are largely a drawing medium, holding the pastel tightly will result in a hard or heavy stroke. The looser you hold your pastel or brush, the lighter or more delicate stroke you obtain. This is really important when attempting to do glazing in pastel or wet on wet in oils.
Townscapes and Perspective with Buildings
A. When faced with a seemingly complex townscape or building one is often at a loss as to where to start. Begin by moving a frame with approximately the dimensions (not necessarily the size) of your canvas over your initial image to determine your composition.
B. Once you have determined your composition draw all the vertical lines in first, making sure that you have the correct distances between them. This will involve measurement but if one starts with the first vertical one thirds in from the edge of the page, all the verticals should slip into place.
C. After your verticals are in place, determine where your horizon line is (eye level). Lightly draw this in. Diagonal lines e.g. bases of walls or tops of roofs running away from you will merge towards the horizon line. Those above the horizon line will be going down; those below the horizon line will be going up. Where they meet is known as the vanishing point. This is a fundamental law of perspective. A. When faced with a seemingly complex townscape or building one is often at a loss as to where to start. Begin by moving a frame with approximately the dimensions (not necessarily the size) of your canvas over your initial image to determine your composition.
D. Cars in a townscape: Cars are not the most appealing thing to paint. However, if you are creating a townscape, it’s difficult to escape from the fact that those hard, metallic, bulky objects are just part of the scene and they’re there to show life. The easiest way to paint or draw cars is to break them down into their simplest form. Most things can be broken down into three basic shapes – a box, a circle and a triangle. Even the last 2 can be contained in the box. If you’re working from a photo, break your vehicle down into the basic shapes – biggest ones first and construct it from there.