Learn how to draw

Drawing lessons - illustrated lesson notes for teachers and students
ILLUSTRATED LESSON NOTES FOR TEACHERS
INTRODUCTION
preamble for all lessons
1) cityscape
2) cityscape up
3) cityscape down
4) room interior two point
5) railway
6) room interior CVP
6b) room interior cont.
7) letters
8) shadows basic
9) shadows 2
10) archway
10b) completed arch
11) road
11b) road continuded
12) book
12b) book continued
PART TWO INTRODUCTION
1) 'quick sketch page'
2) methods of shading
3) tennis and shadows
4) reference sheet
5) in three dimensions
6) a 'fork' in the road
7) portraiture
8) portraiture cont.
9) drawing roses
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Learning to draw - lesson notes for teachers
LESSON NOTES FOR TEACHERS
LEARN HOW TO DRAWEssential and elementary lessons on learning how to draw for 9-14year
olds who have interests in becoming;
Artists,
Architects,
Video game designers,
Cartoon artists,
Special effects artists,
Interior Designers,
Draughtsmen,
Fashion Designers,
Surveyors, Engineers, Builders,
Illustrators,
Graphic designers,
Computer designers,
Set designers for film, opera, ballet, stage etc.
Time- Lessons are separated into approx. 40 min segments.
Homestudy - 10 to 20 minutes per lesson - set work proposals suggested at end of each lesson.
Materials:
30x45cms or 12"x18" standard cartridge paper (thick, white, plain) sketchpad.
2H, HB and 4B pencils
Ruler and eraser
General lesson structure:
5-10 min. revision and homework assessment.
5 min. new page, draw margin and add title (bottom rh corner).
20 min. demo and child practical drawing.
5min. summary and suggested homework.
NOTES
*These lessons are designed using basic skills already learned by students; to measure and to draw
straight lines using a ruler. Elements of self-expression are based on familiarity and habit and will
come gradually - particularly when the student grows comfortable with the lesson structure. Such
self-expression is first emphasised in the homestudy area.
*The second part of the lessons will deal with the freehand elements of drawing but it has been my
experience that these freehand lessons come easier with confidence, enthusiasm, discipline and a
general understanding of the principles of perspective and the drawing of regular solids. For those
who think good drawing has nothing to do with the understanding of basic structure need not read
much further. Be warned that it is my way to teach that basic structure first.
*If the lessons are conducted as I have designed them the teacher will find most children will tend
to neglect more formal homework and concentrate on expressing themselves by completing their
drawings in their own time. I have taught these lessons to all ages including disturbed children,
intelligent young adults, three different cultures, and to individuals completely disinterested in
education generally. The end results were universal, the students became more perceptive and
desired a career change. Be prepared to be besieged by parents at parent teacher nights.
The Classroom teacher needs a good clean chalkboard, white chalk and a long straight edge
(a board tee square for the less adept). The home educator needs the same equipment as the
student.
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Learning to draw - lesson notes for teachers
GO TO ... PREAMBLE LESSON
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preamble
ALL LESSONS - THE PREAMBLE
Lesson preamble - Pencil control for the start of all lessons
Aim: To teach the importance of eye to hand coordination, pencil control.
Materials:
the sketch pad,
the HB pencil,
ruler.
PENCIL CONTROL
A) The pupil will be asked to rule a light horizontal line 1cm or 1/2 inch from the top of the page.
The word lightly must be stressed and the student's task will be to draw the line so it is visible at
half a meter but invisible at a meter.
B) Have the student hold these up and the teacher will discover that only one or two students will
be able to achieve this result. Praise those two and demonstrate to the whole class the correct
method of holding a pencil for a long light line is to drag the pencil across the page lightly holding it
between thumb and index finger. The trick is to move your ARM and shoulder and not your fingers!
C) Have the class draw a light line across the bottom of the page using this technique and get their
next-door neighbour to check it for visibility at a yard.
D) If this proves satisfactory have the student complete the verticals two verticles in the same
manner.
E) Hold these up for inspection and then ask the students to firm in the margin with their pencil
leaving the corners so they can discern the difference between their light and heavy lines.
F) Lightly construct a little box 2cmx6cm (1" x2") in the bottom right hand corner for a title, then
firm it in as shown below.
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preamble
This exercise is to be done at the beginning of every drawing class for every page as it
slots the students mind into line control (allow 5 min. maximum).
GO TO ... LESSON ONE
or ... lesson menu
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Lesson one
LESSON ONE - ELEMENTARY PERSPECTIVE
TIME: Allow one hour for this initial lesson - if combined with previous lesson 80min. It is strongly
suggested the teacher prepares by completing the lesson sometime before attempting to teach.
Particular measurements can then be given to those who need them.
Aim: To introduce the student to the notion of creating a three dimensional vista on a two
dimensional plane. This lesson is particularly important as its intent is have the student create a
picture of great depth by merely copying the lines the teacher makes on the chalkboard. The aim is
to generally promote confidence in the student.
Materials; The sketch pad,
HB pencil, ruler.
We will carry on from the page prepared in the preamble lesson using the
ruler and HB pencil ...
a) Quarter the page as shown with light lines. Teacher should do this on the chalkboard, then wait
for the students to catch up.
b) Where the middle line touches the border mark two points - these are called .... RVP and LVP
(Right and Left Vanishing Points).
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Lesson one
c) Approximate the next four light lines as shown - if the students are unsure then give absolute
measurements 50mm (2") down - 75mm(3") up from the center.
d) Add the verticals as light construction lines. Note to the students that only three types of lines to
be made, vertical lines or lines to the right VP or let VP ... there are none other. Again, give
measurements if considered necessary. 35mm (1-1/2") right 50mm (2") left of center.

Lesson one
e) Construct the next set of verticals to approximate (below) then join the tops to RVP and LVP.
f) Firm in the lines shown.

Lesson one
g) Do again on the left of the centre as demonstrated.
h) Firm in the lines as in my drawing.

Lesson one
i) Add another lightly.
j) Firm in ...

Lesson one
k) and a fifth ...
l) Shade the right hand side of the buildings as shown.

Lesson one
m) Add some light lines as shown to suggest road and pavement - then firm in when satisfied.
Demonstrate how to add some suggestions of windows and signs. Have the children hold up their
pads at the completion of a particular time. Those who have never drawn in three dimensions will
be encouraged and quite keen to continue.
Home work;
Complete the drawing adding more windows, pedestrians, cars, background or more buildings...
encourage innovation.

Lesson one
Press here to go to a master painter's oil painting using two point perspective as shown above.
Press back to return.
GO TO ... LESSON TWO
lesson menu

perspective two - city street up
LESSON - PERSPECTIVE TWO - CITY STREET (UP)
TIME:
Allow 40min - teacher prepartation: prepare sketch beforehand with measurements.
Aim:
To introduce the student to the notion of creating a three dimensional vista on a two dimensional
plane. This lesson follows on and develops the theme of the previous lesson.
Materials:
The sketch pad,
HB pencil, ruler, eraser
Prepare a new page with the margin as in the previous lesson using the ruler
and HB pencil ...
a) Quarter the page as shown with light lines. Teacher should do this on the chalkboard then wait
for the students to catch up.
b) In this lesson we are going to use only one vanishing point (CVP) and it is in the certer of the
page. Place in the lines approximately as shown. Parallel lines are 20mm (3/4") down and 30mm
(1,1/4") up from dead center.
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c) Firm in the lines shown.
d) Add the next two radiating light lines as demonstrated.

e) Firm in the next skyscraper - note to the student that all lines in this drawing are either
horizontal, vertical or radiate out from the center. There are no others!
f) Add the next building as shown.

g) Some more light construction lines ...
h) ... and firm in the lines as shown.

i) The essential 'structure' is complete.
j) Now for a little shading.

Print in the title, add some light lines as shown to suggest windows, then firm in when satisfied.
Further shading and details can be completed at home.
Home work;
Complete the drawing adding clouds, birds, more windows etc ... to your satisfaction.
GO TO ... LESSON THREE
lesson menu
For those folk who have enquired a CD version of these 'painting' as well as 'drawing lessons' and
'advanced painting' lessons will soon, I hope, be available to everyone. It will be an updated,
reformatted for easy printing version so you can create you own reference handbook in your own
time, or just browse the CD.
It is anticipated the CD will be available at around $15 (plus posting) for students and $19 (plus
posting) for others. The CD's will be distributed on a first come first served basis. Isn't that always
the way?
To be added to the list just send me a simple email with the words 'please notify CD' and your name
and status (only if a student or teacher).

perspective three - city street down
LESSON - PERSPECTIVE THREE - CITY STREET (DOWN)
TIME: Allow 40min - teacher preparation minimal.
Aim: This lesson follows on and develops the theme of the previous lesson and intends to
introduce the notion that views may differ but structural elements of perspective (and drawing)
remain very similar.
Materials: The sketch pad,
HB pencil, ruler.
Prepare as in the previous lesson using the ruler and HB pencil
a) Quarter the page as shown with diagonal light lines. Teacher should do this on the chalkboard,
then wait for the students to catch up. Add the extra light lines. In this lesson we are again going to
use only one vanishing point (CVP) and it is in the certer of the page. Place in the lines
approximately as shown.
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b) Add the two extra light lines.
c) Firm in the lines shown.

d) Add the next series of horizontal light lines and the two extra radiating lines. Give measurements
of students are unsure about the position of the horizontal lines as some students become nervous
about mistakes - again note to the student that all lines in this drawing are either horizontal,
vertical or radiate out from the center.
e) Firm in as shown.

f) Add the extra.
h) Now the vertical lines and the structure begins to take shape.

i) The essential 'structure' is done - now two horizontal lines show the pavement edges.
j) Now for a little shading.
Print in the title add some light lines as shown to suggest windows - then firm in when satisfied.
Further shading and details can be completed at home.
Homework: Complete the drawing adding cars, pedestrians, heli-pads, more windows etc ...

GO TO ... LESSON FOUR
lesson menu

LESSON - PERSPECTIVE FOUR - CORNER OF ROOM
TIME:
Allow 40min
Aim:
To create a perspective grid using a single measurement and three vanishing points. This lesson is
to introduce the notion of perspective 'scale'. That is, as things of equal size recede they appear
smaller. Perspective is a method of logically determining just how much smaller.
Materials:
The sketch pad,
HB pencil, ruler.
Construct margin and title box then:
a) Quarter the page as shown with light lines then add the two additional lines as shown.
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b) Measure a set distance up as shown 30mm (1,1/4") and join to RVP as indicated.
c) Where that line intersects the vertical line down from CVP construct light line from LVP as in the
drawing.

d) Join the two lines to the CVP as shown.
e) Add the two extra light lines from LVP and RVP. We have now drawn four squares on the ground.
We can now add many more going backwards using the same method of construction.

f) We now have 36 squares.
g) Shade the alternate squares as shown. Now we have made a floor. At this stage the student
needs to be asked:
- Are the squares of 'equal' size?
- Why are the ones at the back smaller then the ones at the front?
- What happens to parallel lines when we draw them in 'perspective'?
- Is this what the eye or the camera sees?

Next we shall suggest some walls.
h) Add the two extra light lines 40mm (1,1/2") up from dead center
i) Firm in the walls.

j) Using only vertical lines and lines going to RVP or LVP lightly construct some windows and a door.
Ask:
- how could the room be made larger? (answer - lowering the ceiling).
k) Firm them in and add a door knob and a little shading on the ceiling. Ask:
- How do we know how high to make the door? (stress the importance of observation and look
around the classroom for clues).
Is the door handle on the right or left side of the door?

l) I have added some more tiles (see if the student can do this by 'judgement') - an extra row on
the right and one on the left - and shaded the door.
Clean up and print in the title as shown.
You will find some students will grasp the ideas and concepts faster than others. Instead of having
them idle, and waiting, they can be encouraged to add extra detail of their own choosing. That is
the beauty of this type of lesson; it is open ended. Encourage the more advanced student to add
the more complicated items.
Home work:
Complete the drawing adding a painting on the wall, curtains, light on the ceiling, a chair or table ...
etc.
GO TO ... LESSON FIVE lesson menu

perspective five -railway line
LESSON - PERSPECTIVE FIVE - WESTERN RAILWAY
TIME:
Allow 40min
Aim:
To create a perspective grid using a single measurement and three vanishing points. This lesson is
to consolidate and further the notion of perspective 'scale'. That is, as things of equal size recede
they appear smaller. This time we will use the CVP and a familiar and logical structure, a railway
line.
Materials:
The sketch pad,
HB pencil, ruler.
a) Construct the same light lines as in stage a, b, c, d, of the previous lesson until we get the lines
shown above.
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b) This time we firm in the 'diagonals' which become railway line 'sleepers'. Notice here we use a
more simplified method of construction.
c) Keep adding sleepers.

d) After the student has completed the drawing to the stage above ask:
What shall we call the line that joins LVP, RVP and CVP? (answer 'horizon line').
How wide are railway tracks? (remember the old movies of people tied to railway lines? - answer
about 5feet).
If the distance between the sleepers is 5 feet what is the distance between the second add fourth
sleepers?
e) Add the extra light lines on the ground (two horizontal and three to the CVP). We are going to
build a station about 30mm (1,1/4") from track 60mm wide.

f) Add the vertical lines 50mm (2") high and join to CVP
g) Firm in the lines as shown and ask:
How high is the building? The student should measure the width of the tracks on the line directly
opposite the front edge of the station and apply that 'scale' to the building's height. Objects an
equal distance away from the 'observer' are subject to the same measurements of 'scale '
at that distance. In this drawing the scale is discovered by knowing the width of the track at that

distance.
h) Add the telegraph lines and poles and have the student determine their height and distance
apart.
Clean up and print in the title as shown.
Encourage the advanced students to add three 12 foot cacti at various locations in the landscape.
Home work:
Complete the drawing adding a roof on the station, cactus, hills , train, and birds etc.
Press here to see a master work using the CVP (central vanishing point) perspective.
GO TO ... LESSON SIX
lesson menu

perspective six
LESSON - PERSPECTIVE SIX- ROOM INTERIOR (CVP)
TIME:
Allow 60-80min - this is a double lesson
Aim:
To create a perspective grid using a single measurement and three vanishing points but vanishing
toward the CVP. We will also introduce the freehand method of constructing curves.
Materials:
The sketch pad,
HB pencil, ruler.
a) Measure intervals of 24mm (1") along the base margin as shown and join to RVP.
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perspective six
b) Where they cross the vertical line from CVP draw horizontal lines as above.
c) Add lines to CVP from marked intervals

perspective six
d) Extend and complete.
e) Shade alternate tiles.

perspective six
f) Add two more rows to the outside.
g) Clean up with eraser if necessary.
Revise ask:
What does RVP stand for?
What is the horizon?
How is it we can make a drawing with depth on a flat surface?

perspective six
EXPLAIN :
The 'flat' surface is like a window or a sheet of glass. It is called a 'picture plane' (PP). The
'observer', the person looking is standing a distance behind the PP and the floor is a particular
distance in front of the PP.
At this point we need to interrupt our drawing to learn to draw circles. Since we have no
tools to trace or guide us we will need to learn to draw these - freehand. We need to
know this to complete our current project. So start a new sheet and ...
GO TO ... LESSON SIX 'B'
lesson menu
For those folk who have enquired a CD version of these 'painting' as well as 'drawing lessons' and
'advanced painting' lessons will soon, I hope, be available to everyone. It will be an updated,
reformatted for easy printing version so you can create you own reference handbook in your own
time, or just browse the CD.
It is anticipated the CD will be available at around $15 (plus posting) for students and $19 (plus
posting) for others. The CD's will be distributed on a first come first served basis. Isn't that always
the way?
To be added to the list just send me a simple email with the words 'please notify CD' and your name
and status (only if a student or teacher).

perspective six
LESSON - PERSPECTIVE SIX- ROOM INTERIOR (CVP)
TIME:
Allow 60-80min - this is the second part of the double lesson
Aim:
To introduce the freehand method and techinque for the construction of curves and use this to
complete our room interior.
Materials:
The sketch pad,
HB pencil, ruler.
Construct margin and title box on a new page then:
a) Construct a 75mm (3") square as shown
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perspective six
b) Draw the diagonal a-b and without measurement divide into four equal parts.
c) Draw a 45 degree tangent through the 3/4 division as shown and lightly sketch the freehand
curve. The curve actually cuts the diagonal just below the three quarter mark and above the two
thirds point. The students should be encouraged to draw the curve so it 'looks right.'

perspective six
d) When drawing the curve keep the hand on the inside of the curve. This may necessitate keeping
the hand still and moving the paper as demonstrated above.

perspective six
e) Construct the square as shown and turn the page upside down to sketch the opposite curve.
f) Complete the whole circle lightly and make adjustments where necessary.

perspective six
g) Practice circles of differing sizes, label and turn back to interior of room. For homework the
student can practice two or three more.
Return to previous page of room interior ...
h) Using the method recently learnt construct the three arched portals and firm them in.

perspective six
i) Draw a light rectangle around the portals to make a wall and firm in. Using light lines from the
CVP draw the ceiling
Revise ask: What does PP stand for?
Home study : Find a picture or photograph form a magazine or elsewhere (it can be a seascape,
landscape or whatever) where the horizin can placed in its right position on the CVP. Cut out and
paste on the drawing as shown below. If the student so desires they can draw in a little scene
themsleves.
I have used part of a 'masterpiece' by a well known, if slightly erratic and unreliable, individual.

perspective six
Finally the students can shade the walls, add a painting or two, a side door, etc. The teacher will
find it is useful to balance the dicipline of the method with the freedom to work within. Press here to
see a room interior using the same method of construction by Michelangelo.
GO TO ... LESSON SEVEN
lesson menu

perspective seven
LESSON - PERSPECTIVE SEVEN - LETTERS
TIME: Allow 40 min
Aim: To introduce the freehand method and techinque for the construction of curves and use this
to complete a drawing. To introduce the notion that drawing and estimating proportion require
judgements that need to be recoqnized, trusted and developed.
Materials: The sketch pad, HB pencil, ruler.
To Begin: (allow 10 min) (Preparation - download the first diagram below, print and make a
copy for all students) Hand them out and ask:
a) Which is the longest edge in Fig 1 and why? (AD because it is closest - CA and AB recede)
b) What are the circumstances that would make CA=CB? (if the block was centerally positioned
between the LVP and RVP)
c) Why is CA bigger than AB in Fig 2?
d) Measure all lines in Fig 2. Are any two the some size? (Discuss what we mean by real size or
apparent size?)
e) Fig 3 does not look quite as 'square' as it should, why is that? (AB and CA are slightly to long
making the block appear squatter than the others)
We must learn to use our eyes and judge distances and proportions. We must keep
drawing them until they look right. It is the same if drawing a face or a box for aways we
must judge one thing in relation to all the others in the same space. The simplest object to
practice and draw is the cube and we can use the cube to make many other shapes. If the cube is
nearer the RVP AC will always be larger than AB while the reverse applies for the LVP.
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perspective seven
b) Draw a cube in the approximate size and position as shown above.
c) Extend the line 'ab' to four times its length.

perspective seven
d) Draw the diagonal ... extend it, and form the square.
e) Construct diagonal and the 16 little boxes as shown

perspective seven
f) Mark approximately 3/4 lengths along the diagonals
g) Lightly draw in your circle.

perspective seven
h) Firm it in.
i) Give the disc thickness as shown. The lines to the RVP form 'tangents' to the circle. Sketch in
lightly until it looks right then firm it in. The teacher should check ...

perspective seven
j) In the inner four squares draw another circle.
k) Firm it in and complete as shown above.

perspective seven
Home study :
Shade the drawing and add another letter. There are thousands of variations of this drawing. The
student could perhaps try and draw their own initials in the other direction, or using just the CVP on
the ground. The more confident can try and draw a large 'S' for instance as homework or a specal
project.
GO TO ... LESSON EIGHT
lesson menu

perspective eight
LESSON - PERSPECTIVE EIGHT - BASIC SHADOWS
TIME:
Allow 40 min
Aim:
To learn how to plot shadows
Materials:
The sketch pad,
HB pencil, ruler.
To To begin revise: We must learn to use our eyes and judge distances and
proportions and keep drawing them until they look right. It is the same if we are drawing
a face or a box, we must judge one thing in relation to all the others in the same space.
b) As in lesson six construct the grid as shown but start from slightly above the title box.
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perspective eight
c) Note the RVP is moved slightly toward the center.
d) Draw the box in lightly then firm it in.

perspective eight
e) Draw the line approximately as shown. 'O' stands for the light source and 'a' is the spot on the
ground directly beneath the light. You can place the point anywhere you like but I suggest you
place it near where I placed mine if you want a similar shadow.
f) Draw light lines from 'O' and 'a' so they cross.

perspective eight
g) That gives us our shadow outline. Shade in as shown.
h) Using (4x4)16 squares draw in the pyramid. The 'apex' is a point directly above the center of the
base. Firm in the pyramid.

perspective eight
i) Construct and complete the shadow as shown and shade it in. The student should note that if
point 'a' is brought forward the shadow will point backward.
Home study :
Experiment, try adding some other objects such as vertical poles and draw their shadows.
GO TO ... LESSON NINE
lesson menu

perspective nine
LESSON - PERSPECTIVE NINE - SHADOWS 2
TIME:
Allow 40 min
Aim:
To learn how to plot shadows on differing surfaces. Here we shall plot and draw the shadow of a
ladder leaning against a wall.
Materials:
The sketch pad,
HB pencil, ruler.
To Begin revise: Method of introducing light source and estimating its ground position. Ask
which way the shadow should be directed, forward or back.
b) Construct the simple corner of a room using a CVP.
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perspective nine
c) This 'oblique' line will represent one runner of the ladder. Call it 'ab'
d) 'cd' is parallel to 'ab'. Construct as shown with lines to VP.

perspective nine
e) Add the ladder 'rungs' and firm them in.
f) Establish the light source - drop to floor and construct shadow lines as demonstrated above.

perspective nine
g) This diagram shows the method of constructing a shadow cast by one of the 'rungs.'
h) Shade in the shadow 'freehand' as shown.

