Skip to main content

Paint Application and Mark-Making

We've   been talking about brushwork and palette knives, and I want to talk a little about paint application and mark-making.

Paint can be applied with so many different tools. We all started out with finger painting, and brushes seem to be an extension of our fingers, but you can put paint onto a ground with a palette knife, old credit card, sponge, roller, etc. And besides the tools you use, you have options with the techniques. I took the following list of paint application techniques from a Craftsy Post:

1. Dry brushing: This is where you scrub layers of colors on using small amounts of paint.
2. Washing: This is when you apply a thin layer of diluted paint over the colors already applied. The thin veil of color allows the colors underneath to still shine through.
3. Dabbing: For adding texture. Apply thick paint with a stiff bristle brush or a sponge, with a pouncing motion or with quick dabs. Dabbing can be done in multiple layers to build depth.
4. Detailing: This is when you use a smaller, pointed brush to add clean lines and details.
5. Stippling: Creating an assemblage of tiny dots.
6. Spattering: Using a fairly wet brush, you can flick or splatter paint.
7. Palette knife: Like spreading butter.
 
Mark-Making is similar to application in that you can use many different tools, but the goal is to create a pattern, lines, or texture. I use my favorite pair of pointy scissors for drawing marks into wet paint, to show the colors below, building up layers of texture and pattern, then often add lines using crayons or paint markers to help tie parts together and create some order from the chaos.

Here is my latest work, a larger version of my Rock Garden. Notice the mark-making on the bottom part that will become grass eventually, and on the central red and blue areas that will be soil and moss. (I'm using a dramatic underpainting of complimentary colors):

Day one

Day two


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Composition and Principles of Design

Composition is the way you arrange the parts of your picture on the page. Artists work to arrange the parts (lines, shapes, colors, and textures) on the page so that they will grab the viewer’s attention and keep the eye moving all around.  When you begin to work with composition you step away from rendering exactly what you see, and begin to make artistic decisions about what you want to express, and how. The process of composing the picture is called design , a process of selection, simplification, distortion, and rearranging.  Artists use "principles of design" to make decisions about how to arrange the parts of a drawing. Some of these include: Variety:  Using different shapes, lines, colors, and textures to create interest. Harmony: Using similar shapes, lines, colors, and textures to help the design hold together.  Unity:  Organizing the parts of a design so they work together.  Simplicity: Eliminating parts in order to create better unity. Balan...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nature Sketching

A  nature journal is a collection of drawings from observation in nature:  Get a sketch book and some drawing tools and take them with you when you go to the woods or the beach. Draw what interests you, and take notes.  Drawing in nature can help you to understand how plants and animals are put together, and also help you to really see and remember. I usually combine nature drawing with photos, so if I decide to do a larger drawing or painting in the studio I have plenty of reference material. A page in your nature sketchbook doesn’t have to be a pretty, finished drawing. It’s a practical tool and it can help you learn new things.  Add some metadata to your page, like the date, the weather;  note the size, the color, the habitat or the smell. What does it feel like? Where did you find it?  Add questions that you want to look up later. Here are different ideas and methods that you can use in your nature journal. Draw one item in natu...
Post a Comment
Read more