Episode 60

Hello, folks!  I’m glad to be back here today to show you a new tutorial.  I’ve recently been interested in the regency era, and I found this beautiful picture on Pinterest, and I thought, “Why not paint it?”

I decided to make it ever harder by using pastels.  Now, before I begin, let me warn you.  PASTELS ARE MESSY.  And when I mean messy, I mean your whole entire floor will be green from that lovely dark green you used…If you don’t take precautions.  I would advise using something with a tray underneath it as you use pastels, and do it outside, or with newspaper on the ground.  Also, wear clothes you don’t care about, or cover yourself in towels, like I did.

Now, on to the art project!

You’ll need…

A pastel set (I have a set of 72 different colors my aunt gave me.)

Pastel paper

A pencil

Eraser

Fixative

(optional: tape)

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This was the prompt I chose.

So, first off, I taped my pastel paper to my music stand, which will be serving as my easel.  I had the choice of grey, or a more skin tone, and I chose the skin tone, since it was easier to rip out.

Now, the first rule I always try to follow (and usually forget) is when drawing, start with what’s closer, but when painting, start with the farther away things.  I’m really bad at freehand painting, and that’s why I always sketch before I paint.  Start with your person’s head.

I gradually sketch more and more…and then erase more and more. XD Just work with one line at a time, or one shape at a time.  I ended up erasing the whole head, and moving it back a bit, and then I erased the arm, and the shoulder…And you get the point. Just play around with it.

Now, I’ve added a bit of the detail.  I don’t want the girl to be too detailed, or else I’ll get distracted.  Just a rough outline.  Now, you’re ready for pastels!

I decided to start with a light blue for the background, and then mix a light grey with it.

This is what it should look like once you mix it all up.  I portioned the painting off because I wanted to. (Haha.) You can do whatever you like with the background of your painting.  I find the less detail, the better and easier, especially with pastel.

For the top part of the background, I used mostly a dark red, blue, and a very dark grey.

I have a lot of pictures of this in progress, but I’ll give you this one.  I used the darker color more in the corners, and left a gap in the mid-left side.  If you look at the prompt, you can see the light reflecting.  That’s why I left that spot there.

Part of the reason pastels are so messy is that you use your fingers to smear, and smear, and smear some more.  Honestly, if you love mud, and dirty hands, this is the art project for you!  (I actually enjoy those things…Sooo…) Smear your colors together, and bring them as close to the lines you’ve made as possible.

I used lots of different blues, and white for the light reflecting, and then I took more of the red.  Smear those together.

These are the different yellows I used for the thin strip in the middle of the background.

I took the darker yellow, and outlined the outside, and used the lighter yellow for the inside.  Another good thing about pastels are that they’re really forgiving…And they let you continue to work with different things.  I also added more white to the background, with a bit more red.

I took some orange that I felt needed to be used to outline the outside a bit more, and then the brightest yellow for the inside.  Smear it together.

I used a purple, and the same blue for the background to make the dress.  Just slather them on there, and smear ’em together.

The dress in the prompt has a lot of lines, and folds.  I used a blush pink to draw them, and the white to highlight the ones up top.  (Don’t worry if you end up smearing them…I did.)

I decided I needed more light and dark contrast, so I used a lot of white on the left side of the dress, and a lot of an eggplant color on the right.  Use as much white as possible, but be gentle with the dark colors.  Dark colors aren’t as forgiving as the light colors. 😉

It took me a long time to get satisfied with the dress.  Just play with it for a long time, and step back every once in a while to get a new look at it.  Then, add the white for the gloves and sleeves.

I used a yellowish creme color for my person’s skin…At least, to start the skin.

Add the blush color you used on the dress, some white, and a brighter yellow where you think the shadows are.

I decided I didn’t like how bright the background was, so I paused on the skin and slathered white all over the background, and smeared it all together.

The background ended up like this.

Take a bit of dark grey, and accentuate the shadows before taking a bright blue to outline the girl.  You don’t have to use blue…I’m just drawn to blue, since it’s my favorite color.  You could use a yellow, or a lighter color, or even a green.  It’s up to you.

Then add whatever color you want for her hair.  I’m partial to redhead. 😉 I couldn’t get the mirror to suit me.  Even now…I reluctantly admit that the mirror isn’t what I wish it was.  But I needed to post this for Art Lab. XD

I played with different colors, and played with the mirror.  Then, I left it like this for a while.