perspective nine
i) Complete the shadow and add other appropiate details
Home study :
Experiment, add other objects ... a bucket on the floor and its shadow.
GO TO ... LESSON TEN
lesson menu

perspective ten
LESSON - PERSPECTIVE TEN - ARCHWAY
TIME:
Allow 80 min - best broken into two sessions with set homework in between.
Aim:
To draw a Roman style triumphal arch utilising a freehand approach to drawing lines. This lessons
eventual success will depend on the student eventually NOT drawing a straight line ... and thereby
mot being terrified of making a mistake.
Materials:
The sketch pad,
HB pencil, ruler.
b) Construct the rectangle and place a CVP in the approximate positions shown above.
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perspective ten
c) Lightly draw the arch with the proportions to approximate those above.
d) Note the method used to position the back (inside curve) of the arch. The intersection point with
the fornt curve is critical.

perspective ten
e) Add the 'minor' rectangles as shown on the face of the arch.
f) There are two walls indicated and lightly sketched in as above. You will see their complete form in
the drawing shown next.

perspective ten
g) The student must now discard the ruler. All the firm lines must be done 'freehand'. Any ruled lines
will look inconsistent and out of place. Use short firm strokes rather than trying to be too ambitious.
This arch is supposed to be old and decaying therefore irregular lines are what is required. Now the
arch and its surrounds should begin to take form.
h) Clean it up and add some shading.

perspective ten
i) The light source is to be from 'top right' so shade the raised frontal areas on the arch as shown ...
shading to the right and below.
j) Add some 'Roman' letters (the detail is where observation and creativity interact) and shade some
areas...

perspective ten
Note the shadows. At this juncture the shadows are merely 'parallel'. Since the drawing is not
complicated regarding 'shadows' and the sun is very high and distant we can assume an almost
parallel set of light 'rays'.
Homework: This particular arch is a minor detail in a painting by a well known artist who was
born in Venice on October 18th. 1697. It appears in at least two of his paintings. The student to gain
extra marks for naming the artist and even more for naming one of the paintings that contain the
arch. Additional marks could be awarded if the student were to name the origin of the arch.
CONTINUED....
GO TO ... LESSON TEN (CONT.)
lesson menu

perspective ten cont.
LESSON - TEN ... CONTINUED
Aim: To reinforce the notion of 'logical size'. The size of objects being determined by introducing a
familiar object at the same 'level' (a similar distance from the viewer). Then to complete the
drawing started in the previous lesson.
The teacher should print off the following three drawings and hand them out as reference drawings.
a) Here I have introduced 'the admiral' and put him in the arch. Suddenly the arch has a particular
and definite size. Ask the students, why is that?
From the moment a baby opens its eyes it begins keying-in shapes, with one of the first being the
human face and body. Then it learns to recognise various other shapes in order of their importance.
The child also learns to judge how far or how close is a particular object. Ask the class how this is
done?
You could mention that these common perceptions are what bind people together. There are, of
course philosophical implications here concernig the commonality of experience ... but that is what
drawing is all about!
Anyway, in the order of things human the body is a far more dominant form than any old archway.
This body of our 'Admiral Cowdisley Shovel' determines the size of the arch (how high is it here?) as
we all know the avereage height of the human body, but, what if we shrink the poor old sailor?
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b) Suddenly the arch has grown. How tall is it now?
c) OK so now I have multiplied the figures and drawn them forward. If we roughly draw lines
through the Admiral's head and feet where would they meet?
It the person viewing this scene shorter ot taller than the 'Admiral'?
Let's go back to our unfinished drawing.

d) Note the detail lines suggesting the blockwork on the arch radiate out from the curve of the arc
and then square. This is a tiny detail but one born of awareness. Ask the pupil about laying bricks
that will form an arch, or the color of their front gate, or the size of a normal teacup. Test their
awareness to common things and ask them to test you.
e) Using method in previous construct perspective 'grid' on the ground. Remember the firm lines
are to be done freehand.

f) The pupil should be encouraged to decide on the design of the forecourt and individualise it as
much as possible. Add some trees behind the wall to soften the starkness.
HOMEWORK: Complete the drawing by adding a small figure in the arch.
GO TO ... THE ROAD - ELEVEN
lesson menu

perspective eleven
LESSON - PERSPECTIVE ELEVEN - ROAD
TIME:
Allow 40 min (TEN MIN INTRODUCTION)
Aim:
To understand the principle of multiple vanishing points and how they work in nature.
Materials: The sketch pad, HB pencil, ruler.
In this, the first part of this lesson the teacher will need to demonstrate the
following on the chalkboard or pad ...
Alternatively, if the teacher deems necessary, these first six explanatory diagrams can be printed
and handed out. However a quick demonstration on a chalkboard will give everyone confidence.
The teacher could do this with just ten minutes of preparation ... OK, I know your time is valuable,
and I must admit, I never prepared a lesson in my life. I just did it by sensing the needs of the
student and seeing where that might lead ...
... in a classroom of thirty odd students that is called living on the edge. But then again I am easily
bored; anyway, remember our railway line in a previous lesson?
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perspective eleven
Move the vanishing point along the horizon line to the right as above. Just use common judgement
to place the sleepers ... as you might do in any grammar class.
Of course, as the line bends, it does with a 'curve'. Draw in the freehand curve as shown.

perspective eleven
Next, we find a vanishing point 'above' the horizon! This will have the effect of making the line
appear to rise up. See above.
Then go down again ... with a vanishing point now below the line.

perspective eleven
Firm in the lines and explain that every 'regular' object can be placed in space to have its own
vanishing point. Here we have merely joined a few together.
Students construct margin and title box on a new page then:
a) In approximate positions, as above, lightly construct a road bending to the right and descending.
...

perspective eleven
b) Firm in until the curves transcend the horizontal ...
c) and add a nice curving hill.

perspective eleven
d) Change direction and do the same thing again. Your own 'judgement' should be used to
determine the 'new' width of the road. Logically it must be smaller than its width as it disappears
over the first hill. Point out that this width will determine just how far the first hill is from the
second.
CONTINUED....
GO TO ... LESSON ELEVEN (CONT.)
lesson menu

perspective eleven cont.
LESSON - PERSPECTIVE ELEVEN - ROAD (CONTINUED)
f) Define the second hill as I have, with a nice flowing curve.
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g) Using three more 'vanishing points' (VP's) repeat the exercise; only don't change direction.
e) Title the drawing and if time permits begin some general shading.
Homework: Add a plouged field, fences, trees, carts, cars, buildings, etc.

GO TO ... LESSON TWELVE
lesson menu

twelve - one
LESSON - TWELVE
Aim: To introduce, explain and use extended vanishing points off the page.
The teacher should print off the following four drawings and hand them out as reference sheets.
a) This drawing of a book is done as a simple two point perspective using the same method we used
on the city buildings in lesson number one.
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twelve - one
b) What would happen if we zoomed in and cut out a part of our drawing? ...?
c) Then we made that drawing our full size drawing? Above is the result. The only problem is that our
vanishing points have disappeared completely off our page. What then are we to do for this type of
drawing?

twelve - one
d) We could try and place a much larger piece of paper under our pad and extend our lines as shown
above, but more simple is to 'imagine' their position and just draw part of our light lines outwards as
if the 'vanishing points' points were actually there.
GO TO ... TWELVE CONTINUED
lesson menu

perspective twelve cont.
LESSON - TWELVE cont.
Aim: To draw a book using extended vanishing points.
TIME:
Allow 40min
Materials:
The sketch pad,
HB pencil, ruler.
a) As with the example in the previous lesson construct the lines as shown as if there were vanishing
points off the page.
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b) Complete the block lightly as it will form the basis of our book. Note CA is larger than DB, AB is
larger than CD, AE is larger than BF and GC.
c) Lightly draw in some more main features of the book. It should now look as if it sits on the desk
in front of the student.

d) Put away the ruler and begin to sketch the book freehand ... using darker lines as shown above.
e) Complete the details using shading and your imagination. Add a couple of loose sheets of paper.
HOMEWORK: Complete by adding a pencil.

GO TO ... PART TWO INTODUCTION
lesson menu

Part Two - introduction
LESSON NOTES FOR TEACHERS - PART 2
LEARN HOW TO DRAW
I sometimes refer to an individual as being visually 'literate'. We know
the meaning of 'literate' and 'illiterate' regarding reading,
comprehension and writing ... which I will refer to as the 'passive'
(reading) and 'active' (writing) elements of being literate.
The ability to 'read' or understand a drawing is the passive part of
visual literacy whereas the ability to actually 'draw' is the active
element.
Being 'visually' literate is no less important than being literate in the reading and writing sense. In
fact, some may ever agree that 'drawing' should be studied alongside reading and writing. Why?
Because before you can write you must learn to draw circles and squares, at least; otherwise how
will we make a '3' or '7' ... and 'S' or an 'Z'?
So how does someone become visually literate?
1. Passive By learning to recognize things in three dimensions, also learning to read maps and
plans etc. in two dimeisions. Learning about line, texture, shape and pattern.
2. Active By learning to draw just as a writer would learn to compose sentences.
Drawing literacy can best be understood in the absence of language... and its effect can be quite
potent. A test might be... 'Using the quickest, simplest drawing and the minimum number of lines
you can imagine, draw as economically as you can any of the things on the following list:
A house, caravan, dartboard, pineapple, road, a railway line, a fish a snake, an apple and
a pear, a ship, boat, submarine, shark, martini, basketball, helmet, a pair of scissors,
sword, spear, banana, cucumber, church, fruit tree, bunch of grapes, traffic lights, ladder,
television antenna, lightbulb, scooter, mammoth, the road from your house to the nearest
store, comb, fork, paperclip, saucepan, leaf, an anchor, shoe, yoyo, and a button etc.
NO AGE LIMITS: These tests could be given to children as young as five and adults as old as eighty
and the results may well determine their 'active visual literacy'. There may somtimes also be little
difference in the results. I would test for speed and inventiveness just as a you might judge some
prose thus. Bear in mind the teacher need not be Leonardo or Rubens to satisfactorily judge the
results!
Let's take this active and passive division little further. In what is 'art' today we have the visually
semi-literate - in the 'active' sense; they may however, be quite visually literate in the passive
sense. Should they be called 'artists' - and would we be as ready to embrace people who called
themselves writers if they attempted to write of their experiences neglecting any structure? I don't
think so; and some of my own writing proves just that!
Is any of this important to the human species? The children I tested seemed to think so.... maybe
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Part Two - introduction
such tests need to be given to some of our national art critics... I made a comment once ... when we
talk of educating our children in 'the basics' we should mean the basics of reading, drawing, writing
... and perhaps maths; but then I may be a little biased.
Imagine beginning every art class with 'OK children, open your sketch pads and do two quick
sketches; a coconut and a saw. You have three minutes..... then we will be finishing off the drawing
we started last week.
Well this is exactly what we shall now be doing wilth our drawing course.
Time- Lessons separated into approx 40 min segments.
Homestudy - 10 to 20 minutes per lesson - set work proposals suggested at end of each lesson.
Materials;
30x45cms or 12"x18" standard cartridge paper (thick, white, plain) sketchpad.
2H, HB and 4B pencils
eraser
New General lesson structure;
5 min. short drawing test (3min. for test 2min hold up and look at results)
5 min. revision and homework assessment.
5 min new page, draw margin and add title (bottom rh corner)
20 min demo and child practical drawing
5min summary and suggested homework.
GO TO ... FIRST LESSON
lesson menu
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part two - freehand setup
PART 2: LESSON 1 - SETTING UP
TIME:
Allow 40min
Aim:
To establish a new format for freehand lessons and to introduce the 'quick sketch test' to enforce
observation and awareness of common day things.
Materials:
The sketch pad, HB and 4B pencil, eraser
Without using the ruler (or any other straight edge) prepare the page with
margin and add the freehand boxes as shown.
a) The student should draw the margin lightly (HB pencil), using short lines and when satisfied, firm
it in. Allow a good ten minutes for this as some students will be concerned to produce lines of great
excellence. This will not be possible at this stage and they could be told to expect as much. The
student should be encouraged to keep turning the sketch pad to suit their hand movement, and to
use the page edges as guides.
b) When the student is satisfied with the light lines they can be 'firmed in' thus (again using short,
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comfortable lines):
c) Without using a ruler divide the page into quarters using light lines as shown below.
d) Divide again.

e) And yet again as shown.
f) And again, so now you have 64 spaces (ignoring the title box).
TWO QUICK SKETCHES
Allow two minutes at the beginning of each lesson for this next exercise.
In the first two little spaces along the top the student is asked to draw their simplest representation
of any two commonday objects of choice. They may make them up or use any of the examples listed

on the previous page. It is recommended that the research (practice) for these be set as homework.
Then the student will be forewarned and prepared - although any lack of preparation can lead to
interesting times ...
At the completion of the time allowed for this task (can be shortened for future lessons) the student
will ask his or her neighbour to guess and write down the names of the articles or objects. It they
match the drawings they should remain unidentified (no need for any notation). If not recognized
the student should identify them as shown below. The Teacher will be the final arbiter. Be kind!
This whole exercise should be treated as fun as the teacher will find the students serious enough and
naturally competitive. Do not ridicule any effort yet be constructive where necessary. Praise the
good and display the brilliant for the rest of the class to see. Simplicity and effectiveness are the
keys. In the example above try and guess what the two unnamed objects are? You will see they are
drawn with the maximum economy of line. That what we want from the student.

The possibilities for set homework are manifold in these new set of lessons. Page preparation,
common object research, completing drawings begun in class etc. Judge the pace according to
student level and class preformance.
If time remains in the 40min period the student could begin preparing future pages (light lines) with
title boxes and freehand borders.
GO TO ... LESSON TWO
lesson menu

part two - shading
PART 2: LESSON 2 - SHADING
TIME: Allow 40min
Aim: To begin the lesson on shading. This will encompas cross-hatching and other useful methods
as well as noting the theory of shading generally.
Materials: The sketch pad, HB and 4B pencil, eraser
Allow five minutes to for the quick sketch
test. Two minutes to do and three to mark.
Swap, display and title if necessary.
CUPS a) Without using the ruler (or any other straight edge) prepare the page with margin and title
boxes then: Make a light freehand sketch of a cup as shown below, then repeat this until four
similar cups are made
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part two - shading
b) Using short strokes firm in cups.
c) Use the 4B pencil and medium pressure 'hatch' a series of parallel sloping lines as shown.

part two - shading
d) Do the same, though with shorter lines, in the other direction. Next use some vertical lines and
lastly some horizontal. This method of shading is called cross-hatching and is useful for quick
renditions.
e) Make another row of four cups.

part two - shading
f) This time we will use a 'figure 8' as our shading method. You could use an 'O' or an 'S'. Use your
4B pencil with a 'light weight' or light pressure and draw a series of '8's' as shown. As you near the
darker edge of the cup the 8s can 'overlap' and get a little darker. Don't forget the top left 'mouth'
of the cup as it too will need to be shaded.
g) Make another row of four cups. Again using your 4B pencil and 'light pressure' make a series of
lines using cross hatch or '8's. With the end of your finger rub the pencil lines until they merge
together and form a flat even 'smudge'. Try and stay within the edges of the cup. Repeat this and
darken as you near the right hand edge of the cup. Again, do not neglect the top lip.

part two - shading
Label the three methods and title the drawing 'shading'.
TENNIS CUPS
lesson menu

part two - shadows
PART 2: LESSON 2 - SHADING
TIME: Allow 40min
Aim: To introduce reflected light and its effect on shadows and shading. To develop the use of
shading for a textural effect.
Materials: The sketch pad, HB and 4B pencil, eraser
Allow five minutes to for the quick sketch
test. Two minutes to do and three to mark.
Swap, display and title if necessary.
a) Without using the ruler (or any other straight edge) prepare the page with margin and add the
freehand boxes as shown previously.
While the students are thus occupied hand out these prepared theory sheets.
---------------------------------------------------------
Sitting in the garden I asked a person if the shadow cast by a tree would be lighter on a sunny day,
than it would, at a similar time, on a cloudy day.
'Does it really matter?' he shrugged, as he poured himself another glass of my most expensive
imported red.
'That depends.' I replied, 'one day you might want to paint a shadow.'
'The grisaille legacy' .......
'I met a man of black and white who had sadly lost his way.
Wringing his hands, he said to me, "but all I see is grey".'
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part two - shadows
If a cup was placed in a spotlight the shadow it cast would be as black as the surrounding darkenss
while the shading on the cup should move from a grey at the 'turning point' to a similar blackness.
However, if there was some other light in the room the 'black' shadow would look out of place - as
shown above. The reason for this is that in our normal life we mostly don't live under spotlights.
Usually, there are many sources of 'reflected' light around us. In a room or outside our shadows are
rarely completely black as they are modified by the 'general lightness' of the day - or the room.
Therefore a more 'realistic' rendition of shading and shadow would be as shown above. This can be

part two - shadows
better understood by referring to my general lesson on side light and turning points in the 'painting'
section.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
b) Lets now go back to our prepared sheet and our lesson for making a quick drawing of a tennis
ball.
Using the method we learnt in part 1 for making a freehand drawing of a large circle - draw one of
the approximate size and position shown.

part two - shadows
Employ the figure 8 and smudging method to shade the ball ( medium to light weight pressure) ...
but leave the two 'S' shaped 'tracks' as shown.
Increasing the pressure with your 4B pencil show some of the 'fluffy' hair at the turning point and at
the edges.
HOMEWORK
Find a golf ball, baseball, basket ball or one other and draw it along side the tennis ball. It is

part two - shadows
necessary to look up texture and advanced texture effects before you begin your drawing
assignment.
GO TO ... TEXTURE
lesson menu

part two - texture
PART 2: REFERENCE SHEET ON TEXTURE
TIME: reference sheet
Aim: At this stage I thought it might be valuable to show how we can combine shading and texture
in the one drawing. Later we shall be doing more work on this but for now it is sufficient to show the
student what they will be able to do if they apply themselves to the lessons so far. All the
techniques are already described.
Scraperboard is a board made of a backing, a layer of compressed whiting/adhesive mix (approx
1mm thick) then covered with a film of black indian ink. An incredibly fine white line is etched with a
stylus as it is dragged across the surface. The flat edges of the stylus are sharpened and used to
scrape larger areas clean of the ink. The boards can be bought already made as can the stylus and
other tools for the scraping process.
In earlier days, when I was possessed by a steady hand and keen eyesight, I produced an exhibition
of 28 scraperboard drawings of which the drawing below is but one example I have scanned from an
old exhibition invitation cover.
Alas, none remain in my possession and I needed to search my records for the one shown to scan it
and show it to you as an example of 'drawing with texture'.
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part two - texture
I used little 'cyphers' or curves(below)for the wollen texture of the pullover(very similar to the furry
tennis ball in the previous lesson) and straight lines (single hatching) for the skin texture. There
was little opportunity for 'cross hatching in this drawing apart from the hair when a confused tangle
is required.

part two - texture
You will note how the skin can be textured either along the folds, as in the forehead, or across the
folds as in the nose and cheeks. This produces a 'dynamic tension' that can be used to emphasise
roundness or flatness. For those students who decide to advance into painting it is useful to realize
this same 'directional line' is the direction the painter would employ with the brush to give the
human body appropiate 'dynamic tension'.
Full size approx 10" by 12" in private ownership(heaven knows where it is now for, at the time, it
was purchased by a restaurant owner for $300 and free meals whenever I was desperately hungry,
which was quite often in those days!)
GO TO ... LESSON THREE
lesson menu

part two - space
PART 2: LESSON - 3D DRAWING
TIME: Allow 40min
Aim:To introduce a the basis of three dimensional drawing and
apply to drawing.
Materials; The sketch pad, HB and 4B pencil, eraser, a ruler if
need be.
Allow five minutes to for the quick sketch test. Two minutes to do and three
to mark. Swap, display and title if necessary.
Draw a little butterfly on your page in approximately the same position as mine.
But where exactly is the butterfly? How far from us, how high above the ground? We have no idea
until we 'place' our butterfly. To do that we shall put her in a (reference) box or cage. See below ...
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part two - space
Now we have our reference and we can relate the position of the butterfly to something tangible,
specific. Furthermore if we draw a line 'forward' from our butterfly we can decide where we want our
butterfly in relation to the front of our box (point 'a')
In a similar fashion if we project a vertical line up from our butterfly we can relate the butterfly to
the top of our box (point 'b'). But how far up? Since the butterfly is in a set place then point 'b' can
be joined by the vertical projection and by the projected line to the left vanishing point. It is as if we
sliced through our box and the 'plane' of that slice suddenly cut through the middle of our butterfly.

part two - space
Do this again and locate the butterfly on point 'c' the left hand front surface. Such is the method we
can obtain the 'three dimensions' that locate our butterfly in space. Of course we needed to
'reference' the butterfly within a box. Now we have our 'three dimensions'. The bigger butterfly I
have introduced is much closer and can be related to the first in a similar manner.
HOMEWORK
Prepare for the next lesson by drawing a 'top view' and 'side view' of a common fork.
GO TO ... LESSON FOUR
lesson menu

part two - fork
PART 2: LESSON - DRAWING A FORK
TIME:
Allow 40min
Aim:
To apply in revese the principles learnt in our previous lesson to drawing objects that have more
complicated three dimensional shapes.
Materials:
The sketch pad, HB and 4B pencil, eraser
Prepare the sheet as usual then using the prepared top and side view of the common fork draw a
box of appropiate dimensions as shown.
On the top surface draw a 'flat' top view of the fork.
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part two - fork
Draw a side view on the front right hand surface as show.
If we now project light lines 'in' from the front view and 'down' from the top we can locate as many
points as we like on the edge of our fork ('a' and 'b').

part two - fork
Join all these points up with nice smooth freehand curves as shown.
Complete as shown above taking extra care with the prongs.

part two - fork
Now let us give our fork a little 'thickness' using shading on the front edge.
Shade in the rest of the fork and add a shadow where appropiate. If you have a fork with you on
your desk you can adjust the shadow as you see it, otherwise just copy mine.

part two - fork
HOMEWORK
Refine the drawing and add a knife.
GO TO ... PORTRAITURE
lesson menu

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PART 2: LESSON - PORTRAITURE
TIME: Allow 40min
Aim:To study draw a portratit using the 'inside-out' method.
Materials: The sketch pad, HB and 4B pencil, eraser, a ruler
for measurements if need be.
Mostly everything we draw is based on regular solids such as cubes, spheres, cylinders and
pryramids ... or a combination of them all. In this lesson we shall be using a sphere, a half-pyramid
and a cylinder.
Sphere Pyramid Split pyramid
First we construct a light circle in the approximate position and size shown below.
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Draw another circle in the position shown (exactly one full circle apart). Using a nice 'sickle moon'
arc describe the edges of the shadows that will give the spheres some depth.
Shade in the shadow parts of the twin spheres.

