THE MOBILE ART STUDIO

Glazing oil paints is one of the chief techniques in oil painting. The aspiring artist might be lead to believe that glazing can only be done like the old masters, requiring many paint layers, linseed oil and hours of work. But anyone can learn about this great oil painting technique with just basic art materials and a couple of hours. Art Tutorial with Oils How to Glaze with Oil Colors Oil Painting Lesson Some oil colors are more translucent than others by their nature. However, pigments with high opacity can be made translucent by the addition of a little linseed oil.  I have therefore chosen oil colors of varying translucency for this art demonstration, which can be found on my art instruction video clip. Art Materials Needed for Oil Glazing Technique All that is needed are: a primed piece of card, measuring approx 10x8in or so. Notice on the left side of the image, I have placed oil colors which are relatively opaque. These are (from the top): cerul...

Drawing is more about how our brains interpret the information in front of us than what the hand is doing with the pencil. Having seen numerous drawings during my time teaching art, came across a common affliction, which appears as though the drawing is sloping to one side. Drawing Cure for Sloping Drawing Crooked Drawing I believe we are all biased towards one side of the world that we perceive. For instance, some people will be more aware of one side than the other. This bias will be reflected within the drawing which will appear to slope to one side or be squashed up on one corner of the page. The only way around this problem is to make the student aware of their crooked drawing problem. I find turning the drawing upside down or viewing it through the mirror effective in making the student aware of this sloping problem. Drawing Class in Fields of Vision A Basic Drawing Lesson The world that we see can be thought of as four divisions: upper left, lower l...

Drawing not only involves what the pencil is doing on paper, but also what is going on in the brain between the mark-making. In fact, drawing begins before the first line is drawn. During my years teaching, I came across students who struggled to draw. I noticed that a common feature of this low drawing ability was the tendency not to look at what is in front but to draw what is believed to be in front. A struggle to draw often comes in tandem with a low visual awareness. Cure for Low Drawing Ability Optical Illusions can Occur in Real Life when Drawing Low visual awareness means taking little notice of how things are arranged around us. This might be difficulty in judging the angle of a contour, the size of an object next to another object. An inability to make visual judgments can manifest itself in many ways, such as the inability to hang a painting perfectly level, or to arrange objects in a balanced still life. How Distorted Perception can Ruin a Drawing ...

This simple shading exercise on Ingres paper was completed as a step by step Youtube clip. Each stage is clearly laid out within the speed art movie, but is explained in depth here. This drawing demo comprises a typical village scene, in this case, a church enclosed by trees. The church is located in the Lake District in the UK. Materials Needed for Shading on Ingres Paper Pastel Pencils for Shading Ingres Paper The drawing equipment used for this sketch was pastel pencils in the following colors: white, light grey, mid grey, sepia and black. A wide pencil sharpener, HB pencil and eraser were used for the preliminary drawing. The Ingres paper used was A5 (8inx6.5in) in size. What is Ingres Paper? Briefly, Ingres paper is simply a toned paper with a canvas-like texture. I used mid grey paper in this exercise, where the texture was like canvas. Ingres paper can be found in an array of tones from duck egg to dark grey. The texture of Ingres paper means that soft pencil ...

An effective oil painting can be completed in half an hour and with just five oil colors. This oil painting demonstration required the simplest art materials, ideal for the student who prefers to use basic materials. The scene comprises a tree next to a river, ideal for painting reflections. My other blog, Oil Painting Medic provides more exercises and advice on using this versatile medium. Simple Art Demonstration on Painting Reflections How to Paint Water Step by Step The art materials needed for this demonstration are: Oil colors: titanium white, pthalo blue, burnt sienna, cadmium lemon and viridian. Only a flat bristle no. 6 and round sable no. 3 were used. Artists’ spirit was needed only for cleaning the brushes at the end of the session. I had primed a small panel with two coats of gesso before beginning the painting. The panel measured 7x9inches. A HB pencil and eraser was needed for sketching in the composition before laying down the paint. My youtube...

One of the most common problems with drawing is the affliction of skewed-looking objects. The crooked look to a drawing may remain unforeseen until the drawing is well under way. The solution is to practice drawing symmetrical objects freehand without any drawing aids. Drawing Exercise to Improve Skill Symmetry can be found in many objects including ornaments, tools, creatures and art. I believe that students with low drawing ability lack visual awareness of one or more quadrants of the visual field, whether this is the left, right, top or bottom of a page. This results in a drawing that appears to lean to one side, or to be placed too far on one corner of the page. Common problems are: teapots that appear to lean to one side, lob-sided ellipses, squashed-up edges of portraits or animal drawings. Drawing Lesson for Beginners Crooked Drawings become Obvious when Placed in a Grid Countering skewed drawings can be aided by the practice of symmetrical drawing...

Drawing ellipses is one of the basics of drawing techniques. However, I have seen many of my students struggle with drawing a basic ellipse. The ellipse’s gentle curves and its symmetry can be hard to put down freehand. Not only that, but the ellipse’s arc will shift in appearance depending upon how the vessel is viewed. Difficulty in drawing Ellipses Drawing an Ellipse The challenge becomes ever more difficult if an object has multiple ellipses such as that seen on the thread of bottle tops or ornaments. The best thing to do is to draw the simplest ellipse shape before venturing further. My video clip on drawing the most basic ellipse shape will enable the artist to build upon this skill when more complex subject matter is tackled. Mistakes in Drawing Ellipses Improvements can be made in drawing when looking out for common mistakes whilst drawing an ellipse. This can also be seen in the video clip, which includes: drawing ellipses with corners, sloping ellipses, e...