After a while of letting it sit, I came back to it and added more red, and grey.  Sign your name…

You have your finished project!  I will be the first to admit that this did NOT turn out like it should have, or like I wanted it to. *sigh* But…Let me know what you think.

Have you ever used pastel before?  What is your favorite historical era?  Do you enjoy messes?

~~Amie~~

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Episode 59

Hello folks!

Do you ever feel lost about what to paint or sketch? Do you ever find yourself without inspiration? Today, I’ll be sharing some fall inspiration through photography!

Pictures courtesy of Google

 

What do you do to gain inspiration? Here’s what I usually do:

• browse the web
• look outside
• eat a snack (food is important)
• listen to music
• read art blogs
• flip thru old sketchbooks
• grab a magazine
• read a favorite book–Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, Fablehaven
• take an artistic hiatus–DO THIS EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE!

I’ve created a special printable! To download, sign up for my newsletter here and grab it in my freebie library!

 

Mockup copyright bydawnnicole.com

 

Live creatively!

 

 

Episode 58

Hello, everyone! I’m Danielle, one of the new members of The Art Lab! I’m so excited to be sharing art tutorials with y’all, and hopefully you’ll like what I post. :p

Today’s artwork wasn’t really inspired by any particular piece of artwork. What I’m doing today is a pretty common style of watercolor, but my sister did help me come up with this and I have seen a lot of artwork similar to this,  so I guess you can say I got my inspiration from there. :p

(also, Hannah did some beautiful pen and watercolor autumn leaves in Episode 56 that I partially took inspiration from)

This is what we’ll be creating today. 😀

You will need:

• Paper (preferably watercolor paper, but I don’t have any at the moment, so I just used my sketchbook)
• Watercolors
• A black, fine-tip pen
• A pencil
• A paintbrush

And now we shall commence. 😉

First, I lightly sketched the wand (you can make it look however you want) with my pencil.

Then I just outlined the wand with my pen and added detail to the handle. 🙂

For the watercolor/magic part you can pick out any colors you want. I picked fall hues because it is fall, and I needed/wanted to make this kind of fall-ish. XD

Once you’ve picked out your colors, you can just start painting random swirls from the tip of the wand.

You can blend the colors together when you branch swirls off of each other.

Make sure your paint is completely dry before you add the pen detailing, or your pen will be ruined. I decided to add a few swirly lines to add a bit more depth to the painting. I did actually have to get a different pen (not because of the paint :p) for this part because my sister killed mine while working on her BuJo. -_- R.I.P. dear pen. (Don’t worry, my pen’s ink comes back after a couple of days with the cap on XD)

And thus we arrive at the finishing touches. I added some twinkles with my pen. If you want, you can add a background with your paint and add white stars, but I decided to leave mine simple. 😀

For me, this a Harry Potter wand, but you may draw whatever you want. You could do a fairy wand, a book, or a vintage bike. You could even draw a cheeseburger. XD The watercolor just represents the magic coming out of the object. For instance, I drew this jack ‘o lantern later:

I thought it was really cute and Halloween-ish. :p

I hope you enjoyed!

~Danielle

(Note: I forgot to sign them, so please don’t use these photos without permission)

Episode 57

Howdy, y’all.  My name is Amie, and I’m a new artist here on Art Lab.  Before I get started, I’ll give a few facts about myself.

–I’m a blogger at my blog, Crazy A

–I’m a bunny lover.

–I drink coffee.  ☕️

— I’m a writer, not a “real” artist. XD

— I will admit I love music, and playing my instruments more than my art.

I’m a homeschooled gal, and would enjoy seeing y’all over at my blog!

Okay, before we get started, I need to make a confession.  I’m a terrible artist.  I love art, and I love painting, sketching, or painting with pastels, but I’m not good at it.  So, bear with me, and hopefully we’ll learn together.

Today, I got my inspiration from this on Pinterest.

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So, these are the things you’ll need.

— Yellow Oxide Acrylic paint

— Hooker’s Green Acrylic paint

— Cadmium Red medium hue acrylic

— Neutral grey acrylic

–Settler’s Blue acrylic

— Mars Black acrylic

— Titanium white acrylic.