Copy the eye shapes from my drawing being careful to keep them level and sketch the little inside
corners as I have done.
Add the eyelids and circle in the iris and pupils as shown below. To make the eyes look right or left
you would position the pupils accordingly.

Shade in the pupils and irises. Remember the pupils are actually holes and therefore shadows.
GO TO ... PORTRAIT (CONTINUED) 2
lesson menu

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PART 2: LESSON - PORTRAITURE 2
TIME: Allow 40min
Aim:To study draw a portratit using the 'inside-out' method.
Materials: The sketch pad, HB and 4B pencil, eraser, a ruler if
need be.
Using your eraser make the small highlights in the eyes that give them their sparkle. The amount of
'sparkle' should differ from one eye to the other. Sometimes you would 'sparkle' one eye only as the
other might be in shade. Careful observation is the key.
You can suggest some eyelashes at this stage. Next we will construct the pyramid that will give us
our 'design' for our nose. All you will need to do in the future is to remember these basic structures
when doing your portraits.
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The 'length' of the nose will obviously differ between individuals ... but not too much. The distance
between the eyes will often vary slightly as well but once you know the approximate distances as I
have given you you can make the minor adjustments yourself.
With a little shading and careful edges on the base of the nose you will be able to suggest the shape.
Try not to include too many details at this stage. Next we will look at the lips ...

Lips are best visualized as part of a cylinder as they 'wrap around' the face. Here I have dawn the
'classic' shape with mouth closed. Using similar proportions construct your own as shown below.
Now add a little bit of shading and complete your drawing as shown.

HOMEWORK
Complete both eyes and more shading.
END OF DRAWING BOOK
back to start

part two - roses
PART 2: LESSON - DRAWING A ROSE
TIME:
Allow 40min
Aim:
This is a project that has two parts. Part one, in this section, is learning to draw a rose and part two
is in the general lesson section on making the drawing into a painting.
Materials;
The sketch pad, HB and 4B pencil, eraser.
In addition each student will need a single rose ... either have the student obtain one in preparation
or the teacher might decide to provide them in which case one per every two students will be
sufficient.
You will need five sheets for this lesson but have the student prepare them as they need them.
Next have all the students examine the petals on their rose. They should take particular interest in
the outside drooping petals where they will observe the following shapes. These they will draw as I
have demonstrated below but with their own variations.
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part two - roses
You will note that roses generally have five petals ... inside five petals - inside five petals etc. The
petals are offset so that the outside petals don't line up with the adjacent row inside and so on and
so forth. Therefore on the next sheet lightly draw a pentagon (five sided figure) as shown in Fig.1.
You may use a circle if you like to be more accurate.
Nick the corners as I have shown in Fig.2
Put a vee in the flat sides of the pentagon as this will define the extent of the petals. Fig.3.
Firm in the outline as in Fig.4. as well as defining the petals and the center of the rose. You should
now begin to understand the basic structure of the rose as seen from in front.
Complete and label the sheet.
On a new sheet draw the rose as I have done taking particular care to vary the edges of the petals
as you discovered in your drawing sheet No.1. Though the structure (pentagon)remains the same
the outline gets varied as the petals fold over on themselves hence we get the irregular outline as in
Fig.5.
In Fig.6 we will draw the classic 'bell shape' of the internal section of the rose as viewed from side
on.
Fig.7 shows the 'bell shape' inserted into the outside petals.
Fig. 8 will be your sketch of the 'rosebud.' Label all these drawings and title the sheet.

part two - roses
On the next sheet (below) we will draw the front view of the rose from the 'inside' out.
Begin with the center as I have in Fig 1 and carefully construct your petals around it getting bigger
as they spread out. Shade the deep parts of the petals as I have done until you have the complete
'reference sheet' similar to mine.
For our final reference sheet we will be drawing the petal again and forming it into side on views of
the rose in semi and full bloom. Note the classic 'bell' shape and just concentrate on assemblying all
the petals. You will note you will only just see the tips of the inside petals though they will mostly
appear flat on top as they curl over. They get smaller and stick up more as they get toward the

part two - roses
center of the rose.
Please note the other 'parts' of the rose and add them as I have. Complete as shown above ... and
add the title.
HOMEWORK
Observe and practice until you are comfortable drawing the rose from any angle. Try drawing it
from the back!
For those students wishing to see how such a drawing can be converted into an oil painting
depicting a vase of roses go to painting roses in the advanced lesson section.
END OF DRAWING BOOK
back to start

roses3
PAINTING RED ROSES
This lesson is a continuation of the drawing lesson on roses that you should view before
attempting your own painting.
I have done the painting in four stages and will attempt describe each stage as they are shown
below. The student should try and complete this painting in one session as it is essentially a
'wet in wet' project that relies on the fluidity of the paint.
First of all I covered a primed canvas (16" x 13") in a 'thin' mix of raw umber. Technically this is
usually referred to as a 'imprimatura'. When I say 'thin' I mean a mix diluted with turps that
spreads like watercolor and dries very quickly. When almost dry I use chalk to draw in the
design. For this classic or formal design I place my imaginary 'horizon' about one third up from
the bottom and then center the vase. If you prefer you could use charcoal for the drawing.
With the drawing complete I begin painting the centers and shadows in the roses. For this I use
'cadmium red deep' with perhaps a toutch of the umber or burnt umber in the very centers.
Next you should really load up a half to three quarter inch flat bristle brush with 'cadmium red'
and begin to paint between the cadmium red deep with broad singular strokes that will
represent the foremost of the petals (see below). Note that your brushstrokes should become a
little thinner ... use the edge of your bristle brush for this ... as the petals near the center of the
flower.
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roses3
For the leaves I use a mix of ultramarine blue and yellow ochre. Liven this up with some strokes
of deep red. Shadows should never be bland. Where the light strikes some of the leaves you
might want to bring them up with a little cadmium yellow and a blue/white mix (see the green
highlights above).
Next I would like you to consider the 'negative' space. That is what I call most of the area
around the roses, in this case the background, the foreground and the cast shadow. Here you

roses3
might mix up a mauve with your cadmium red and ultramarine blue lightened with white and
again load up your brush and begin 'cutting in' the outline of the particular blooms that interact
with the background.Use a medium if your paint is too dry. It should be creamy and fluid so you
will need to recharge your brush after every three or four strokes. You can do a similar thing
with the foreground with a mix of raw sienna and white. Spend some time and thought doing
this 'cutting in' and if a shape does not appeal rub it off with a rag and try again. Try an achieve
a balance between shapes using more one stroke 'concave' shapes for the rose blooms in
outline.
DANGER ... do not overwork the brush strokes otherwise the painting will lose its freedom and
immediacy. If the hues begin to look too garish you can always tone them down by adding a
little raw umber.
Finally you will be left with the water filled glass bowl. This is nothing but a mirror for what
surrounds it. Basically you should 'smear the bowl' with all the adjacent colors as I have done
and when this looks satisfactory use the chisel-edge of a bristle brush to show some of the rose
stems as they are seen through the glass. Add a little 'white' highlight to the glass. Such
highlights are best with titanium white/naples yellow mix which gives a better 'glow' than just
pure white.

roses3
Here is another variation on the same theme on a larger canvas (24" x 16").
GO TO .... painting percy the pelican
Advanced lesson menu

Advanced painting lessons
NEW: A view of all works available
as prints can be seen by pressing here.
Understanding the aims
Why Illusion?
Painting metals
gold and chrome
silver and copper
What is photo-realism?
photo-realism
kissing practice [2] [3]
The grape, the cherry and the eye!
The eye completed
Brushstrokes
the painterly effect (Virgil Elliott)
Virgil's 'Oil Painters Bible' [2]
the painterly effect (William Whitaker)
Bill's demo [2] [3] [4]
What makes a masterpiece?
THE MODERN ILLUSIONISTS
ADVANCED PAINTING - BEYOND FASHION
... BY JOHN HAGAN
Einstein etching shown (10"x12") by John Hagan (1975)
Perspective
some advanced perspective
rivers lakes and ponds
Applications
the golden mean
computers and painting [2] [3]
Painting fur,linen,satin,silk,gauze
drawing
texture
paint application
Color
what color to use
hue
saturation
psychology and the adjacent effect
harmony
color mixing and psychology
Practical painting demonstrations
The earth, a smaller place? [2][3]
Roses [2] [3]
NEW Technology and Painting - the way ahead?
All lesson New CD here
Subscribe to cowdisley technical
forum
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Illlusion and photo-realism
3-1 CLASSIC ILLUSION AND PHOTO-REALISM
Here we will examine the notion that good paintings can be
made by simply copying photographs. To do this we shall
return to the latter half of the last century when
photography was all the rage and the great debate of the
time was whether photography should confine itself to
science or also develop as an art form. The perceived
danger to painter's incomes was what spawned the
impressionsists who believed representational art was
doomed. Meanwhile it gave the academy painters something
to think about - rather like the late 1980's when the
champions of computer technology predicted the demise of
newspapers and books. It seems they too were a little
premature as trees seem in more danger now than then.
There is little doubt that Monet,Van Gough, Renoir, Cezanne
and others were artists of innovation and that the 'academy'
painters such as Bouguereau and Gerome, after Ingre
departed this mortal coil, were the next masters of the
classic western art technique. I call such painters as
Bouguereau and Waterhouse the painter's painters as they
combine advanced technique with subtelty to the extent you
almost forget the painting is merely a two dimensional
illusion. In the fervent battle to maintain a presence against
photography it was unfortunate the impressionists were
pitted against the academy artists for a shrinking art
market. While the impressionists mostly turned to landscape
the academy artists concentrated even more on developing
a more subtle techniques for figurative and portrait painting.
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Iian Neil writes:
'Certainly Bouguereau does have a certain Romantic flavour to his works, but by and large he
did not work in the style of Delacroix, David-Freidrich, or Gericault, to name a few exponents of
that style. When I look at Bouguereau's work, the overwhelming impression I receive is of
Classical polish and perfection, its potential severity softened with aspects of Romanticism.
One must understand that by describing Bouguereau's work as Photo-Idealism one risks
classing him amongst those who merely copied photgraphs. Most critics probably do not realize
that Bouguereau, like many of the great "academic" painters, did not rely very heavily on
photographs at all -- Bouguereau, like Pietro Annigoni half a century later, preferred to work
from life. The fact that his paintings are so extraordinarily verisimilutudinous is due to his
enormous technical ability, and not to a slavish attitude towards representing reality
"photgraphically".
Iian's drawing
After all, why should we declare Bouguereau to be "photographic"? Is it true that the only
*real* reality is to be found in photographs? - that is obviously utter nonsense! The only reality
to be found is in reality itself. Bouguereau did not set out to imitate photos, although it is
possible he may have spurred himself ever onwards out of the sheer delight of pushing his skills
to the limit; nevertheless, he wasn't a parasite or a mediocrity -- he painted from REALITY and
not from a faded recreation of reality. After all ... can not the eye capture more of the world's
beauty than the photo? Can we not perceive the beauty of movement, the subtleties of colour,
and so forth, whereas our cameras struggle to be able to even take adequate photos in poorly
lit conditions? We humans don't need to spend hours in the developing room just to see what is
out there -- Bouguereau did not need to seek the Truth through photos -- the Truth was already
out there.

Now, returning to my initial classification of Bouguereau as a "Clasical-Illusionist". It is not my
intention to suggest at all that he was an imitator of (or slave to) the camera; I have merely
latched on here to the term most familiar to us to describe a representation of reality which is
extraordinarily life-like. Bewarned, though - never mistake Bouguereau's supreme illusionistic
skill for a barrenness of invention or a servitude to the minutae (which implies the
*irrelevancies*) of reality. Bouguereau stands prominently in the long line of Illustionists who
made magic out of the mundane, who distilled the Beauty out of Truth, and who feeds our eyes
and our souls on a feast of life-affirming verdor.
Emphasizing the "academism" of the non-Impressionist painters is to do them a disservice.
These people didn't just execute works for the state, the Second Empire or whatever. To
declare that their 'style' marks them as oppressors of the Impressionists or enemies of "true
art" is to make a grave error in judging their importance in art history.
Therefore, I object to them being described as "Pompiers" -- I understand that the terms
"baroque" and "rococo" also previously had a negative connotation, but if we are try and
ressurect the reputations of men like Gerome, Bouguereau and Meissonier, why should we
make our task thrice as difficult by referring to them in what we have all acknowledged is a
derogatory term? It may be that in the future the term "Pompier art" can be applied with
equanimity and fairness by some generation of art historians -- but at the present we would be
playing right into their hands by asserting (quite falsely) that Bouguereau and Gerome were
merely academics or pedagogues'.
STUDENT ACTIVITY:Use the library or the internet to make a list of 8 impressionist artists of
1890 and a list of 15 academy artists of the same period. Include any Orientalists and the Pre-
Rahpaelites in the latter group. Also name a painting by each artist listed. Allow 40min.
GO TO .... the eye, the grape and the cherry
advanced lesson menu

Advanced lessons - introduction
1-1 THE MAGIC OF PAINTING - INTRODUCTION
'Give me some paint, brushes and canvas and I will give you gold, silver, ruby and pearl. I will
give you the greatest treasures you have ever seen. I will show you magic. Artists are the
greatest alchemists, the best magicians of all. They can make gold from base metals, they can
make you laugh and cry and touch your very soul, and they do that every day - and more ... JH
from the 'Modern Illusionists'.
The Magician - A following story will explain how these disciplines can interact and why the
word illusionist applies to the master painter as well as the best magicians. Early this century a
magician was sent to North Africa to quell a rebellion. He came on stage with a large wooden
chest which he placed in the center and asked for the strongest man in the audience to step up.
After some coaxing a warrior champion, a lumbering ox of a man was propelled up on stage.
The magician told him not to fear but to lift up the simple wooden chest. This the man did this
with consummate ease.
Next the magician told the audience he would steal the giant’s strength and render him as weak
as a kitten. He clicked his fingers and asked the man again to try and lift the chest. Now the
strongman strained and pulled but could not move the wooden chest, even an inch, and finally
gave up. To prove he had taken away the man’s power the magician asked his assistant, a
slightly formed young boy, to prove he could lift the chest - which he did.
There was much consternation which the magician stilled by suddenly announcing he could
restore the former strongman's strength. Then after asking the audience if that was what they
wanted, and with another click of the fingers, he did. Finally, upon ordering the strongman to
lift the chest for a third time the man raised it with his former ease.
The chiefs gasped and the rebellion was quelled for who could oppose such power?
Of course a steel plate in the bottom of the chest and an early electro-magnet under the stage
was the simple cause of the phenomenon. But what is important is the story. It was the
magician's manipulation of the minds of the audience that was the real magic. That is the art of
the illusionist. Not the trick. It is the same with a painting or a play. A good painting will make
you believe what you are seeing has a reality in time and space even though you know it is an
illusion, merely a picture on a wall.
The Application - The techniques of painting silk and satin, gold and silver or diamonds and
rubies or anything else for that matter requires the artist to embrace the same three disciplines
the magician uses in my story.
1. The artist must understand the nature of the objects or things he or she desires to paint. Just
as the magician needed to understand certain principles of electro-magnetism the artist also
must be a scientist. To create the illusion of gold or chrome the artist must know something of
its molecular or crystalline structure, something of light and refraction. In other words some
elementary physics and chemistry.
2. The artist must be philosopher enough to ask and answer questions regarding the nature of
things in their ideal from - a conceptual analysis if you like. The artist must understand how
people feel about the things he or she desires to paint. For the magician in my story it was his
understanding of people’s feelings and their views and prejudices regarding a man’s physical
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strength that was the key. The concept and knowledge of how people feel about something was
- and is - essential for illusion to succeed.
3. Whereas the magician needs the skill and discipline of the actor, performer so the artists
must similarly have the ability to control the painting in the totality of its parts. The artist needs
to be creative and know how best to construct and present his two dimensional painting as a
three dimensional illusion. The artist will need to know and apply the techniques that painters
use create form and depth (chiaroscuro and perspective).
To summarise then: we have the technical analysis, the conceptual analysis and the
presentation technique. When we understand these things about an object or subject we can
then paint it.
Many will recall the pearl necklace I made from
scratch in a previous lesson - so now let us use
that to demonstrate the study necessary to
preform the task. Please understand that in this
exercise painting without form and depth will
produce merely a pale imitation, a sad flat thing
that takes us back to kindergarten.
Technical analysis - the physical nature of a pearl.
The pearl's technical characteristics fall under four main headings;
a) Shape - various spherical - round, oval, tetrahedron with no sharp
edges.
b) Texture - hard-edge satin, non-oxidising
c) Color - the whole visible spectrum with an underlying milky yellow-
orange to blue-grey. Pacific island pearls are yellow orange while
artificial Japanese blue -grey.
d) Reflective ability - partially diffuses the light rays with its semi-
opaque non -crystalline surface.
Conceptual analysis - The pearl as it exists in the mind of most is
usually round, glowing diffused and organic. It's most esteemed color is
underlying gold. The pearl is natural and feels benevolent against the
skin.
Presentation technique - To take advantage of the pearl's reflective
nature I decided to place it in a situation where there was something to
reflect. In this case in front of a window on a red table in a brown room
with a blue ceiling and an observer between the window and the pearl.
A string of pearls is more believable than a single. Use a rich, soft
background (prussian blue) that exaggerates the pale, glowing diffused
nature of the pearl. That satisfies the form and the depth (perspective)
is internal in the reflection.
STUDENT ACTIVITY: Painting the pearls:
1) Paint miniature scene as above in a wet medium and allow paint to diffuse.
2) Glaze in a semi-transparent mix of white, with a little red and yellow.
3) While still wet introduce the faintest touches of as many colors of the spectrum you like.

4) Sharpen the outside edges. Allow 40min.
The greatest illusion of all could be the illusion you never notice. The greatest magic
could well be the magic you are never know. A retired spy once said to me ... 'You
know, not all magicians wear capes and wave sparkling wands.'
GO TO ... Painting precious metals
Main Menu

The Oil Painter's Bible - chapter 5
THE OIL PAINTER'S BIBLE - CHAPTER 5
Master Class - advanced oil painting principles and techniques
from the Renaissance to the present by Virgil Elliott, APSC, ASPA
111 Goodwin Avenue, Penngrove, California 94951-8660, U.S.A.
Telephone: (707) 664-8198
E-Mail: VirgilElliott@AOL.com
© 2000 Virgil Elliott. All rights reserved
PRINCIPLES OF VISUAL REALITY
The greatest art is that which moves the viewer in a positive way, which touches perhaps dormant
sensibilities inherent in human nature, and awakens and/or fortifies man's better qualities in so doing.
Great performances in all the arts accomplish this same goal. A well-written operatic aria, for example,
sung brilliantly and with feeling by a virtuoso soprano, can move an audience profoundly, raising the hair
on the neck and bringing tears to the eyes, leaving at least some of them gasping and choking back sobs of
deeply felt emotion as they try to maintain their composure . Experiencing such profound appreciation for
a masterly performance leaves one forever changed for the better. It cannot do otherwise. Great Literature
provides many comparable experiences. In painting, it is possible to achieve the same thing.
Great Literature provides many
comparable experiences. In
painting, it is possible to
achieve the same thing. The
reader is referred to
Rembrandt's "Judas Returning
the Thirty Pieces of Silver" for
an excellent example. The
depth of Judas' remorseful
anguish is compellingly
conveyed by his body language
as well as his facial expression,
and the viewer cannot help but
be deeply moved upon viewing
it.
Compassion and sympathy are called forth as the audience feels the anguish of the subject, so
eloquently is it expressed in the painting. Compassion , empathy, sympathy; these are all aspects of man's
better nature. To change people for the better—what more noble purpose could an artist be called upon to
fulfill? To what higher calling could we aspire?
In each of the examples presented above, the means by which the experience is made possible is
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virtuoso performance in an artistic endeavor by a Master of the discipline employed. Whereas the focus of
the performance itself is to make the audience feel whatever the artist wants it to feel, it must be stressed
that the objective can only be successfully attained through a thorough understanding of every aspect of
the art form involved, including the psychological effects produced by each possibility. There is a
language to be learned, and mastered, before any great performance is remotely possible. In literature, the
language is verbal; in music, it is music theory. In visual art, it is a thorough understanding of the
Principles of Visual Reality, coupled with heightened aesthetic sensibility and mastery of drawing and
painting techniques. Why the Principles of Visual Reality? Because we live in a world of realistic images.
We relate to realistic imagery. We even dream in realistic imagery. Of all the visual possibilities available
to a painter, the only way to move our viewers to the utmost is to employ realistic imagery in our work.
We may depict things which are not real, but if we render them in accordance with the Principles of
Visual Reality, they will read as if they were real, and thus will be able to exert maximum impact on the
viewer. It is the language by which we express whatever it is we wish to express, and which our viewers
will be able to read and comprehend on the receiving end. Our messages cannot communicate if we speak
in a language comprehensible only to ourselves. Thus we must use a language common to everyone who
can see. Realistic imagery is that language.
The Principles of Visual Reality are established by the way our vision works. The further one
deviates from these principles, the less the work in question will resemble visual reality. In creating the
illusion of reality, the artist depends heavily on the indication of the third dimension, which is depth, or
spatial recession. Spatial recession is indicated by observing the principles of Geometric Perspective,
Atmospheric Perspective and Selective Focus.
GEOMETRIC PERSPECTIVE
Geometric perspective, often referred to as simply perspective, may be defined as the natural law
which says the further something is from our eyes, the smaller its image will be. Since there are two types
of perspective, the other being atmospheric perspective, it is necessary to distinguish between them by
referring to what is normally called perspective as geometric perspective, in reference to the fact that it is
a geometric breakdown of a natural optical phenomenon. It is sometimes referred to as linear perspective,
as it involves the use of lines in its construction. As simple as it sounds, the problem of how to
convincingly render this visual phenomenon had baffled painters for centuries, until a mathematical
approach was discovered in the early Renaissance. The painters Masaccio and Uccello, as well as the
architect Bruneleschi have each been credited with its discovery. The Roman architect Vitruvius may
actually have preceded all of the others named, and may in turn have been influenced in it by someone
still earlier, but the discovery does not seem to have reached painters until the early Renaissance.
Whichever of these attributions is correct is less important than the fact that the discovery was made, and
that it constituted a major breakthrough in illusionistic painting. Once artists learned the system, they
could indicate spatial recession more realistically than had previously been possible. The system involves
the use of vanishing points; points at which lines intended to depict parallel lines converge. These
vanishing points are on the horizon if the lines are level. It is important to note that the horizon is always
at the viewer's eye level. When two or more vanishing points are necessary, as in all but the simplest
perspective problems, their placement may be worked out following the mathematical system, or, if we
are working from life, by simply copying the angles we see and extending them to the horizon. The points
at which the extended lines cross the horizon are the Vanishing Points. All lines parallel to the one used to
establish the Vanishing Point will converge at that Vanishing Point. If there is any question as to their
accuracy, the mathematical system may then be employed to double-check. The mathematical approach
must be learned first, and practiced until a point is reached whereby the artist is able to visualize the scene
in correct perspective automatically, without the need of actually drawing in the vanishing points and
guide lines. The subject is taught to students of architecture, but is not part of the curriculum of fine arts
programs in most universities at the time of this writing. It may be that a Fine Arts major could take it as
an elective. There are several books on the subject, the best of which are listed in the bibliography.
However one chooses to study, whether alone, in an institution, or with a private instructor, the

importance of mastering geometric perspective cannot be stressed too highly. It is imperative that any
serious aspiring artist absorb this fundamental principle completely, if he or she is to ever create
genuinely Great Art. It must become second nature, so thoroughly assimilated that virtually no effort is
required to visualize it correctly. As the subject is so completely covered in Rex Vicat Cole's book,
Perspective for Artists, there is little point in addressing it in full detail in this book.
Errors in perspective are far too common in modern times. Such an error immediately destroys the
illusion of spatial recession, and prevents the viewer from receiving the artist's message.
In the simplest exercises in perspective, one
Vanishing Point only is used, and may be
placed arbitrarily, on the Horizon. A straight
road on absolutely level ground may be
indicated by drawing lines from points on
each side of the road to the Vanishing Point
on the horizon, where they converge. Suppose
we want to add a line of telephone poles, or
fence posts, running parallel to the road and
placed at regular intervals. The spaces
between them must diminish as greater
distance from the viewer's eye is indicated.
The interval between the nearest pole and the
second pole is established arbitrarily by the
artist. The placement of the base of the third
pole may be determined by drawing a
guideline from the top of the first pole
through the center of the second pole, and
extending it until it intersects the line running
from the base of the first pole to the
Vanishing Point.
A vertical line drawn from the point thus established becomes the third pole. Its height is found by
drawing a line from the top of the first pole to the Vanishing Point. The fourth pole is located by drawing
a line from the top of the second pole through the center of the third pole and extending it to the line
connecting the base of the first pole with the Vanishing Point, and so on. This example is quite simple,
and should serve only as an introduction to the geometrical system of indicating three-dimensional depth
on a two-dimensional surface. Refer to the insets and accompanying illustrations for solutions to some of
the more complex perspective problems.
The system is not quite perfect, as it fails to take into account the curvature of the Earth. It works well
because the Earth is so large that in most cases the curvature is not apparent. Its limitations are that it can
become quite complicated, and artists are generally not mathematicians, nor are they likely to be
interested in approaching the scene from such an analytical, as opposed to intuitive, standpoint. For this
reason, many artists, or would-be artists, are weak in their understanding of this fundamental principle. It
is imperative that the student, the aspiring artist, apply the discipline necessary to learn the mathematics of
the system so well that all awkwardness with its application disappears and ceases to interfere with the
creative, intuitive processes so essential to art. Once it is committed to second nature, it becomes a help
rather than a hindrance. The artist should then be able to "eyeball" the scene accurately, without having to
actually draw the vanishing points and guide lines. Its parallel in music would be the learning of music
theory; perhaps no fun at first, but Great Music cannot be created without it.
ATMOSPHERIC PERSPECTIVE

As objects recede in space they not only appear to shrink in size, but tend to lose detail, contrast of
values, intensity of color, and their edges appear less distinct the greater the distance from the viewer's
eyes. This is the principle of Atmospheric Perspective. Some writers call it "aerial perspective," but this is
misleading, as the term, "aerial" usually pertains to flying.
The visual alteration of images over
distance is the direct result of "X"
amount of atmosphere between the
eye and the object or plane in view.
The atmosphere contains water vapor
and its own density, which renders it
somewhat less than totally
transparent, adding a certain degree
of whiteness to the air. Light renders
the atmosphere white. The more air
we must look through to view
something, the more atmosphere we
see between it and our eyes, and the
more the image is altered by it.
An optical illusion is created by the
presence of a semitransparent white
between the eye and any color darker
than white, which alters the color in
question in the direction of blue, as
well as lightening the value. This is
precisely why the sky appears to be
blue. The sky's blue is created by the
blackness of space being viewed
through a layer of semitransparent
white atmosphere. The white is the
atmosphere illuminated by the sun.
At night, without the sun's light, the atmosphere is no longer white, and the blackness of space becomes
visible. Note that the sky is always lightest just above the horizon. This is the greatest distance we can see
at ground level, which is where the atmosphere contains the most (white) water vapor and the greatest
density. At the horizon, the density of the atmosphere renders it more opaque, and thus, whiter. As we
look up, we look through thinner air, which is less opaque, and the sky is bluer and darker. This is why
distant objects and planes appear lighter, bluer, and less distinct. The same phenomenon can be produced
with paint. The process is called scumbling and is accomplished by applying a thin veil of white paint
semitransparently over a layer of (dry) darker paint. The optical result in paint is the same as in the air.
Translucent white over black reads bluish, just as light grey smoke against dark trees reads blue. Note that
the same smoke may appear to be brown when a white cloud is behind it, a reverse of the scumble
phenomenon. Dark over light increases apparent warmth. This is the principle at work in glazing, that is,
the application of darker transparent paint over a lighter passage. Glazing and scumbling are discussed at
length in Chapter Six and Chapter Ten.
In painting, atmospheric perspective can be rendered directly, in one step, using opaque paint

exclusively, at least in the distance and middle ground, following the principle, by adding white, and
sometimes blue, increasing the white (and blue) to indicate greater distance, softening edges by working
wet paint into wet paint, suppressing detail and diminishing contrast between light and shadow to indicate
greater distance. The effect can also be gotten, perhaps slightly more convincingly, in a two-stage process
whereby the same procedure is used as in the one-step method except that the area of greatest distance is
rendered very slightly darker than the desired final effect. The illusion is completed in the second step by
scumbling a thin film of white or light grey over the dried paint of the first step in the areas of the greatest
distance. The illusion of depth can be further enhanced by painting the deepest foreground shadows, and
only these foreground shadows, in transparent glazes over a relatively lighter underpainting or primer.
This creates the highest degree of clarity, as would be the case when the least amount of atmosphere is
present between the shadow and the viewer's eye, appropriate for the immediate foreground only. The
combined, systematic use of glazing, scumbling, and opaque painting allows the painter to create the
illusion of depth to the highest degree possible. However, the successful rendering of spatial recession
depends even more heavily on observance of the principles of geometric and atmospheric perspective than
it does on expert paint handling.
SELECTIVE FOCUS
There is a third principle to be observed when creating the illusion of reality, which is closely aligned
with atmospheric perspective. This is the Principle of Selective Focus. It is the phenomenon whereby our
eyes, directed by the brain, register the highest attention to detail on whatever we consider most important
within our cone of vision. Please note that this process is unique to the natural viewing apparatus. A
camera does not operate in the same way. The specific differences will be discussed at length in the
chapter on photography. In designing our painting, we must simplify the shapes of lesser importance and
render them in softer focus than the areas of primary importance. Hard edges should be used sparingly,
and for specific reasons. The use of too many sharp edges destroys the illusion of reality, as it does not
correspond to visual experience. Our eyes cannot focus on more than one small area at a time. Everything
else appears duller and less distinct. By following this principle, the artist can assign greater importance to
key elements in the picture by rendering them in sharper focus and adding more detail, and can arrange
things in such a way as to lead the eye from point to point, including areas of secondary and tertiary
interest, if desired, to hold the viewer's attention for as long as possible. Areas of secondary and tertiary
importance may also be rendered in sharp focus, but must be made less noticeable than the primary
subject by their positioning on the picture plane and by arranging things in such a way as to have less
contrast of values, lower chroma colors, or whatever other means will render them less noticeable at a
distance. Orchestrated in this way, they do not compete with the area of primary importance for the
viewer's attention. The main focal point is emphasized not only by sharper focus, but by greater contrast
of light and dark, by higher chroma color, perhaps by its juxtaposition with contrasting hue accents, and
especially by its strategic placement on the canvas. Other elements in the picture may also point toward it.
Thus are the elements of secondary and tertiary interest rendered subordinate, even though they may be
rendered in sharp focus in certain instances. Their effectiveness, however, depends on softer focus being
used over most of the picture. If one had to choose between painting everything sharp, or everything soft,
the soft option would allow for a more convincing illusion of reality. We all, at times, see everything in
soft focus, as it takes a certain amount of effort and direction from the brain to focus the eyes on anything.
It is not possible, however, to see everything in sharp focus at once; thus, a view painted in such a way
clashes with our experiences in viewing the real world. It is easy to fall into the trap of painting this way,
for as we move our focus from what we have just painted to what we will paint next, each element
appears to us in sharp focus. The temptation to paint it as sharply as we see it when focusing on it is very
strong, but must be resisted, or we violate the Principle of Selective Focus, and the illusion of reality of
the overall scene will be compromised for the sake of superfluous detail. It is helpful to squint when
observing these elements, thereby throwing the eye somewhat out of focus, and then paint them as they
appear when squinting. If the painting requires a sharper focus on certain parts of the scene, it is still
advisable to begin by squinting, in order to read the larger, more general shapes, and then add whatever

detail is desired after we are certain that the big shapes are correct.
We must not lose sight of
how our picture will appear
to its viewers at first glance.
It must register upon their
sense of sight just as the
scene itself would, or they
will not be drawn in to look
at it more closely, and will
never see to appreciate the
fine work we may have put
into the details. A picture
must be designed to work as
a visual whole. It must be
more than a collection of
details assembled at random.
Elements of lesser
importance should be
simplified, lest they confuse
the viewer as to what the
subject, or focal point, of the
picture is. If the focal point is
rendered in sharper focus,
and subordinate areas in
softer focus and simplified,
confusion is avoided.
This follows precisely the manner in which we view a scene with our own eyes. To see something in
sharp focus, the brain must direct the muscles within both eyes to simultaneously adjust their respective
lenses to focus on that object, and the muscles guiding the position of each eye to allow them to converge
on that same object or surface. This involves a certain degree of effort, thus this action is only triggered
by the brain when it deems something of sufficient importance to warrant it. Therefore, by rendering a
given object or surface in our painting more sharply, we are indicating to the viewer that this particular
thing is important. Thus the term, "Selective Focus."
As artists, we should not just paint what we see, we should paint what we want to show to our
audience, selecting only that which is worthy of such special attention, and then presenting it as it appears
at its most appealing, or making it more so if it will make a better picture. The viewer's attention is
directed where we want it by the use of selective focus. If the visions we paint exist only in our
imaginations, so much the better.
By understanding the Principles of Visual Reality, one can render imaginary scenes convincingly real, and
perhaps transcend even the limitations of working from life. This is the mark of a Master. This level of
ability can only be attained by working from life until the Principles of Visual Reality are thoroughly
absorbed. There is no short cut.
THE NATURE OF LIGHT

Of equal importance to the principles governing spatial recession is an understanding of the nature of
light and shadow. Three-dimensional form is indicated by the distribution of light. Shadow is, in theory,
the absence of light, but in reality there is light in shadow as well. Areas of light are generally illuminated
by light rays which have traveled in a straight line from the strongest source, whereas shadows receive
their light indirectly, as the rays ricochet off nearby surfaces and bounce in behind objects that block the
direct rays, or from secondary light sources weaker and/or farther away than the primary light source.
Without secondary light, shadows would read as black. The dark side of the moon is an example.
Secondary light is what enables us to perceive form within the shadows.
The shadow is darkest at the just beyond the planes illuminated by the primary (strongest) light
source. This area is called the shadow accent (sometimes referred to as the core shadow) of the body
shadow. The phenomenon of the shadow accent is best understood in scientific terms. Whenever enough
light is present to allow us to see at all, there are light rays coming from many directions, of varying
strengths, both reflected and direct, often from more than one source. The strongest light creates what we
consider light and middletone areas, whereas the weaker are only visible in shadow. Whatever is blocking
the strongest light also blocks a certain amount of secondary light, and the closer the shadow is to the
blocking obstacle, the more of the secondary light rays are blocked.
A good analogy is to suppose we are standing under an awning or umbrella in the rain. Our head stays
dry, being closer to the awning, umbrella or whatever is blocking the rain. Further down, some rain may
reach us, where there is greater distance between a given surface and the awning. If we substitute light
rays for rain, it becomes apparent why the shadow accent is darker than the rest of the shadow. Less light
means more dark. Beyond the shadow accent, more reflected or secondary light is allowed to enter the
shadow area, reflecting off nearby objects or planes, or from secondary (weaker) sources, as the distance
from the light-blocking obstacle increases. This light is commonly called reflected light in shadow,
although it often includes direct light from weaker or more distant sources as well. Perhaps a more
technically correct term would be secondary light. So the shadow accent, also known as the core shadow,
is most simply described as the zone of shadow between the primary light and the secondary light.
The shadow accent is a most useful device for describing interior planes, that is, planes within the
edges of the object being depicted, by its shape and by how sharply it makes the transition from
middletone to shadow. A sharp change in angle will have a sharp transition; a more rounded form would
have a softer transition from middletone to shadow. Once the artist understands this principle, he or she
will look for the shadow accent, and will use it to good advantage.
The cast shadow follows the same principle as the body shadow (the shadow on the unlit side of the
object in question), in that it is darkest at the edge nearest whatever is blocking the light. Its edge is also
sharpest at that point, and softens as it recedes from there, due to reflected light from surrounding planes
or from secondary sources. The middletone is the area on the lighted side which is far enough from the
angle of incidence of the light rays to our eyes that the body color of the object is least altered by the light.
Thus the color of a given surface is seen at its highest chroma, or intensity, somewhere in the middletone.
This is explained in greater detail in the chapter on color.
The highlight is the point at which the light from the primary light source bounces off the object and
to our eyes the most directly. It will contain more of the color of the light source than any other area in the
light. The highlight will describe the surface texture of the object being viewed, by the degree of
sharpness at its edge, and by the contrast between its value and the value of the middletone. There will be
a transition zone between highlight and middletone. The extent of this transition zone, again, depends on
the texture and shape of the surface, and on the intensity of the light from the source, striking at the
highlight. It is necessary at this point to address the way in which color is affected in the shadow areas.
Shadows are areas where the direct light rays from the strongest source cannot reach. If there were but
one source of light, and no surfaces nearby to reflect light back into those areas, the shadows would be
totally dark, and we could not read shapes within them. However, situations such as that are rare, except
in outer space. In reality, there is usually more than one light source, and/or nearby surfaces which reflect

light into shadow areas. The color of the secondary light source affects the color of the shadows. The
color of nearby surfaces, which reflect light into shadows, is also cast into the shadows as an inseparable
component of the reflected light. The body color of the shadowed surface is also an influence; however,
its chroma will be lower (duller) than in the middletone for the same reason that its value is lower
(darker). The reason is that there is not enough light in the shadow to reveal the body color at its full
intensity.
The strongest influence on the color in shadow is usually the color of a secondary light source. The
best example is an outdoor scene on a sunny day. The main light source is direct sun, which is slightly
yellowish. The secondary light source is the sky, which is blue. The color of the sky will be the strongest
color influence, other than the body color of each surface, in all areas facing it not lit by direct sunlight.
The sun's rays, striking directly, are so much stronger than the light of the secondary source (the sky) as to
effectively overcome the color influence of the sky in those areas, replacing it in the highlights with its
own color plus white. In other words, direct sunlight "eats" the blue. When a cloud obscures the sun, the
sky becomes the primary light source, and its color, blue, becomes an influence in the lighted areas, until
the cloud moves away and allows the direct rays of the sun to again eat the blue. All areas then in shadow
retain the blue influence of the sky, except where the light from the sky cannot reach. In those areas,
reflected color will have a stronger influence. For example, the underside of an object surrounded by a
green lawn will register a certain amount of green in the shadow areas, whereas the upward-facing areas
in shadow will register the blue of the sky. The green is carried with the light from the sun as it bounces
off the lawn, reflecting into nearby surfaces. If the object has no color of its own, such as a white or grey
statue, this will be more apparent. If the object has its own body color, it will be influenced by the color of
the secondary light, but not replaced by it.
After the student has been exposed to these principles, they will become more obvious, as he or she
will be on the lookout for them. This is an important step toward becoming an artist. Once the Principles
of Visual Reality are completely understood, the artist is freed from dependence on external sources.
Nothing the imagination can conjure up will be beyond the artist's ability to depict on canvas. This in
itself is still no guarantee, however, that an artist so equipped will be a Master, as he or she must also have
something of interest to say. Inspiration is an individual thing that cannot be taught. One finds inspiration
on one's own. However, all the inspiration in the world will not help, if the inspired person lacks the
vocabulary to express it. An understanding of the Principles of Visual Reality is an extremely important
part of that vocabulary.
Detail from "The Songstress" by Virgil Elliott
GO TO ... Techniques of Painting in Oil
main menu

kissing practice, a painting
KISSING PRACTICE - A DEMONSTRATION PAINTING
'REALISM DEFINED'
One of the most difficult painting tasks it that of actually painting realistic flesh. Nowhere was this
excelled but by the French Academy painters of the late nineteenth century or their counterparts
across the channel such as Leighton, Waterhouse and Alma-Tadema. Perhaps the most sublime of
all these was William Bouguereau whose paintings of people were so convincing it becomes most
difficult to distinguish them as mere images. More than anyone Bouguereau made angels as real as
the peasant girls he painted as pot-boilers for the more fashionable commercial market.
Bouguereau is the professional painter's benchmark for technical perfection in the rendering of
flesh.
So how did he do it?
In this lesson I shall demonstrate a technique and provide a brief explanation of how he achieved
such results.
http://www.geocities.com/~jlhagan/advanced/kissing_practice.htm (1 of 3)1/13/2004 3:34:23 AM

Fig. 1
Preliminary sketch on a small gray board
Fig. 2
Preliminary sketch developed and transferred to
canvas
After sketching my forms, in many aspects, and deciding on my general composition, as I have
done here in Fig.1 in pencil, I am ready to transfer this to my prepared canvas. In this case it is
roughly 52" by 36" and primed with acrylic primer and covered by an imprimatura of umbers and
light grays to a value between 4 and 5.
In Fig.3 I have transferred my sketch using the 'grid' method and added some anatomical features.
For a painter the study of anatomy is as important a skill as the practicing of scales to a musician or
the use of a saw, chisel and drill is to a carpenter. There is no short cut to study and drawing of
muscles, sinews and bones if a painter desires to paint the human form. My sketch here is done in
chalk for easy removal.
Fig. 3
Looking for shapes that satisfy the eye
Fig. 4
Hinting at a background
To further define my composition, and particular the masses of the forms and how the
negative and positive spaces react with each other, I have, in Fig.3, highlighted the
background.
In Fig.4 I suggest a background. Here, since the figures will dominate the painting, I place

the horizon low (1/3 up). This will place a high contrast area across the middle of the
picture. To further amplify the drama I shall eventually create within this background the
three definite distances, far, middle-ground and fore-ground. One of the secrets of creating
a super-realism is to allow the eye to be able to comprehend all distances at once. Of course
this cannot be accomplished by a camera or by the eye without refocusing.
GO TO .... kissing practice No2