(I purchase most my paint from Dick Blick.  All of the above are purchased from there with the exception of Settler’s Blue, which is Folkart, and the tube of gold, which I ended up not using.)

— A pencil

— A glass of water

— A mixing knife

— Palate

— a wide flat brush

— A small, pointed brush

— A medium flat brush

— A medium round brush

— Canvas paper.

All right!  Once you have all that, or stuff similar to that, you can get started!  I took one sheet of canvas paper and my pencil.

I started by sketching my pumpkins.  My little sister told me to make them like this, and so, I did.  I find it easy to think of them as different sections as I draw, so that might help you.  Just remember to do the one farthest back first, and to draw lightly.

So, next draw the little berries and cotton.  (I found this one of the most enjoyable parts of the whole art project. 😂)

Continue drawing all over the page.  I decided to put a leaf at the very bottom.  I will admit, I now wish I didn’t…But I guess it’s too late now, isn’t it?  I stuck with little leaves, berries, and cotton, but this is where you can make the picture your very own.  What if you did Indian corn?  Or gum balls?  Or lavender sprigs?

Now, you can take your Hooker’s Green, and start filling in the leaves with your smallest brush.  Make sure you put a liberal amount in each leaf so that you can mix in some other colors later on.

Now, take the brown, and make a stem, but make sure it’s not a continued line.  Also, mix some of the brown with half of the green on the leaves, making the colors blend slightly.

Now, do that to all of the leaves you’ve drawn.

Lastly, mix some yellow in those leaves, making the yellow more distinct than the brown.

Now, move on to the berries.  With the same brush, grab a generous amount of red, and fill in those little circles.

Now, grab some more yellow, and put a little line on the undersides of the berries.  Don’t mix it in very much.

Now, I think I forgot to take a picture of the next thing. 😐  But, I will tell you!  Make the stems of the berries the same way as you did the leaves.  Then, mix a good amount of the red with the yellow to make a very strange orange.  DO NOT do the leaf first.  That was my mistake.  (Hehe.)

Next, add some white in a few places, a dab of black in the middle, and lots and lots of brown.  Once you’re happy with the results, add more paint and give the pumpkin a textured look.

Now, work a bit on the stem.  Make a big blob of brown, and mix white with it at the top. Then, traced a bit of black around it, and voila!  The orange pumpkin is done.

Now, ignore what I did with the leaf, and pay attention to the small pumpkin.  Grab a bunch of settler’s blue, and slather it on there.

Now, grab some white, and accentuate what you want to accentuate. I had fun doing that.  And then grab some brown to make the ridges.

Now, mess around with the yellow, brown, white, and grey coloring for a LONG time. XD At least, it took me a long time to get it where I was sorta happy with it.

Now, grab the white and make it nice a FLUFFY.  And grab the grey, and give it a swirl, but only on one half of the cotton.

Now, for the stem make the little three point flower of brown, and mix in some white.

And then add little white dots, and the cotton is done!

Now, just grab some of the yellow, and paint the leave before doing brown for the stem.  Don’t do too much, because the eye isn’t supposed to be attracted to the leaf.

Now, sign you’re name, and you are done!

Do you enjoy art?  What is your favorite “fallish” thing?  Have you ever seen a field of cotton?

~~Amie~~

Episode 56

Hello friends! Today I’m excited to be back with another Art Lab post! Since fall has officially begun, I thought it would be fun to celebrate with a neat watercolor leaf tutorial. It’s super easy, yet super cute!

I’d recommend practicing a little first, as if you’re not an expert watercolor painter (like me) then the leaves shape can be a little tricky at first. But then again, if you’re an expert……

Basically just paint some random leaf shapes, if you want you could also lightly pencil them out.

But of course all of this is just your personal preference.

Next, paint some leaves on your actually canvas, ATC, sketchbook page, or whatever material you’re using. You can make them as simple as you want, or as complex as you want. I’d recommend trying a few colors and sticking to them, rather than just using whatever colors you want at the moment. Although that could and couldn’t turn out neat. Remember, there is no wrong way to do art.

After the paint is dry and you are happy with it, then you can start adding details with a fine tip pen, such as stems, veins, etc.

Once you are happy with the pen details, then you’re finished! Congratulations!

Also, if you did try this technique, I’d love to see it, just email me at theartlabblog@gmail.com to share a picture! 😀

-Hannah