THE OIL PAINTER'S BIBLE - CHAPTER 6
Master Class - advanced oil painting principles and techniques
from the Renaissance to the present
by Virgil Elliott, APSC, ASPA
TECHNIQUES OF PAINTING IN OILS
From the earliest days of oil painting to the time of this writing (late Twentieth Century, into the early
Twenty-first), a number of oil painting techniques have evolved.
A great deal has been learned through
the processes of trial and error and from
the experiments of various artists
through the centuries. From Jan and
Hubert Van Eyck, possibly the first
innovators to paint pictures in oils, in
the late Fourteenth and early Fifteenth
Century, to William Bouguereau, Jean
Léon Gérôme, Alexandre Cabanel,
Jehan-Georges Vibert and the other
French Academic painters in the late
Nineteenth Century, technical
knowledge developed more or less
continuously, as artists of each
generation added their discoveries to
what their predecessors had learned.
The continuity was interrupted around the end of the Nineteenth Century as a result of the popularity of
the Impressionists, who were viewed as a rebellion against the academic style of painting. The emotional
reaction to the Impressionists' emergence resulted in a total rejection of the Academy and all it stood for,
to the detriment of art instruction throughout the Twentieth Century. The techniques taught at the
Academy and the ateliers of the Academics represented the culmination of at least five hundred years of
more or less continuous development in representational drawing and painting, dating back to the early
Renaissance. This wealth of knowledge included many of the discoveries of the Old Masters, yet it was

suddenly regarded as "old fashioned," “passé,” etc., and therefore of no further interest. Technical
development essentially ceased at that point. Fortunately, a few of the dedicated students of the
Academics carried on in obscurity, and passed what they had been taught on to their students.
There was also enough written documentation of the older techniques to enable this author, and a few
other similarly obsessed individuals, to gain some understanding of what was involved, undaunted by the
best efforts of several universities' art departments to discourage the pursuit of this knowledge. These
written clues made possible a more thorough reading of the paintings themselves, sought out in museums
across Europe and the United States over many years. Conservation scientists have also been able to
provide a considerable amount of extremely valuable information previously only guessed at, which has
helped to unravel the mysteries of the past, as technological advances and ongoing scientific inquiry
continue to provide an ever-sounder base of knowledge from which to operate. Only after considerable
practice in painting (below) can one fully understand what is there to be read in the paintings of the Great
Masters and in the books which attempt to explain the techniques (including this one).
The hope is that this book will prove a little less cryptic (and more accurate) than the old manuscripts
which the author was compelled to seek out and decipher in his own quest for knowledge. It is further
hoped that it will find its way into the hands of others sharing the same obsession, and help to reestablish
a link with the Great Art of earlier times.
THE FLEMISH TECHNIQUE
The earliest oil painting method evolved from the earlier discipline of egg tempera painting, as an
attempt to overcome the difficulties and limitations inherent in that medium. As this took place initially in
Flanders, the method is referred to as the Flemish Technique. Essential to this method of painting are a
rigid surface primed pure white, and a very precise line drawing. The Flemish painted on wood panels
primed with a glue chalk ground, which caused the transparent passages to glow with warmth from
beneath the surface of the paint. As this method did not easily accommodate corrections once the painting

was under way, it was necessary to work out the idea for the picture with studies done on separate
surfaces.
The completed drawing was then transferred to the white panel by perforating the "cartoon", or a
tracing of it, along its lines, then positioning it over the panel and slapping it with a pounce bag, or sock
filled with charcoal dust. The stencil was then removed, and the drawing finished freehand. Another
method for the transfer was to cover one side of a piece of tracing paper with charcoal, or with a thin layer
of pigment and varnish or oil, which was then allowed to become tacky, and use it as one might use
carbon paper. Once the drawing was transferred to the primed panel and completed, its lines were gone
over with ink or very thin paint, either egg tempera, distemper (glue tempera), watercolor or oil, applied
with a pen or small, pointed, sable brush, and allowed to dry. The drawing was then isolated, and the
absorbency of the gesso sealed, by a layer of varnish. Sometimes a transparent toner was added to this
layer of varnish, which was then called an imprimatura. The tone of the imprimatura set the key for the
painting, making the harmonization of the colors easier, and allowing for more accurate judgment of
values. A field of white primer tends to make everything applied to it appear darker than it is, until the
white is completely covered, at which time the darks are sometimes seen to be too light. And when the
darks are too light, generally the rest of the tones are too light as well. By toning the isolating varnish (a
warm tone was most commonly used), to a tone somewhat darker than white, this problem could be
avoided or minimized.
Once the isolating varnish or imprimatura was dry, painting commenced with the application of
transparent glazes for the shadows. The paints used by the early Flemish practitioners were powdered
pigments ground in walnut or linseed oil. There is widespread speculation regarding whether other
ingredients, such as resins, balsams, and/or various polymerized oils were added, and the issue is not yet
resolved as of this writing. All opinions on this subject must be understood to be guesswork until
scientific analyses have been completed on enough paintings from this era to settle the issue. It is likely,
though not definitely established, that the brushing characteristics of the paints might have been altered to
a long molecular configuration by the addition of boiled or sun-thickened oils, and possibly balsams such
as Strasbourg Turpentine or Venice Turpentine, and/or resins. Strasbourg Turpentine, sap from the firs
growing in and around what is today Alsace Lorraine and elsewhere in Europe, is similar to Venice
Turpentine but clearer and faster drying. Balsams and polymerized oils add an enamel like consistency to
oil paint, changing its structure to a long molecular configuration. Long paint is easier to control than
short paint, especially with soft hair brushes on a smooth painting surface, as in the Flemish Technique.
Brushes used by the early Flemish oil painters were primarily soft hair rounds. Some were pointed at the
tip; some were rounded, and some flat. Hog-bristle brushes were also used for certain purposes, such as
scrubbing the paint on in thin layers for glazing and other effects. Painting commenced with the laying in
of shadows and other dark shapes with transparent paint. In this method, the painting is carried as far
along as possible while the paint is wet, but is usually not finished in one sitting. Large areas of color are
applied after the shadows are laid in, and worked together at the edges. These middletone colors may be
either transparent, opaque, or somewhere in between, depending on the artist's preference. The highlights
are added last, and are always opaque. Several subsequent overpaintings may be applied after the initial
coat is dry, if desired. Some Flemish artists also employed an underpainting of egg tempera, or egg oil
emulsion paint, to help establish the forms before painting over them in oils.
The Flemish method, in summary, consists of transparent shadows and opaque highlights, over a
precise line drawing, on wood panels primed pure white. The painting medium may possibly contain a
resin and/or balsam, which increases clarity and gloss, or a combination of a polymerized oil with a raw
oil, which takes on the most desirable characteristics of a resin when used together (i.e., sun-thickened
linseed or walnut oil, plus raw linseed or walnut oil, mixed together), without the defects of natural resins.
The innovations are the use of oil paint and the technique of glazing with transparent color. A glossy
varnish is applied at least six months after completion. Paintings are generally limited to smaller sizes,
due to the difficulties involved in constructing, priming, and transporting wooden panels of greater
dimensions. It had its limitations, but was a vast improvement over egg tempera, both in ease of execution
and in the beauty of the final result.
Although it originated in Flanders, word quickly spread of the marvels of oil painting, and it was
soon adopted by the German artist Albrecht Dürer, who is known to have traveled to Flanders and to Italy,

and by Antonello da Messina, who studied in Flanders, according to Vasari. Giovanni Bellini then learned
it from Antonello, and taught it to Giorgione and Titian. The Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden,
who was adept at painting in oils, came to Italy around 1449 and influenced a number of Italian artists,
including Piero della Francesca. The use of oil as a painting medium was adopted cautiously by some, and
derided by others, as anything new always seems to create controversy. Michelangelo refused to paint in
oils, and reportedly ridiculed Leonardo for adopting it. Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) recognized its merits,
and soon added several innovations of his own.
THE VENETIAN TECHNIQUE
Titian and Giorgione are generally credited with originating what became known as the Venetian
Method of oil painting. The Venetian Method, or Venetian Technique, shares with the Flemish Method
the use of transparent glazes for the shadows, darker darks and for certain special effects, and opaque
highlights, but differs from the Flemish method in several important ways.
The method evolved out of necessity, as the church desired large paintings of religious scenes for
cathedrals, and wealthy dukes wished to adorn their palaces with large paintings of mythological themes
and other subjects. The difficulties of constructing and transporting huge wooden panels influenced artists
to seek an alternative. Canvas was soon adopted as the most convenient support for large paintings, as it
could be rolled up and delivered, then reattached to the stretcher frame, or another of the same
dimensions, at the painting’s destination and hung. However, the rough texture of the cloth created a need
for certain adjustments in technique and perhaps in the chemistry of the paints. A new primer was also
needed, as gesso (gypsum bound with animal glue) and glue/chalk grounds are brittle, and thus unsuitable
for use on a flexible support. After years of experimentation, involving the addition of oil or honey to
gesso to render it more flexible, white lead ground in linseed oil became the accepted primer for canvas.
The canvas was first given an application of weak glue sizing to render it nonabsorbent, as the linseed oil
would have otherwise caused the canvas to rot. The glue sealed the absorbency of the canvas and
excluded the oil from the linen or hemp fibers.
The gloss inherent in paints formulated for the Flemish Method was found to be objectionable for large
paintings, and Titian seems to have made adjustments to produce a less reflective surface. It is likely he
eschewed the use of polymerized oils, balsams and resins, all of which increase gloss, and opted instead
for simpler paints ground in raw oil only. Thus the paint would have been of a short molecular
configuration, rather than the (presumably) long paints of the Flemish. It was found that stiff, hog bristle
brushes worked better with the short paint and rough textured canvas.
The combination of large, stiff brushes, short paint, and the tooth of the canvas made the painting of
hard edges more difficult. Sharp edges occur quite naturally in the Flemish Technique, with its smooth
surface, long paint and soft hair brushes, whereas the stiff brushes and short paint produced soft edges as a
normal result on a coarse textured canvas. Titian (or perhaps Giorgione, who died young), however,
apparently found the softer edges more to his liking, and used them extensively, as they gave the effect of
being slightly out of focus. The edges could be sharpened selectively, where desired, to call the viewer's
attention to an area of greater importance, or to describe an object whose edges were actually sharp, such
as a starched collar, sword, or piece of paper or parchment, or they could be left soft in the interest of
Selective Focus.
The systematic use of soft and hard edges together gave the paintings a more lifelike appearance, and
more closely approximated the visual experience than did the overall use of hard edges, as had been the
previous practice. Titian was perhaps not quite as accomplished a draftsman as Michelangelo, who is said
to have criticized him for it, so he devised a technique which allowed him greater latitude for corrections.
This technique involved the use of an opaque underpainting, with the edges left soft and nebulous to allow
for later adjustments where necessary. Once the forms were established to the artist's satisfaction, he
would allow the underpainting to dry, while he worked on other paintings. When dry, the underpainting
could then be painted over in color, beginning with the transparent glazes for the shadow areas, as in the
Flemish Technique, and developed further with opaque passages representing the areas of light.
In the Venetian Technique, color is often applied over the underpainting initially as transparent

glazes, which are then worked into, while wet, with opaque pigments. The paint is worked together wet
into wet until the desired effect is achieved, or until the paint becomes slightly tacky, at which time it is
allowed to dry thoroughly. This process may be repeated as many times as necessary.
At some point, someone, perhaps Titian, discovered that a light, opaque tone, rendered
semitransparent by the addition of a bit more oil and/or simply by scrubbing it on thinly with a stiff brush,
applied over a darker area produced an effect that could be put to good use. This is what we now call a
scumble. It was found that a scumble over a flesh tone would produce the same effect as powder on a
woman's face; that is, it made its texture appear softer. This is a useful device when painting women and
young people of both sexes. It is also useful for indicating atmospheric density over distance, or
atmospheric perspective. See Chapter Five, Principles of Visual Reality. Both glazing and scumbling
create optical illusions. As such they effectively expand the capabilities of the limited palette of the early
painters in oil. It was imperative that they get the most out of the materials they had.
Glazing is the application of a darker transparent paint over a lighter area. The optical illusion created
by the light rays’ having passed through a transparent darker layer, bouncing off the lighter surface
underneath, then traveling back through the transparent layer to the viewer’s eyes, is unique to glazing,
and cannot be obtained in any other manner. A warm glow is created, and the color thus produced appears
warmer and more saturated (higher in chroma) than the same pigment applied more thickly and opaquely.
The effect, in the darker passages, is that of a shadow seen up close, with no atmosphere between the
viewer’s eyes and itself. The rich, golden glow in Rembrandt's dark browns is produced in this way.
Rembrandt was influenced by Titian, and is reported to have at one time owned at least one of his
paintings. Glazed darks appear darker than opaque darks, because the light rays are allowed to penetrate
more deeply into the paint layer, and are thus subjected to a great deal of filtration before reflecting back
out to the viewer’s eyes. This effectively expands the value range possible with paints, which are
handicapped on the light end of the spectrum by the fact that white paint is not as light as light in Nature.
The Old Masters compensated by carrying their darks as far as they could, to create as wide a range of
values as possible. This can only be accommodated through the use of transparent paints on the dark
extreme. Furthermore, as light contains color, the artist must make the highlights darker than white in
order to include color in them. This further limits the value range, and makes necessary the darkening of
all tones by a corresponding amount in order to maintain the proper contrast and relationships between
each category of light or shadow. Transparent darks allow the expansion of the dark end of the range.
Scumbling is the opposite of glazing. A scumble uses a lighter opaque paint, spread thinly enough so
as to become translucent, over a darker passage. The optical effect thus produced is bluer than the paint
applied, as the underlying layer is not completely obscured, and exerts its influence on the overall
sensation, as has been previously described. It is very effective in softening surface textures, as soft cloth,
such as velvet or cotton, or youthful complexions, the surface of a peach, etc., and, as mentioned, for
indicating atmospheric haze over distant land planes and in the sky near the horizon. Overcast skies may
be scumbled all over, as in Bouguereau’s “The Broken Pitcher.”
There are still more advanced and sophisticated developments of the Venetian Technique. The
"semiglaze", which can be either transparent or semiopaque, or anywhere in between, is a very thin
application of color to an area of the same value as the paint being applied. Its purpose is to modify the
color of a given area after that area is dry, as in the addition of a tiny bit of vermilion to a cheek or nose,
and/or to allow subsequent wet into wet painting over an area in which the paint has dried. It tends to
soften unintended too-harsh transitions of tone from the previous sitting, if used properly, and thereby
adds a higher degree of refinement to the image. It is applied thinly, by scrubbing it on with a stiff brush,
after the addition of a small amount of oil or a painting medium to lubricate the dry surface of the area to
be repainted. Titian is reported to have sometimes applied glazes and semiglazes with his fingers, or
perhaps he was wiping the excess away after having put too much on with a brush. Stippling with a flat
tipped brush is a good technique for applying glazes, scumbles, and semiglazes, though other means work
very well in skilled hands. As a further development of the Venetian Technique, the underpainting, or
certain parts of it, may be executed in opaque color, rather than totally in neutral greys. One popular
variation was Venetian Red and Flake White. The underpainting palette should be limited to lean paints
(paints with low oil absorption) which are opaque and/or very high in tinting strength. High tinting
strength fat paints (paints with high oil absorption) may be used if mixed in very small quantities with

very lean paints like Flake White. The objective is to keep the underpainting leaner than the layers applied
over it. When dry, the color may then be subsequently modified with glazes, scumbles, and semiglazes, or
painted over with opaque color. These steps may be repeated as many times as necessary. The highlights
are placed last, applied wet into wet with a fully loaded brush. Impasto is often employed in the
highlights, to produce the most opaque passages possible, and to ensure that they remain opaque. Oil
paints become more transparent with age. Therefore, in order for the highlights to retain their opacity over
the centuries, they must be applied heavily. The illusion thus created is that of direct light falling on a
solid surface, ricocheting from that surface to our eyes. It is not actually an illusion, as that is exactly what
is happening. Juxtaposed with the transparent shadows, the illusion of depth is thus enhanced.
The underpainting, sometimes referred to as a grisaille if done in greys, should have its darkest
passages painted somewhat lighter than the desired final effect, or the superimposed colors will lose much
of their brightness and depth . Except for certain special effects, as in the technique of Rembrandt, the
texture of the underpainting should be as smooth as possible. Any brushstrokes not smoothed out before
the underpainting is dry, or scraped down before painting over, will produce a problem area in the next
stage. Artists who prefer visible brushstrokes should decide where to place them in the final stages of the
painting, as accents.
The Venetian Technique allows the widest range of possibilities of any oil painting method yet
developed. Its systematic use of opaque passages, glazes, scumbles and semiglazes stretches the
capabilities of oil paint to the absolute limits, and allows the artist the greatest latitude for adjusting the
picture at any stage. The employment of the optical illusions created by glazing and scumbling, combined
with the control of edges (selective focus), enables the oil painter who has mastered it to indicate three
dimensional reality more convincingly than is possible with any other technique.
Among the Old Masters who used the Venetian Technique in one variant or another were Rembrandt,
Franz Hals, Nicholas Poussin, Jacques Louis David, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Jean Léon Gérôme,
and many other great Masters whose names are not well known today.
It should be stressed that the wonderful results achieved by the Old Masters and other great painters
were attributable, in great measure, to the preparations undertaken prior to their beginning work on the
final canvas or panel. The concept for the painting had first to be worked out in smaller drawings,
sketches and studies done on separate surfaces, to solve all the problems to the artist's satisfaction
beforehand. This accounts for the impression most often conveyed by their paintings, of having been
executed without the necessity of corrections. In truth, there were many corrections, but the major ones, at
least, were most often solved in the study stage before the painting itself was touched. For very large
paintings, the usual practice was for the Master to paint the painting first on a smaller scale to work out its
composition, and then turn it over to his apprentices to be transferred to the large canvas by means of a
grid. Refer to the sidebar for a more detailed description of the grid method of enlarging a design. In some
cases, the smaller painting was done without color, to be used by the apprentices as a guide in applying
the underpainting to the large canvas, which process the Master would oversee, and usually correct and
complete after the students and/or apprentices had done most of the work. Often many supplemental
studies were drawn and painted by the Master, either to aid the assistants in painting the large picture, or
to solve some of the problems for himself, in the development of the concept for the painting. This
practice is as much a factor in the excellent quality of the works these great painters produced as were the
actual painting techniques they used so well.
DIRECT PAINTING
The Direct Painting Method differs from the Venetian Technique and the Flemish Technique in that
the artist paints in full color from the very beginning, without requiring an elaborate under drawing or
underpainting, and without resorting to the use of glazes or scumbles. All paints except the deepest darks
are used as if they were opaque, and are usually applied heavily enough as to appear so. The object,
ideally, is to paint the entire picture wet into wet, from start to finish. Terms such as Alla Prima (Italian)
or Premier Coup (French) are sometimes used for this technique, indicating that the picture is to consist of
one layer of paint, applied all at once, in one sitting. In practice, this is not always possible, and great

pains must then be taken to nonetheless make it appear as if it were done alla prima.
The Old Masters employed this technique for sketches only, to be used as visual aids in the creation
of larger works executed following the Venetian method or a variant. Franz Hals was the first painter to
use direct painting for other than sketches, although the works for which he is famous today may still
arguably be called sketches. Hals was proficient in the Venetian Technique as well, and used it for his
commissioned portraits. The Direct Painting technique was elevated to legitimacy in the Nineteenth
Century by Carolus Duran, the teacher of John Singer Sargent, and then by Sargent himself, among
others, most notably Anders Zorn, Cecelia Beaux, and Joachin Sorolla y Bastida.
The range of effects possible with Direct Painting was once much narrower than with the Venetian
Technique, but today's wider selection of pigments has expanded its possibilities considerably over what
was available in earlier times. The invention of the cadmium pigments and synthetic ultramarine in the
Nineteenth Century made Direct Painting a more viable alternative to the Venetian Technique.
Individual approaches vary greatly. Some prefer to begin in charcoal, with a few quick guidelines
sketched freehand on the canvas before beginning to paint, while others choose to begin immediately with
the brush, and sketch in the shapes initially with thin paint indicating the shadow masses. Some painters
tone the canvas beforehand with a very thin transparent imprimatura, to "kill the white", which might
otherwise influence them to paint their darks too light a value, and some prefer to paint directly on the
white canvas. Others tint the primer to a value darker than white by adding paint or pigment to the final
coat of primer to make an opaque tone somewhat darker than white.
A toned ground or imprimatura makes judgment of values a bit easier. Painting on an opaque primer
darker than a value seven on the Munsell scale will make the superimposed colors duller, however, and
will cause the painting to darken in time. It is better to use a white primer, and add a transparent tone over
it to lower the value initially, or add a light opaque tone over the white primer. A transparent toner can be
painted into immediately, or allowed to dry before commencing. With the latter practice, care must be
taken to avoid violating the "fat over lean" rule.
As with the Flemish and Venetian methods, darks should be applied first, and thinly. The reason for
this is that the shapes are indicated reasonably well with just the dark shapes and shadows, and corrections
may be made without excessive paint buildup by simply wiping out mistakes with a rag. The early stages
are most likely to require correction of shapes, so it is prudent to begin thinly. This also allows a certain
degree of transparence in the shadows, which is desirable. Oil paint is most easily controlled by painting
wet into wet, from dark to light, systematically. As the reader has surely discovered at one time or
another, to attempt to indicate a shape haphazardly, beginning with a middletone or light color soon
results in a sea of wet paint into which everything disappears as soon as it is applied. This is called mud.
The mud experience has discouraged many would be oil painters over the years. It is simple enough to
avoid, if one proceeds methodically, following a logical progression. It is advisable to begin with a very
large brush, and block in the large general shadow and other dark shapes first, correcting any mistakes by
wiping with cheesecloth, used as an eraser, before adding a second color. The large color shapes in the
middletones and lighter shadows should then be blocked in, using another large brush. One may then
work back into the shadows and add secondary light, reflected color, and shadow accents, then return to
the middletones and add refinements there, saving the lighter areas and finer details for last.
The lights should be painted more thickly than the darks. Large brushes cover more canvas in a given
time, hold more paint, and allow the artist to paint much faster. The use of small brushes and the addition
of detail should be forestalled as long as possible. Many agreeable effects can be created through expert
use of a large brush, especially in areas in which one might be tempted to switch to a smaller one. Facility
in this style of painting is developed by the execution of studies painted from life. As they are only
studies, there is no pressure to create a masterpiece, and the student is free to experiment. After a bit of
practice, the studies become more and more accurate, as the student's ability to perceive value and color is
developed to a higher degree, and the initial awkwardness with the brushes and paints is overcome. It is
helpful to isolate value in one's first attempts in oils, by working only with white and greys made with
Ivory Black and white. Once the student is past the struggling with the paint stage and has learned to
understand values, color may be introduced a little at a time, at first adding only Yellow Ochre (or Raw
Sienna) and Red Ochre , for use in color sketches of the human head from life. With this palette it is
possible to mix what appears to be a full range of colors. It is only effective in paintings with an overall

warm tonality, in which context greys made with Ivory Black and white appear to be blue. Greens are
made from yellow and black, or yellow, black, and white, and violets are mixed from black and red, or
black, red, and white. An automatic unity is thus achieved, as the cool colors produced in these mixtures
are low in chroma, and cannot disrupt the harmony of the warm dominance. The palette is then expanded
gradually, as the student becomes familiar with the limited palette, by the addition of Burnt Sienna, Raw
Umber, and Cadmium Red, Light. At the appropriate point, Ultramarine Blue is added, and so on, so that
no lesson overwhelms the student with too much to learn at once.
It must be stressed repeatedly during the early sketch sessions in oils that only the big shapes should
be painted, and large brushes used exclusively. No detail should be attempted until the student is able to
judge the correct value, color, shape, and relative proportions of the large shapes of shadow and light
accurately. By then, the powers of observation will have been developed highly enough that the rendering
of detail will be easier, and, hopefully, bad habits will have been unlearned. By this method of learning,
one gains the necessary skills for painting well in oils, in any technique.
The Direct Painting Technique is the one most widely used in modern times. The vast range of
pigments available today has, in great measure, narrowed the gap between what is possible with it and
with the Venetian Technique. It is also possible to modify the Direct Painting Technique by finishing off
with glazes and/or scumbles after the painting is dry, but it then ceases to be direct painting. Some styles
of Direct Painting owe their appeal to the painterly looseness obtained when painting very quickly with
large brushes. For this type of painting, superimposition of glazes and scumbles would in most cases be
inappropriate. In practice, the boundaries between techniques become blurred as artists combine elements
of more than one method in pursuit of the desired effect. This is how new techniques are born.
INNOVATIONS OF REMBRANDT
Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van Rijn, whom many consider the greatest artist of all time, learned all
that was then known about oil painting while still a very young man, surpassing his teachers very early in
his career, and then proceeded to add his own discoveries to the technical knowledge of his time. To this
day his best works remain unsurpassed, and serve as inspiration to the rest of us who paint. This being the
case, any book on advanced techniques must address Rembrandt separately and at such length as the
author's knowledge allows.
What technical information Rembrandt
was taught may be discerned by studying
the works of his instructors, Jacob
Isaacxszoon Van Swanenburch and Pieter
Lastmann. Such study also immediately
shows the genius of Rembrandt by the
extent to which he so obviously surpassed
them both, and in how early in his career
he did so. Nonetheless, his training under
them was an important factor in his
artistic development, and should not be
minimized. Both teachers seem to have
possessed a working knowledge of the
painting methods in use at that time,
which Rembrandt learned from them.
This would include the Flemish
Technique, the Venetian Technique, and
the Direct Painting Technique. Various

examples of his work show that he was
not limited to any one of them, but
employed them all, the choice depending
on which approach best suited the subject
in question, and for what purpose the
painting was intended. His facility with
all three soon led him to combine aspects
of one with another, and to add
innovations of his own.
Some of his paintings are on wood,
executed in what appears to be essentially
the Flemish Technique; some small
studies on wood panels were done in a
variation of the Direct Painting
Technique, and some on canvas in both
the Venetian and Direct techniques. The
primer for the panels is white, the first
coat consisting of glue chalk gesso, which
was sanded to smooth out the
irregularities of the panel’s surface, then a
layer of white lead in linseed oil,
sometimes tinted with black, Raw Umber,
and sometimes an earth red, covered with
a transparent brown imprimatura, which
creates the golden glow characteristic of
his work. His canvases are primed with an
underlayer of a red earth, perhaps to fill
the texture of the canvas, then overlaid
with a light, warm grey made from
lootwit (lead white with chalk, ground in
linseed oil) and Raw Umber, sometimes
with a little black and/or earth red, or
sometimes with white lead alone.
Rembrandt was an extremely versatile artist, and did not likely follow an unthinking repetition of the
same procedure every time. Undoubtedly he thought his way through each painting, from the genesis of
the idea to the last brushstroke, never lapsing into a routine approach. From unfinished pictures we know
that, at least sometimes, he began in transparent browns, working in monochrome to establish the design
of the picture, attending to the masses of dark and light, often using opaque white for the strongest lights
in this stage, sometimes referred to as the imprimatura, or later, by the French academic painters, as a
frottée, though the term, “frottée” generally referred to a thin brown scrub-in without white, the lights
instead being simply indicated by leaving the light ground more or less exposed. This stage was
apparently allowed to dry before proceeding further, though there may well have been exceptions. Over
the dried brown underpainting color was begun, with Rembrandt working from back to front rather than
working over the whole picture at once. He exploited to the fullest the qualities of transparence and
opacity, relying on the underglow of light coming through transparent color for many special effects, with
opaque lights built up more heavily for the brightly lit areas, their colors sometimes modified by subtle
glazes, semiglazes or scumbles, and the arrangement of transparent darks and opaque lights to play

against one another for maximum visual impact and depth. Clues as to his choice of primer may be seen
in areas where he has used a sharpened brush handle to scratch through wet paint in order to indicate bits
of hair. This is evident in a very early self portrait, now in The Hague, and in many other portraits. The
primers and/or imprimaturas thus revealed show that he followed no one single procedure, but varied the
choices, based on the effect he was after. The scratching with a sharpened brush handle into wet paint was
one of his earlier innovations.
Not long afterward, he began building up the opaque passages in his lights more heavily, and
texturing them to take on the physical convolutions of the lighted surfaces of his subjects, most notably
the skin textures of male subjects, including himself. The texture was created, or at any rate, can be
duplicated, by applying the paint somewhat heavily with large brushes, then gently passing a large, dry,
soft hair brush over the surface of the wet paint, back and forth, until the desired texture is attained.
Rembrandt began to superimpose glazes of red over these textured passages when dry, then wipe them off
with a rag, leaving traces remaining in the low spots to create an even more convincing texture of rough
flesh. Someone, at some point, said you could pick up a Rembrandt portrait by the nose.
As he began to expand the effect of glazing over dried impasto to other textures as well, he devised a
method employing two whites; one for impasto and one for smoother passages. The impasto white was
faster drying, probably made so by the addition of egg (traces of protein, presumed to be from egg, have
been found in samples analyzed by conservation scientists), and ground glass, into the formulation. It was
very lean, and consisted mostly of white lead with a minimum of binder. He began applying it more and
more heavily as the first stage of a two (or more) stage operation which was finished with transparent
glazes and wiping, to create fantastic special effects, the most extreme example of which is the man's
glowing, golden sleeve in the painting referred to as "The Jewish Bride," in the Rijksmuseum in
Amsterdam. The brilliance of this effect cannot be gotten in any other way. He has used the same
technique on the bride's costume in the same painting, but here the underpainting is red, which is
deepened with a glaze of red lake, probably Carmine (Cochineal). The red carpet on the table in "The
Syndics of the Drapers' Guild" (sometimes called "The Dutch Masters"), also in the Rijksmuseum, is done
in much the same way. The underpaint appears to have been trowelled on with a knife or some sort of flat
stick, then sculpted before it dried.
In Lieutenant Ruytenburch’s uniform in "The Night Watch," Rembrandt used this method, but with
less heavy impasto, for the ornate brocade work. The wet underlayer was worked with sharpened brush
handles and other tools while soft, then allowed to dry before applying the darker glazes. By wiping the
glazes off as soon as they were applied, Rembrandt was able to create a bas relief effect of remarkable
three dimensionality as the glaze remained in the nooks and crannies. By glazing again, this time with
transparent yellows and/or browns, instead of Ivory Black, he gave the textures a rich, golden glow.
Scientific analyses carried out by the National Gallery, London, show that Rembrandt added body to
his glaze-like passages by mixing in a bit of chalk, which functions as an inert pigment essentially
transparent when mixed with oil, and ground glass, which was probably used primarily to accelerate
drying. The glass most likely would have contained lead and/or cobalt, both drying agents.
There has been a great deal of speculation as to what medium or media Rembrandt used, with most of
the theories stating that one resin or another had to have been a major component. It now appears that
these hypotheses may be in error. Recent studies of paint samples taken from a number of Rembrandt’s
paintings show no detectable resins. In most of the samples tested, only linseed oil was found, and walnut
oil in some of the whites and blues. In some cases some of the oil was “heat-bodied,” as in perhaps boiled
or sun-thickened linseed oil. It is probable that these were added to the paints in which he wanted a long
brushing quality, and in at least some of his glazes. The combination of polymerized oil and raw oil
produces a resin-like substance without the undesirable properties of resins. Reinforced with chalk for
body, and ground glass for faster drying and perhaps transparency, these appear to comprise Rembrandt’s
glazing media, as nearly as is discernible by the present level of scientific knowledge, which, it must be
noted, is subject to change at any time, as new discoveries are made. For paints intended to be blended
smoothly and opaquely, it is most likely that no medium was added, beyond the linseed or walnut oil in
which the pigments were ground.
Rembrandt had at least one life size jointed mannequin, on which he would pose the clothes of his
sitters. The mannequin, unlike a living person, would remain motionless for as long as Rembrandt needed

to paint the clothing, the folds remaining undisturbed for days, or weeks, if necessary. A live sitter would
have to visit the bathroom, eat, sleep, move around, etc., and the folds of the cloth would never be likely
to resume their previous shape after any of these activities. The use of the mannequin may or may not
have been Rembrandt's innovation, but it was, and is, a good idea regardless.
We cannot expect to be able to rival the great genius of Rembrandt merely by following some of his
procedures and using the same tools and materials he used. These are only a small part of his brilliance as
an artist. At the core was his intelligence and artistic sense, his ability to constantly strive to improve upon
what he had already done without losing sight of the original concept for the painting, to devise
techniques, on the spot, which would create the effect he was after. We might hope to achieve the best
results by adopting this same attitude towards our own work, rather than by attempting to reduce the
methods of a great genius whose works we admire to a simple formula and then following it, unthinking.
This is not meant to disparage technique, but to show it in its proper context. The more we know of
technique, the more effects we have at our disposal, to serve our creativity and inspiration in the execution
of our finest conceptions. If there is anything remotely approaching a formula for creating Great Art, it
might be stated as the combination of knowledge and intuition in a single endeavor, plus a lot of work.
This chapter concludes with sections on:
q THE BISTRE METHOD
q THE TECHNIQUE OF WILLIAM ADOLPHE BOUGUEREAU
q FRENCH ACADEMIC METHOD
q GENERAL PAINTING TIPS
To place your advance order contact;
Virgil Elliott, APSC, ASPA
111 Goodwin Avenue, Penngrove, California 94951-8660, U.S.A.
Telephone: (707) 664-8198
E-Mail: VirgilElliott@AOL.com
© 2000 Virgil Elliott. All rights reserved
GO TO ... Painterly effect No2
main menu

KISSING PRACTICE - A DEMONSTRATION PAINTING - PART 2
'Realism'
In Fig.5 I have brought some of the highlights forward by use of a higher value blue-gray and
added some wings. This stage you could call 'molding' the forms or to use its proper terminology
you could call it the application of chiaroscuro. This was the method made famous by the
Renaissance painter Carravaggio and copied in the north by painters such as Rembrandt, Rubens
and Vermeer.
Fig. 5
Adding wings and cool grays
Fig. 6
Scumbling with some highlights
In Fig.6 I have begun to add some warmer tones and some additional compositional props such as
the blue swirling cloth, which was a much-loved device by painters to the time.
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Fig. 7
Detail of lower torsos.
Fig. 8
Thumbnail of full composition.
Now we get to the technical reason that made Bouguereau paintings so realistic. More than
any other painter Bouguereau showed veins and arteries, which we know by our study of
anatomy, lie just below the skin and show behind the knee, in the neck, inside the elbow, in
the lower abdomen and between the thigh and the torso. There was no need to show them
all, yet just sufficient to give the model a defined 'humanity'.
This is a large step away from the 'ideal' toward the 'real' and needs to be handled with the
same care a jazz musician might use a discord to amplify a harmony. Not too much that
might make it look like a blue road map.
No doubt the display of veins and arteries is not one that would normally attract the viewer
BUT in this case it has another purpose. It throws into the mix of the ideal figures and
perfect forms something that might otherwise be thought ugly. In Fig.7 you can see where I
have shown the veins that occur between the thigh and torso of the female, and the thigh of
the male.
Also note in Fig.8 and elsewhere I have reddened hands, feet, knees, elbows and faces as
the blood is closer to the surface in these more sensitive areas.

How is this done with paint?
GO TO .... kissing practice No3

KISSING PRACTICE - A DEMONSTRATION PAINTING - PART 3
'A certain realism'
Now for some technical information regarding technique. I used none other than bristle brushes for
this painting to this stage.
OK ... we started with a value 4-5 burnt umber with a blue-gray interior for the figures. The blue
gray was molded in the chiaroscuro manner and allowed to settle and dry. A higher value mix of
light red/burnt umber and flake white was used to bring the flesh up to a warmth in the secondary
areas (or turning point areas)that pointed upwards. The turning point areas that pointed down
were left blue-gray(as seen in the background). In certain other areas close to the ground, and
reflecting down, a little yellow was added. This took care of most secondary areas.
Working back from the highlights with a flake white, sometimes with a little red added and
sometimes with a touch of ultramarine, and using a small bristle (1/4"), cut and blend the
highlights into the secondary values. If desired at this stage you can add veins and other secondary
areas as well painting wet-in-wet as time permits and adjusting as you wish.

The middle distance is best kept indistinct, yet atmospheric, while the foreground should not
detract from the overall design.
GO TO .... the eye, the grape and the cherry
advanced lesson menu

Wall presence - brush strokes lesson by William Whitaker
4-2 PAINTERLY 2
William Whitaker writes: 'Like everybody else whose worked at painting a long time, I've tried
everything. I've learned that Art Leads, I just go along. I didn't consciously set out to be a
certain kind of painter, it just evolved. I don't believe there is any one true way, but I'll tell you
what I like best. I start loose and juicy. I rarely paint alla prima anymore and I try to smooth
out the paint at the end of a session. I dislike the effect when I paint over a textured layer
whose texture is in the wrong places. I have a very old, sharp palette knife (sharpened from
years of scraping.) I'll carefully scrape texture off a dried surface with it. If I'm working on a
panel, I'll often sand the fuzz, texture and grit off the dried paint surface with wet or dry fine
sand paper, sanding wet, before painting the next coat - a technique I picked up from house
painters.
I'm very aware of what I call "wall presence" or the lack of it. A lot of my best buddies were
successful illustrators before they became even more successful gallery painters. They all were
smart enough to know and understand that the single most valuable characteristic in a painting
on display is the spiritual wall presence. It is easier to achieve this quality with oil paint than
with other mediums. This is due to inherent pigment strength and natural body.
It is very hard NOT to have texture even when
you try. I believe it's best not to worry one way
or another. I think it's a kiss of death to be
thinking consciously about technique in the
middle of the painting process. One must really
love to paint, to be driven as it were, to put in
the time necessary to really get proficient.
Many people would like to paint, but not enough
to paint those endless failures necessary to get
to the good work. If it were otherwise, we'd be
overrun with painters.
If there is to be texture in my painting, I want it
to be in the last layer. I'm aware of the vast
range and intrinsic beauty in oil paint. Using thin
paint and thick paint, glazes and opaques, one
can create a feast for the eye.
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There seem to be a great many folks who are doing high finish (they call it realistic) work out
there today. Most of these people paint from the outside in - paint the hair on the dog before
painting the dog. Most of the time they are pretty easy to spot. I tell the viewer to check out
the following: Do they paint Orange People? Thanks to film, TV and Print, most folks think
orange people are realistic! Does everything look like plastic? Enough said about that! What do
the broad, quiet passages look like. A poor artist doesn't know how to handle his brush. It
shows in the backgrounds.

All Paintings on this page are by William Whitaker
STUDENT ACTIVITY:Write a short essay on the relationship between size and wall presence,
colors and wall presence, design and wall presence. Give examples of each. Also explain how
you think William Whitaker gives his paintings such great wall presence. Allow 40min.
GO TO ... Bill's demonstration painting
lesson menu

The painterly effect a lesson by Virgil Elliott
4-1 THE PAINTERLY EFFECT
In these lessons I do not hesitate to assert
that art is about illusion and great art is the
total presentation of the greatest illusion.
This brings me to the ‘painterly effect’ or
the process of having your brush strokes or
knife effects appear on the canvas as you
see opposite in the detail from a pink rose I
painted 'wet-in-wet' before the blooms
could wilt. The full painting is shown
below ... JH
Virgil writes:
The "painterly" approach was originally an incidental effect most common in sketches and
studies, the sole purpose of which was to help the artist solve some of the problems in the
execution of a more refined painting. Titian and Rembrandt became more "painterly" in their
later years, when deteriorating eyesight may have hidden the irregularities from them (one
hypothesis). Franz Hals painted a number of paintings in the sketch style, probably for his own
amusement and/or to cover his bar tab or whatever. He was capable of more refined painting,
as is evident in most of his more important commissioned portraits, but employed the faster
"alla prima" approach for painting more light-hearted subjects; probably his friends or
interesting subjects encountered at the tavern, where no one was likely to pose for very long.
Bouguereau has been falsely characterized as disguising his brushstrokes, but his brushwork is
actually visible from up close. In reproductions the strokes do not show, because the paintings
are generally large, with the main figures life-size, and the brushstrokes are small. He also used
palette knife very expertly for certain effects, especially in the vegetation and other parts of the
background, but generally did not employ impasto.
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The 'painterly' style became more popular with John Singer
Sargent, Anders Zorn, and Joachin Sorolla. Sargent actually
worked very hard to achieve the effect that he had dashed
the picture off effortlessly and accurately all at once. Many
passages were scraped out and repainted over and over
again until the desired appearance was accomplished. There
is a certain charm in this type of painting (see opposite), but
its effectiveness depends on the values and colors being
registered extremely accurately, or the result just looks
sloppy. Sargent's eye was precise enough to make it work.
Ironically, he expressed regret, late in life, that he had not
carried his paintings to a higher degree of finish. The main
trick to painting in this manner is to work fast, with large
hog- bristle brushes and large amounts of paint available on
the palette. palette knife can also be used for certain effects.
A somewhat rougher texture canvas works best for this
technique, in my experience. Some subjects are more suited
for this approach than others. It is well for artists to be able
to paint in more than one manner, and to choose whichever
technique best suits the subject at hand.
Regarding impasto highlights, the reason for this is to ensure
that they remain opaque far into the future. Oil paint
becomes more transparent as it ages, and the thinner the
paint, the more transparent it will become. Highlights must
be opaque in order to reflect the light which strikes them in
the same way as it would reflect from the surface depicted.'
Refined Painting - 'The most advanced concepts go beyond words' ... VE
Rembrandt developed the technique
of glazing over dried impasto for a
bas- relief effect, wiping the wet
glaze off the high spots and allowing
it to remain in the nooks and
crannies for a heightened three-
dimensional effect. Used in this
manner, impasto can actually
enhance the illusion of the third
dimension.

Gerome (below) insisted on a perfectly smooth surface to the painting, and forbade his students
to use impasto anywhere.
My first instructor, who happened to be my mother,
told me it makes a painting more interesting to the
viewer when he or she can detect some of the
artist's brushwork from up close. I still adhere to
that, to a greater or lesser degree depending on
what I feel is most appropriate for the picture in
question, but I prefer to only leave a few, in
strategic places, rather than leave them everywhere
indiscriminately. My usual practice is to have them
undetectable from normal viewing distance, and
only become barely visible from a few inches away.
In my alla prima style, which I seldom employ these
days, I may let them show a bit more noticably in
areas where they serve a purpose, as accents. This
was generally the practice of most of the Old
Masters.
I believe it is best for painters to have command of
all possible visual effects, as this opens up the
widest range of possibilities, and best facilitates the
creation of whatever illusion is desired.' ... Virgil
Elliott
left ... detail from Virgil's 'Still Life With Satin'
STUDENT ACTIVITY:Using paint with very little oiliness and half-inch or less hog bristle
brushes paint a small 'impressionist style' picture using short thick impasto strokes. Allow
40min.
GO TO ... Virgil's 'Oil Painter's Bible'
or lesson menu

Grapes, cherrys and the eyeball
3-2 THE GRAPE, THE CHERRY AND THE EYE
A friend once wrote ... 'There is such evident sparkle in the eyes of intelligent people which if
often missing in others, but always present to some degree. One of the things that led me to
believe this is possible, was when I had the unfortunate experience of having to put one of my
cats that had a fatal disease, to sleep. I can't tell you what a horrible experience this was as I
loved this animal deeply. As the fatal injection was given, I actually watched the eyes go from
sparkling to a dead grey. I have never gotten that image out of my mind.'
In this lesson we are going to examine how to do the reverse ... to put a sparkle back
into the eye.
To do this we must look at a white grape and a red cherry and see what makes them appear
real. First the grape:
Many artists love putting white grapes in their still life paintings because they have a wonderful
transparency which shows up particularly well against a bunch of dark grapes and other items.
Fig 1 Fig 2 Fig 3
Many fruits have a light grey covering on their skin I call 'frosting'. This occurrs on the skin of
most fresh stone fruit but is particularly noticeable on peaches, plums and grapes. I have added
this frosting to Fig 2 above.
In Fig 3 I have added a top 'highlight' and a secondary highlight (180 degrees apart) where the
ray of light 'emerges' from the grape. This occurrs because the grape is semi-transparent
allowing some light rays to 'penetrate' the liquid in the grape itself.
In the examples of the three grapes shown above I have altered their hue slightly to allow for
various stages of ripeness. Also, since the 'frosting' is sometimes removed as the grapes are
handled or moved about I have cleared certain areas allowing the smooth skin to show through.
This has the effect of emphasising the frosted areas even more.
Now all we need do is assemble our bunch in as a convincing manner as possible (see below).
This should not be difficult for those partial to eating grapes.
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The cherry also has similar qualities to the grape though without the transparency.
Fig 1 Fig 2 Fig 3 Fig 4
See above .... the dark (Fig 1), the frosting (Fig 2), the red (Fig 3) and the highlight (Fig 4).
Then ... below they are assembled with a few 'realistic' toutches. Most of the frosting is
removed and the exposed shiny bright red skin makes the 'highlight' sharper. There is no
'transparency' in the cherry. You will no doubt remember the lesson on the 'pearl' which was an
object with similar non-transparency.
With the grape and the pearl (or cherry) we have created the two spheres that
together will allow us to understand, paint and add the sparkle we want to the the
human eye.
To see how this is achieved you must go to the next page.

GO TO .... the eye
... lesson menu

http://www.geocities.com/~jlhagan/advanced/what_makes_a_masterpiece.htm
4-3 WHAT MAKES A MASTERPIECE?
A painting masterpiece is ’a portal or magic window that will draw the imagination.’
How is this done and why are we humans drawn to certain paintings like Icarus was to the sun, or
flies to fly paper?
Why, because the painter desires the viewer to enter into the painting, and once there, to make
them want to dwell awhile. And how do they do this? By imagination and the use of all the means,
tricks, skill, subterfuge, and techniques at their disposal.
The techniques include texture, design, color, chiaroscuro, aerial perspective, drawing perspective,
form and shape. These skills have been honed over thousands of years and are a proven method to
attract the curious and entice even the dullest imagination. They are the basic tools of the painter.
During the previous two centuries a few extra skills have been added to the painters arsenal.
1. Depth of field.
2. Impressionistic use of color
3. Brushstrokes and the viscous use of modern paints.
These also are legitimate tools painters can employ to entice the viewers into their world.
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Now that is out of the way we can ask; how do we classify works as masterpieces? Answer; by
finding their similarities and judging whether their differences are relevant differences. For this
purpose I list below ten pre -1900 paintings I class as masterpieces. This is not to say there aren't
others ...
Giorgione - The Tempest
Vermeer - Girl with pearl earing
Leonardo - The Mona Lisa
Rembrant - The night watch
Caravaggio - Calling St.Mathew
Velazquez - Las Meninas
Titian - the assumption
Watteau - The clown -Pierot
Turner - The fighting Temairaire
Gerome - Police Versa
THEY ARE ALL SHOWN ON THIS PAGE
It is assumed that what binds these paintings together is more relevant than their differences. So
what binds them? Here we must almost become Toaist in our answer. The artists all ‘walked on rice-
paper but left no footprints’(ie, more becomes less).
In all these works there is mystery, subtlety and a magnetic attraction. The technique is so skilful,
so masterful, so seamless, it is unnoticeable. Like the great actor who makes the audience forget

he or she is acting; so does the great painter do likewise for the imagination. That is what requires
all the skill and technique.
This is not something dependent on the degree of reality of the scene or the portrait, nor is it
dependent on the degree of unreality of the same. It is something else.
So, I will list what binds these paintings;
1. They all have an element of mystery
2. They all have a technical mastery that is sufficiently high to make it instantly secondary, un-
noticeable.
3. They all visit a moment in time and space that fires the interest and imagination of the viewer.
4. They all pre-suppose the viewer can share a human understanding and common experience with
the painter.

So, what does all this prove?
Not much, but I still like to call the process ‘the magic of painting', and coming across a
masterpiece can take your breath away. It is worth the effort.
STUDENT ACTIVITY:Select your own ten masterpieces and briefly explain why you admire each
of them. Allow 40min.
GO TO ... Advanced perspectivepersp.htm
... lesson menu

3-3 THE GRAPE, THE CHERRY AND THE EYE
The eye is a ball with the iris (dark part) forming a slight projection like a boss. The pupil is not
a color but a dark shadow, a hole that allows light into the eye.
An attribute of the eye is the that it is translucent. This can lead to the following paradox:
when the light strikes the iris at an angle the highlight appears to be surrounded by dark even
though being round, that side is facing the light.
There are two layers to the outer eye. There is the cornea, and the lens. Light might very
easily pass through the cornea, and reflect off the lens causing a hightlight at odd locations on
the cornea. Both these stuctures bend light to some extent; the lens obviously bending light
more than the cornea. A hightlight on the cornea should show up on the opposite side of the
cornea as a reflected hightlight just as it does in glass.
The light that is seen in the iris of the eye opposite the highlight is transmitted light, which is
seen also in a glass or bottle of wine, or any container of transparent liquid. It works the same
with a grape. The iris of an eye is likewise a container of transparent liquid. Light passes
through it and reflects off the inside of the back of it, 180 degrees opposite the entry point.
The highlight itself is the reflection of the light source from the moist outer surface of the eye.
Of course this only occurs when the eye is in the light.
So the side opposite to the highlight often seems lit up, although it is in shadow.
The proper rendering of this effect gives the eye an aqueous and luminous quality, which is not
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available in any other way. Indeed it is possible to introduce this effect deliberately by
changing the position of the highlight and thus transforming a dull eye into a live one. Often I
introduce highlights into the eyes even when it is optically impossible, or when the light source
was not even reaching the eye. I consider the employment of such a device to be a legitimate
conceit and a method sometimes necessary in portraiture. The fact that, scientifically, the
angle is 180 degrees is dependent on the eye being spherical. Unfortunately there are two
spheres that contain the surface of the eye which complicates the angle of reflection even
more.
You'd turn a cherry into a grape by adding the transmitted light to the side opposite the light's
entry point. A grape is translucent; a cherry is not. Light travels through a grape.
You'd also diffuse the highlight a bit more to indicate a less glossy surface. The highlight is the
reflection of the light source on the surface, and the degree to which it is diffused indicates the
texture of the surface. You might contrast edgy polished metal one the one extreme with soft
velvet on the other, for example.

So there we are, mere prisoners of our dermis but with an intelligent sparkle in our eye!
NOTE: Eye conditions and their connection with painting is no where better demonstrated than
in Peter Bueughel's 'The Parable of the Blind' where the five beggars are afflicted with five
separate but identifable eye diseases.
GO TO ....the painterly effect

Advanced painting techniques and computers - Lesson 1
COMBINING OIL PAINTING AND TECHNOLOGY
Lesson 1
In this section I shall deal with the future of painting and how it might be affected by technology, computers, advanced
printers and scanners.
In this regard I must say, without apology, that in my atelier, as well as all the usual painting equipment, I have a
scanner, computer and large format epson 7600 printer that is capable of printing 75year lightfast pigments on canvas.
The scanner is a common Cannon LCD (diode) scanner that I cut apart with a hacksaw and re-assembled to allow me to
scan paintings of any size and to reassemble them in 'photoshop' without any discernable joining. The scanner is set up
on a large grid table, face down has been used to scan 50"x80" paintings with sizes of over 500mg bytes.
Now the good part - should I wish I can print an exact copy of my original then, using my oil paints, treat the canvas
inkjet print as a primatura, and begin to paint over it. The final result can be varnished and protected as you would any
other oil painting. This again can be scanned...
Of course this allows me to create an endless stream of variations on any of my originals and hence poses the question:
What exactly is an 'original'?
I shall leave this for others to decide but let me only say that to this point I am perfectly happy with the integrity of all
the processes upon which the final work is constructed.
Now I shall demonstrate some of the processes with my 'Bounty' painting 'Portsmouth 1792', above. The image above is
a JPG compressed image made for the purposes of this lesson. The original oil painting was scanned at 360 dots per inch
(DPI) in 15 parts. This was joined and color corrected and flattened in Photoshop giving me a 250+ megabyte psd
(photoshop) file. The JPEG above was saved from this while the PSD file is the one I manipulated.
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Within photoshop I selected a portion of the original and copied and pasted it on to my work area.
Next I 'flipped' it over for the reverse and joined it as close as possible - lining up the particular features that were
important for the landscape generally.

Some further adjustments were needed and some of the details obviously need to be isolated and reformed.
Here I have removed the ship No 1 which will become the major and closest ship. It also need to be tilted a little so the
masts line up properly. This is done separately and then the ship replaced into the painting- see below.

The final stage take more time as many areas are removed, replaced, hidden, healed and joined. The final scan was then
printed on canvas 24"x48" allowed to dry. Color correction were made to the print using transparent oils (indian yellow,
permanent crimson, phalo blue)in various mixes. More adjustments and details were added using opaque pigments from
my standard palette.
This is the final result which I have again scanned into a file and added to my collection. Should any improvments occur I
can easily reprint from this larger file. Should I need to use any of the various elements in this painting (the sky for
instance), I can easily isolate it and use it as a background for another painting.
Go to Lesson 2

Silver and copper
2-2 SILVER AND COPPER
SILVER Technical: Second to gold as most
malleable. Oxides are black forming silver
sulphide (try egg yolks) - see dark cracks in
example. Spitting silver, when silver cools it
expels oxygen and spits. Used as an alloy,
in photography and for coins. Absorbs most
hues equally but seems to reflect minor
amounts of most.
Conceptionally : Precious metal with dull
lustre. Jewellery, tableware. Combines well
with gold and glass and useful for subtle
neutral highlights.
Presentation: Always try and understate -
against a dark background if possible. As
with the pearl, silver can be painted over
with a milky rainbow-hued semi-
transparent film. Adaptable for use beside
objects with strong hues as it will give nice
secondary glows. Make colors as subtle as
possible.
Painting: First paint in grey as slick and smooth as possible making sure to roughly place the
highlights. Allow to dry then glaze with thin quick drying medium. When dry scrumble on red
blue and yellows in minute milky amounts. When dry glaze again ( or else you can apply the
colors thinly within a medium). Scrumble on colors reflected from nearby objects etc. Place
some opaque highlights and merge with surrounding areas until a dull glow is achieved.
COPPER Technical: Found in pure state and
can be beaten into shape when cold.
Alloyed with tin gives bronze. Used as
plates for engraving and etching. Oxidises a
green-blue. Often mined with sulphur which
is burnt off in smelting. Great conductor -
wide use as cooking utensils. Copper is
usually fashioned using a 'ball-pane'
hammer which has a rounded face. This
gives it that distinctive ripple effect.
Conceptional: Coins, warm brown colors
with irregular highlights. Goes in and out of
fashion with house utensils etc. Age-old
metal easily beaten into relief panels which
some years ago were made into stand-
alone decorations.
Presentation: Best given the beaten effect
- see below. Hints of green in the shadows
with subdued red-yellow hues in middle
tones.
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Silver and copper
Painting: First use a semi-neutral background color such
as raw umber to create forms and shading. Add a little
cobalt blue to deepen the forms if necessary. Glaze. Apply
mid-tones (I used a thin burnt sienna) feather the edges for
a ripple effect but do not blend as with silver. Paint
highlights wet in wet keeping edges round but sharp. Glaze
when dry.
STUDENT ACTIVITY:For this page and the previous - find
your own cylindrical object (cup) and paint it as chrome,
gold, silver and copper. Allow 80min.
GO TO ... photo realism
... or lesson list
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roses
BIRTHDAY ROSES
To me a rose, is a rose, is a rose .... I have never ever painted a vase of flowers let alone roses.
But now I was cornered.
Many years ago I promised a lady I would paint her roses for a particular birthday and promptly
forgot about it. Recently I got a call to remind me the birthday was imment ...
There was no way out. I drove off to the flower shop, sorry 'florist', and bought some bunches
of roses then searched the house for anything that might be useful as a vase. (All paintings are
roughly 24" x 20")
I promised red roses so I decided to warm up with some pink (above). The pink also seemed to
be the first to begin to droop, later I was to discover it was necessary to keep them in the
refrigerator to prolong their life. The shell was to fill a compositional space as well as reflecting
the same hues. It was also a reminder I might be at the beach instead of painting roses.
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roses
That seemed ok so I tried the red.

roses
Now I am painting roses expect I should look to their placement. Asking around I find pink
blooms are suitable for bedrooms, red for a more formal setting such as a dining room and
white and gold anywhere else.
I also discover Cleopatra was said to have filled her rooms with rose petals to welcome Mark
Anthony and that the early Christians banned the rose from churches and churchyards because
of its connection with pagan rites. This is getting interesting ...
GO TO .... roses No 2

Applying painting theory to computer graphics
5-3 IMPROVE YOUR OLD PHOTOGRAPHS
Combining computer technology and principles of painting.
Between painting and writing I sometimes get asked to do little jobs. When I begin I am always
somewhat reluctant as the the jobs never seem to rise to my exhalted level of 'high art' and I
usually moan and complain. This is a good time to take a step or two back and view yourself as
the arrogant 'pain in the butt' you are slipping toward. Probably because there is no woman
around to bring you back down to earth (not that they ever did) ... anyway, I digress, the job is
to fix an old photograph.
The photograph had been torn into four
pieces then lovingly stuck back
together ... sounds like the normal
commerce between loved ones or family
members ... then a marker pen was
used to repair the rips. I was
immediately struck by the blandness of
the whole thing, but stick with me here
for even the delicious local mud crabs I
can sometimes afford are trapped in foul
swamps.
For a little more detail ... notice how the marker pen was used on the lips shirt and uniform.
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Applying painting theory to computer graphics
Well I fixed all that using what is called a
smudge brush.This allows you to drag
surrounding areas over the cracks in whatever
'opacity' you like.
At this point I was feeling rather pleased with
myself - job quickly done - another mundane
task bites the dust. But I started to think
(always a dangerous sign), I asked myself, 'I
wonder what sort of life this man had? Which
war was he fighting and how do his comrades
remember him? Maybe he was a hero? Maybe
he was a heor who fought in the trenches and
saved the day, or at carried a wounded
comrade to safety through a hail of bullets?'
So even if he can't pay me perhaps he
deserves a little more of my time.
Let's see if I can't make him come alive a little.
GO TO ... creating color and atmosphere
menu
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Painting tecnique and computer graphics -2
IMPROVE YOUR OLD PHOTOGRAPHS No.2
I quickly separated the major elements of the picture knowing I could always use the smudge
tool to put them back together.
Using some color controls (in a graphics programe), I removed color from the grey. This has the
effect of giving the picture tints of the opposite (complimentary) hues without affecting the
contrasts (values). In this operation I applied color theory regarding complements - while
keeping the values bright. The reason for this is important. In previous lessons I have talked
about the theory of 'subtractive' color and how we use it in painting. The theory I use here is
called 'addative color theory' and is commonly used in photography, film and computer imaging.
Simply put the spectrum hues combine to produce white light, and the removal of one leaves a
predominance of the rest. In other words if we had a red, blue and yellow spotlights and shone
them all on a blank screen they would produce white. White then is the sum (addative) of all
the colors. If we subtract red then the white spot will turn green, subtract blue and orange will
appear etc.
To produce the hues above I started with ovals of white. In the first I subtracted red, the
second green and the third blue. This is how what they call 'additive' color, works!
In this manner I applied hue (color) to the hat and uniform, the face and the shirt.
Next I put them roughly back together.
I gave the cheeks and the bottom lip a
little extra blush with a computer
paintbrush.
This meant I still had a raw figure with no
background ...
So I searched for a background that
might describe the nature of the war the
man fought. I wanted a stark, riveting
but an atmospheric scene. I found what I
wanted but it was tiny. This was not
necessarily a disadvantage as I could
repeat some facial and clothing hues in
the top half of the background.
I created the background then smudged
again with my smudge brush.
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So we went from this ... to ... wait!
Two final toutches before cropping
1. Make the eyes come alive with a
tiny reflection - my hand slipped a
little with the second ...
2. A little highlight as well on the
bottom lip.

Somehow I hope the man has briefly come alive but as all life surely passes as fast as a
summer cloud shades a distant hillside ... anyway sometimes a mundane task can lead to
distant thoughts and maybe a little unexpected humanity.
STUDENT ACTIVITY:Paint a color diagram that explains the theory of addative color. Hint ...
look in the photography or printing sections of the library. Allow 40min.
This reconstruction was a result of using a very simple computer 'paint' program. To see
another reconstruction using the more complicated 'photoshop' program go to the next page.
GO TO ... another photograph
menu

IMPROVE YOUR OLD PHOTOGRAPHS No.3
This is a photograph of a local dignitary that hung on a very light effected wall for twenty or
more years. As you can see it is very faded and any blue/green has faded out completely.

The first move was to scan it into
adobe photoshop and remove all
color. In other words convert it to a
'greyscale' format.
So I searched for a background that
might describe the nature of the war
the man fought. I wanted a stark,
riveting but an atmospheric scene. I
found what I wanted but it was tiny.
This was not necessarily a
disadvantage as I could repeat some
facial and clothing hues in the top
half of the background.
Next I applied contrast
and then converted it
back to 'RGB' or a 'color'
file since I nedded to add
color. I added color using
'color adjust' and
'variations'.

Next I used masks and more color controls to vary certain elements.
Then I removed the background and applied a diagonal brown/gold color gradient from
the top left to the bottom right.
I needed to touch up the result by adding a little rouge to the cheeks, sparkle to the eyes,
depth to some of the shadows and generally to work the portrait up just as if I were doing
a conventional portrait in paint.
The result you can see below.

The final print size was 18" by 14", printed with a wide format epson printer, on canvas,
with pigment inks and varnished before re-framing and replacing on the wall.
GO TO .... painting clothing
menu

Painting textiles No 1
6-1 PAINTING CLOTHING
The painting of fur, linen, cotton, velvet, silk, satin, gauzes and other diaphanous
materials
Drawing the edges and the folds ... the thickness and pliability (softness) of the cloth
determines the size and shape of the folds.
Fur and thick wool that is soft yet pliant
requires little drawing as it is mainly
composed of large gentle contours. It usually
dominates the form it conceals.
Thick heavy linen or damask
that resists folding will show
straight edges and will stress at
the folds with double or even
triple indents (see in the acute
angles left). It also will override
the shape it conceals. Note the
straight lines on the outside of
the folds and the triple creases
in the folds. Durer, who makes
this type of rendition so stylistic
it almost becomes his drawing
signature, suggests deeper
creases within the shadows to
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suggest body forms. Note
particularly the thigh and leg of
Mary.
Light linen or cotton will behave in a similar
fashion only the folds and bends will be
thinner and closer together. Note the size of
the folds and the squareness of the outline.
Velvet (the cape) is heavy, yet quite pliable
and will show a slight curve and usually turn in
single folds. This more flowing style is typical
of Bottichelli.
Silk and satin are thin and fold easily with narrow and sometimes a chaos of activity where
directions alter. They cling to the shape they cover and faithfully follow the contours - be they
straight or curved. Here I have simplified a part of a Virgil Elliott painting to show the underlying

structure of the folds.
Gauzes are either thin linen or diaphanous silk in pliability and should be lightly drawn
accordingly. A soft shawl will follow a contour while a starched gauze will resist. Below is a
starched gauze over a linen dress.
Before you begin drawing a garment observe the broadest and narrowest folds. The complicated
folds should be simplified at the drawing stage.

Virgil Elliott is a master painter of silks, satins, and
diaphanous gauzes (as well as many other things). He offers
the following advice: 'The first thing I do is to arrange the cloth
in a way that suits my sense of aesthetics, so that its form
indicates what is beneath it, and at the same time adds another
element of eye-pleasing shapes to the composition which
comprise areas of secondary interest and lead the viewer's eye
from the main focal point, around the picture in a graceful
pattern (ideally), which ends up back at the main focal point
and starts the process again. It should reveal key forms in
some places, only suggest them in others, and conceal points of
interest in other places (mystery increases interest), while at
the same time incorporating its own interesting and/or pretty
shapes into the overall. In other words, I usually design the
shapes to begin with, before I start to draw or paint, unless by
happy accident they have already assumed a pleasing
configuration. Often I use a mannequin for this, as models tend
to object to having the cloth attached here and there with
straight pins, and won't hold still long enough. When I use a
live model for the cloth, I draw very quickly to get the shapes
noted before she or he has to move for whatever reason, then I
follow the drawing, which is generally just a guide sketch at this
point, when the model is back from the bathroom or whatever,
to rearrange the cloth back the way it was. I then follow the
sketch in designing the actual painting, but often deviate from
it wherever I see a way to improve the shapes further.'
Does your drawing suggest the pliability of the material? If it
does then you need no enhancement in the drawing stage.
GO TO .... lesson 2 and texture
lesson menu

Textises and cloth No2
6-2 FABRIC TEXTURE
2. Texture this is the roughness or smoothness of the material and us usually apparent in two
places, the boundaries or edges of the garment or at its general mass where light values change
(turning points -basic lesson on texture).
a) Edge : silk obviously can combine the highest degree of smoothness with thinness of material
so its edge treatment is the sharpest. Next would be linen or cotton gauze where the edge would
appear a thin line. Note - light will often reflect from a cut or bare edge. Fur is the other extreme.
b) Turning points: here texture can be shown as individual weaves, hair, cotton or thread
stand proud of the material and cast their own minute shadow. The length of the shadow being
determined by the sharpness of the fold (see below). This is where the professional artist makes
judicious use of the many brushes at his disposal as well as carefully adjusting the paint to the
viscosity necessary for the appropriate effect. Some will paint wet into wet and others paint over
dry surfaces. Still others prefer to use glazes, palette knives or a multitude of instruments.
Can you decide from the above examples which is silk, cotton, linen and velvet?
3. Value differences: Tonal - this is the value difference on the grey scale between the
highlights and the shadows of the material being painted.
This factor should be approached completely independently of any color considerations and for
practical purposes we shall assume one light source and one direction (not backlighting). The
artist will usually limit these tonal divisions to a minimum of two and a maximun of four with the
following approximations;
Fur and wool - two - with little value difference between highlight and shadow
Flax-linen and heavy cotton - three - values between highlights and middletones closest Satin
- three - values evenly spread (note that highly reflective materials like silk or satin are very
prone to secondary surface reflections.)
Silk, taffeta and satin- four - values closer at the highlight end. See blue taffeta dress below.

Gauze and diaphanous silks - two (the third one here is transparency or the form beneath)
values between highlights and middletones close.
Virgil Elliott writes: 'The key is to understand that light on diaphanous cloth renders it more
opaque, and thereby obscures more of what is underneath, while in shadows it is more
transparent, allowing more of what is under it or behind it to show through. Also the opacity/
transparency is affected by the angle of the cloth relative to our line of sight. Parallel to the line
of sight it is more opaque, and perpendicular to it it is more transparent, with varying degrees in
between those extremes.'
Velvet - two + - folds work light a bit differently than other fabrics.
Secondary light - This is the ability of a surface to absorb light rays reflected from another
nearby surface(such as the yellow chair below). The artist can then insert complements in the
shadows or between the tonal divisions.
Here in this detail from a Goya painting there are secondary and tertiary reflected colors which

provides a richness almost beyond the imagination. Even more so because the initial color of the
dress is so bland with only two basic value changes. There are those who will undoubtedly claim
they see more.
Virgil Elliott notes ' Whereas it is a popular practice to place complements in shadows, it is not
the way light works in reality. The main influence on the color of shadows is the color of the
secondary light, which could be any color. Only in highly reflective surfaces like satin or polished
metal or glass will reflected color register noticeably in the middletones.'
GO TO .... Practical painting
Back to lesson list

Lesson in color
7-1 DECIDING ON COLOR
The basic palette I used for this painting was very simple light red, raw umber and yellow
ochre, cobalt blue and prussian blue - one red two yellows and two blues. The overall cast of
this painting is blue green. My concern to this stage (above) was to keep everything subdued
and to make sure the lights and darks (values) looked correct. I knew I would be adding
touches of highly saturated red and yellow hues at a later stage. How did I know this? I
remembered a painting by Rembrant that had a similar color scheme, all I needed were roughly
the same percentage of hues - although the values I wanted would be slightly higher. Why did I
use this scheme? The narrative involving an ageing Thor demanded clouds and sunset. Since I
also knew I would be showing areas of suntanned flesh I therefore resisted using red in the sky
and distant landscape. I wanted instead the blue grey of the storm.
When the painting was almost finished I added my toutches of cadmium red and cadmium
yellow for the highlights, specifically the handle of the hammer and the apprentice's toga. These
highly saturated colors have the effect of echoing and unifying all the other reds and yellows.
Drawing a parallel to music I could say they act like a pure single high major note, played an
octave its harmonic chord. Suddenly you then see all the reds and yellows unified and
reverberating about the canvas.
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Lesson in color
Next we shall embark on a little practical exercise where I hope you will more fully understand
some of these terms and principles. I have found a frame for this painting but I will need to
color the timber part. What color will I use and why?
STUDENT ACTIVITY:For this page and the following - use two of your own paintings and
decide on your choice of their optimum frame . Allow 40min.
Here is my frame Here is my painting
GO TO ... the possibilities
... or lesson list
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roses2
MORE ON ROSES
Later I will show you how to paint a roses but for now it is important to understand exactly how
roses are constructed. It seems they have thorns on the stems, five leaves on the shoots and
things called sepals and corollas. This sort of information was not graspingly important to me
during my younger years when getting a football over a line or a girl into a backseat were more
pressing and roses were stolen from a neighbourhood garden to celebrate grandma's infrequent
visits. That's when I first discovered the thorns.
Next I found there are two types of roses; the simple and the complicated. Apparently the
simple are the early primitive variety with five petals while the complicated are also known as
hybrids, which it seems have more colors and mutations than the livestock around Chernoble.

roses2
They can also climb, form a bush and grow from a stick in the ground. They are also named
after folk I have never heard of.
There are some positives however and the fact that without roses the English language would
be devoid of the excitingly beautiful word 'floribunda' ... and 'tea' would be reduced to a mere
beverage. In addition it seems some hardy souls have devoted their lives to grafting miles upon
miles of thorny stems together as pleasure, rather than the torture it would seem to normal
people.
I must say that since I have had bunches of the things in the studio (for painting purposes only)
the general aroma of gum spirit and sweat has lessened. For that alone many are greatfull.
GO TO .... how to paint roses

Painting with John Hagan: CD information
Purchasing the John Hagan CD that includes printing information for use in classrooms etc.'
For those folk who have enquired CDs of all our drawing,
painting' and advanced painting lessons has been
produced. This CD is an an updated, reformatted for easy
printing version so you can create you own reference
handbook in your own time or just browse the CD.
These CD's we have priced at US $15 (plus posting) for
students and US$19 (plus posting) for others.
The printed files are in pdf format ... but don't despair,
you can download the free 'reader' so there should be no
difficulty for those who want to print to a work book to
store the lessons as hard copy.
Teachers will also be able to print the specific lesson or
lesson plan they need, when they need it.
We have also added extras to the CD such as a few
chapters from Virgil Elliott's 'The Oil Painters Bible' (yet to
be published).
If you are a student and interested in obtaining the CD
just send us a email indicating you university, college,
school or if you are a home schooler.
Otherwise you can order directly by the buttons below.
Delivery approx 14days.
NEW RELEASE: Third Edition CD
Since the release of the last CD 15 more lessons
have been added and others updated. The
Parkhurst Reference Book, Watercolor lessons by
David Hagan and a section on Computers and
Painting have also been included. Other and better
forms of printing have also been formulated.
This new THIRD EDITION cd is now available at $29 plus
posting. Ordering is the same as for the first edition.
Make sure when you go to CCNow you select the
particular edition you want.
We have decided to use a Delaware company called 'CCNow.com' for all US and International credit card
transactions. They provide a secure and save transaction base and take all recognized international credit
cards. Please make sure the mailing address for sending the CD is correct and can sometimes be different
to the billing address.
From the buttons below select your preferred payment method. The first button will take you directly to
CCNow.
FIRST EDITION
THIRD EDITION
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Painting with John Hagan: CD information
BACK
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Value and hue -Lessons in color
7-2 COLOR POSSIBILITIES
All the values, hues and saturations are taken directly from the painting. This will have the effect of
unifying the whole package. The gold on the frame already echoes the yellow of the painting. What
color will you ultimately choose? What will be its value, hue and saturation? Try and think of these
as a combined choice (ie medium value, green hue, highly satureated)
1.VALUE
Light is absorbed at the back of the eye by cells (cones) sensitive to red, blue and green
wavelenghts and seem to be responsible for color vision in daylight. In dim light the 'rods' take over,
which are more sensitive to blue-green light, and distinguish clearly between values of light and
shade. This is why squinting helps you determine the value of a color.
First: what value (how light or dark )do you prefer?
Medium values - from breastplate Low and high value - from rocks and sky
2. HUE
Second: what hue (color) do you like?
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Value and hue -Lessons in color
Blue hues - from sky Green hues - from sky
Red hue - Thor's neck and flesh
How strongly do you feel about your choices?
GO TO .... Saturation
Lessons
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Saturation - lesson in color
7-3 COLOR POSSIBILITIES No 2
3. SATURATION
Thirdly: saturation level would you pick?
High and low red saturation
High and low saturation from sky
This is an inappropiate example of a non -
painting color
In summary ... in your mind you should have pictured the value, the hue and now the saturation.
Combine them and what do you get? Is is anything like my choice? Low value (3), red hue and
medium saturation.
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Saturation - lesson in color
But if this were to be hung on a blue or green wall my choice would alter considerably. Now you
should understand color is about value, hue and saturation ... and how they should be considered
separate elements when describing and choosing 'color'. Theoretically this should all be obvious but
whenever I am teaching apprentice painters most of their difficulties arise when they grasp a brush.
Then they tend to forget completely about color theory and worry about everything else. If this
happens the student should be made to work out a separate color design before the painting is
begun.
GO TO .... The psycology of color
... or lesson list
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The psychology of color
7-4 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COLOR
Psychology is the study of human behaviour ...
What has this to do with color? We must first decide whether there is a genetic or instinctive
behavioural element in hue recognition. Then we might ask if there are any environmental
aspects that have a universal effect on the human species.
1. Genetic - I have seen no evidence of the first. We are not like bees or birds where the
recognition of the hues of flowering plants are somehow passed on from one generation to the
next.
2. Environmental - I have seen green associated with health - and with rotting meat, red with
luck and danger, blue with pain and tranquillity, yellow with disease or elsewhere intellect.
Summing up I know of no universal acceptance of a particular hue or color that has a universal
significance across all societies. Movment has more significance for survival purpose for the eye
discerns movement before anything else. The eye discerns movement at a span of 180 degrees
where hue, depending on its saturation, can be seen only to 140 degrees.
When awareness of red is combined with a sense of heat then we might say the combination is
universally one of fire. This and many other instances of combined sensory experiences are
manifold but those instancing color alone escape me. I must conclude that singularly hue has
no universal behavioural consequences and therefore no psychological implications - unless
combined with other senses or hues. Remember there is no universal hue indicating the
ripeness of an apple.
This thesis runs a parallel to music where no universal psychological analysis can be made of
single notes but when combined with others we can have harmony or disharmony and moods
created with various combinations. To take this analogy further it might be argued sensitivity to
color is rather like sensitivity to musical notes where some individuals can tune instruments
easier than others, some folk dream in color and some remember color easily while others
desire to train their color discernment to high levels of sensitivity. Sensitivity to all elements of
life is the key that opens the door to happy appreciation. The alternative is to dark to consider.
Fig.1
The adjacent effect .... color residuals of the eye. With musical melodies we have ‘progression’.
I mean by this intervals of time between notes that allow the brain time to understand the tune.
If all the notes were played simultaneously any melody would be incomprehensible. But in
painting all colors are played both individually and together, depending on the position of the
viewer, and they must work on both levels. As the eye physically moves between adjacent
hues, a negative residual interferes with the ‘melodic’ appreciation. Note the rather sickly Fig.1
combination above. This can be overcome with a transitional or neutral hue as shown below.
or
As a practical example ...
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This painting I did for the 'Bounty' series is a
composition in blue and orange. Blue will
naturally fight the orange if adjacent so here I
separated them as much as possible. Even
though the sea line appears blue meeting gold
it is a neutral grey-black instead. The hat and
coat are separated from the orange clouds by
a neutral white. The notion blue always
receeds is disproved here.
Like a play in a theatre or an opera a painting is the creation of an illusion - of a painter's
particular reality. The dominant hue in the painting below (blue-white) suggests a mid-morning
scene.
Here again, in this
demonstration
piece, it may appear
blue is against the
yellow - orange of
the boat. But where
they are strongest
they are also
furthest apart. This
makes the painting
easy on the eye and
more 'melodic'.
Stained glass windows, the paintings of Mondrian and Roualt are modern examples of strong
colors being separated by (black) neutrals. If you feel strongly that poetry should not be
element in the style of painting you want to attempt then you can use this information to
introduce jarring and suddenly surprising passages to your paintings. I call this the 'Hawaiian
shirt effect'. To understand the mechanics of color means that whatever effect you desire can

be realized and whatever you are doing, you are doing it deliberately. Trial and error is no way
to pilot a plane or create a masterpiece.
GO TO ... Psychology and color harmonies
Lesson list

The psychology of color No2
7-5 COLOR HARMONIES AND PSYCHOLOGY
Using colors and developing a color scheme for your painting is a lot easier than you think.
Many more color combinations work than don't work. Let us think more on the music analogy
where each note has pitch, force and length - just as in painting each color has hue, value and
saturation.
A chord in music is a collection of notes that harmonise. Similar to music I like to think
paintings can be composed of color chords. A painting 'chord' could then be thought of as a
collection of colors that harmonise. But what causes colors to harmonise?
Below: Colors of similar hue, value and saturation will harmonise just as will musical notes one
octave apart. The colors must for they are the equivalent!
Below: Colors of similar value and hue (but different saturation) will harmonise. Any of these
'harmonies' can be utilised in a painting as either major or minor accents (chords).
Below: Colors of similar value (but different hue and saturation) will harmonise. This would
describe a painting of colors with no value difference. No forms would be discernible just hues.
We define a high key painting as one with the 'majority' of the painting surface painted with
high value colors. Some years ago a particular paint manufacturer produced (modular) colors
labled with their value so artists could more easily harmonise their color schemes!
Below: Colors of similar hue (but different value and saturation) will harmonise. This would be
equivalent to a painting done in sepia tones.
In this painting (left) red is the dominant hue. The
Dominant hue is the 'base' color that can be slightly
vaied by adding a little of any of the other colors red,
blue, or yellow to slighly modify. Having this 'base'
color in all the mixes will unify the painting and can
be done at any stage. The deep thinkers usually do
this progressively but others (me included)
sometimes use a unifying glaze to rescue their
problem painting. To be safe a lot of painters add a
little of the one hue to every color they use even the
highlights! Here (left) light red is the dominant hue. I
used light red to unify all the elements even though
some of the greys almost appear blue. This painting
is simple in that it has just one major scheme(chord)
- colors of similar hue. Here the light source is red-
yellow therefore the shadows appear of the opposite
(complimentry) hue. There is an old adage in
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painting which is well worth remembering 'warm
light, cool shadows - cool light warm shadows.'
When considering this scheme also remember the unifying effect of the discordant note.
Painters use this is when applying ‘spot’ compliments (opposites to the unifying hue) which, as
in jazz music, has the effect of underlining or exaggerating the unity of the rest. In the painting
above I could have done this by making the bird's wings greener (removing all the red from
that hue). There is nothing psychological in this, it merely is a practical tool for the painter to
employ if the painting seems to lack some vibrancy. Turner was the master of this effect. He
would create a huge canvas of reds, oranges and golds then place in a strategic spot of blue -
or vice versa. The result can have viewers circling and muttering words like genius, awe-
inspiring and unforgettable! From a painter's point of view all it requires is great control and
restraint - holding back until that last, final, daub of pure paint. That is the real secret to
painting with color - the understated build up, the flat featureless, bland thing that has taken
six terrible controlled months to produce then becomes a vibrant masterpiece in the last five
minutes.
This brings me back to saturation. This is not, as most painters would have you believe, a post
exhibition, or after dark activity. Saturation, sometimes called chroma, is the redness of the red
or the difference between a pale blue and a deep prussian blue.

My action painting of cricketers in the West Indies has highly saturated hues (calypso colors)
but note how all their values are similar. The red is separated from the dominant green and the
white uniforms provide the unifying force. You can get away with a lot if you utilise high
contrast neutrals! The major chord (the green, red, blue and yellow hues of similar value) is
played again in the white of the uniforms where it is repeated in a 'higher key'.
When color becomes highly saturated (as in the yellow toga above) it begins to elicit more
attention. In this painting 'Thor' I have used colors of similar hues but differing values and
saturations. Similar blues appear in the sky breastplate and hammer, yellows in sky water and
toga, reds in the flesh and twice in the hammer. These are all minor chords. The major chord is

the green - red combination of similar values.
We cannot talk about saturation without discussing value. Value is what we do when we make
drawings and shade them. It is the method we use to define form. If drawing is ‘line’ then as
soon as we shade that line we create value differences, and a third dimension. So the third
element, when describing most colors, is value. Value, as stated previously, is the blackness or
whiteness of a color (scaled 1-10). Most hues tend to darken with increased saturation.
If you desire to make pleasing two dimensional color compositions you can do so with chords of
equal value or similar hues. This is useful and great fun but to make a painting with 'depth' we
will also need to match color 'values' therefore we must consider how best to 'mix' the values
we want. Would you expect a value five red mixed in equal amounts with a value five yellow to
produce a value five orange or a value five red mixed with a value five blue will produce a value
five purple?
STUDENT ACTIVITY:I asked: 'Would you expect a value five red mixed in equal amounts with
a value five yellow to produce a value five orange or a value five red mixed with a value five
blue will produce a value five purple?' Do this on your palette and determine the result. Also do
the same with paints of differing values to see whether they 'average' their values. Write up
your results. Allow 40min.
GO TO ... mixing colors
Lesson list

Advanced perspective distortions
5-1 ADVANCED PERSPECTIVE No.1
Roll-over perspective
Here is a painting that utilizes a
single vanishing point without
unduly discomforting the eye. I
call this roll-over perspective.
My aim in this painting was to
paint the total extent of the
landscape beyond what the
camera or the eye would see,
and without moving the eye's
cone of vision.
As the landscape is essentially
flat the illusion needed is one
that combines (in the
perspective mode) a plan view
with an elevation. Also to make
the transition as seamless as
possible! Secondly the
perspective scale must be such
that the distance from tee to
green should still appear at
least 400 yds.
Two essentials must be realised
to understand how the illusion
is completed.
First: the eye has a natural cone of vision wherein it
can focus. This is usually about 30 degrees. Beyond this
cone focus is lost - even though movement is
discernable up to 160 degrees(wiggle your thumbs and
see when they disappear). To look at my painting you
will note I trick or force the eye to alter its cone of
vision, when it really, is not necessary. It does not have
to refocus to see the entire painting, but I make it
believe it does. We are forced to look 'down' at the tee
and 'up' at the green.The eye will refuse to do
otherwise.
Second: the perspective scale is distorted in that I
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Advanced perspective distortions
create the impression that the observer's distance from
the tee is defined on one scale and that the distance to
the green is on another scale. I do this by placing
'known' objects at strategic points. The tee, the bunker,
the trees, the green and the flag are all known objects
and placed such as to make the ground appear almost
flat. For those students who have already studied my
perspective lessons they will know the principle - as
congurent objects receed they will be reduced on a
proportional scale. They will realise it is this scale I
have purposely distorted.
My oil painting shown left is a more familiar
example as it is arguably the most famous hole
in golf. The tee is on a hill above the green and
the length of hole is 155yds. It is a par 3.
Again, under normal circumstances, it is
impossible for the human eye to focus on both
the green and the tee as it is for a camera to
satisfactorily render such images.
This is still a most beutiful landscape ... even if
it is a golf hole and mown grass is merely an
earthbound oilslick. If you summise I refuse to
mow the lawn and still play a little bad golf you
might well be on the right track!
GO TO .... rivers, lakes and ponds
lesson menu
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rivers_lakes_and ponds
5-2 RIVERS, LAKES AND PONDS
Robin wrote:
'I've been studying other works and trying to achieve something in the way of great depth to
water scenes via mulitple layers of thin paint ... mostly transparent due to being so severely
diluted with Linseed Oil. It's not quite there, so I'm now thinking of using Marine Varnish, but if
that doesn't work, I'll have to trash the whole thing.!)'
Don't despair for this is not necessarily a matter of glazes, although they may help in certain
instances. If you want to paint something behind something else, you might consider painting
exactly that. Depth is achieved in the logical mind of the observer, assisted by the artist
providing all the necessary information (clues). This is also demonstrated in my lesson on
waves.
Clear water has no color so it cannot be painted. All that can
be painted is what is under it, over it,standing in it, or what
is reflected upon its surface. After all those things are
painted then the water will magically appear.
Some reflections will prevent the transparency ....
Some will assist ....
Some will describe the nature of the surface...
To achieve great depth in water scenes you will need to paint in a
number of layers simeltaneously.
1. The bottom of the lake or water
2. The reflected sky overhead. A little darker than it is.
3. Reflected vegetation from around the shore
4. Perhaps some lilly pads or something else on the surface. Leave a
part where the viewer can see to the bottom.
This 'demonstration painting' provides the simplest of examples. Construct it yourself as it will
only take moments.
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Black white and blue will make a subdued
background. The reflection is a value darker than the
sky.
Wipe away the center portion and introduce a green
bank.
The area where the bank is reflected, will be the area
that receals the bottom of the pond. Why? The angle
of the main light source, and the shadows of the
overhanging bank, prevent the sky reflections.
This is where I introduce some color and blend with
foreground.
You can also paint in some submerged sticks to detail
the bottom, as well as some drooping reeds. Don't
overdo it! The pond bottom can be any color that
suits your purpose - as could the sky. I have used
separated opposites.(see lessons on color)
Next, paint in a figure or something else that will enable you to add aditional reflections and
depth. As I had already used red, yellow, green and blue I used white for the shirt. You can
paint thousands of variations on this theme. No glazes are necessary, and the basic theory is
presented in an earlier lesson on 'sunrise and sunset'.

GO TO .... golden mean
Main menu

Painting Percy the Pelican
PAINTING PERCY THE PELICAN
Percy the Pelican was the family pet and I was asked to paint him. I said I normally don't do
pelicans but then remembered I had a successful painting of a small wave and thought it might
be possible to combine the two! (See 'how to paint waves', in a previous section)
I also was reminded just how much pelicans look like old fashioned sailing ships, and I had
painted plenty of those.
It did occur to me however, that some of these pelicans can be quite large and intimidating so
maybe having them sailing away from the viewer might be the thing to do. It should be a cinch
then ...
And so it turned out with the first painting, a great success to all the local pelican lovers. I
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called it 'Percy and Pricilla paddle off to find a pilchard'
Flushed with this initial success I decided to do a larger and deeper view - deeper water that is
- so I repaired down to the river and observed the ripples and sand. I was also concerned not to
let any background material interfere with all the information in the foreground.
This is a larger painting with some improvements on the first with changes made to Pricilla. I
called this 'Percy and Pricilla picnic in the pilchard grounds'.
Technically the primatura was a raw umber with a little light red and raw sienna, wiped over
with a rag for eveness and quick drying. Next the sand was laid down with much the same mix
only with variations and secondary sand ripples. The sky was laid down with the compliment of
the sand with the two merging two thirds of the way up the canvas. These constituted the darks
of the sky and sand. The next layer was lighter and wet-in-wet, as was all the painting from
here on, with the mix getting oilier as we work forward. Some of the lighter ripples are added to
the sand and while a lighter gray is added to the sky and worked downwards in 'figure eight

strokes' for the wave forms. This contrasts with the more vertical strokes of the sand
reflections. Lastly the figures are painted in with a three quarter inch flat bristle brush.
Subject wise I was now on a roll and decided to add the daughter of the family where Percy was
considered the family's pet pelican. They often fed him a ... you guessed it, a herring or a piece
of squid. Of course the girl's name was Peggy. The painting was to be rather in the fashion of
an intimate portrait, only on water.
I was now becoming more and more convinced that these large birds resembled ships, more
particularly man-o-wars, with their gunports positioned along the side looking like black
feathers. All they needed was cannon run out ... and smoke and a few feathers ...

So as a final 'Percy the pelican' painting I painted the 'Pelican promontary Wars', a bloody battle
between the red beaks and yellow beaks that all started over the fishing rights to the pilchard
grounds. You might observe the feathers in the water and one of the redbeaks lost to the deep
with only feet showing. That courageous bird Percy was in the van, and was one of the first to
break the battle line of the opposition. Though wounded he quiclky recovered and spent many
an hour on the local shore scratching lines in the sand pointing out to all his mates how exactly
the battle progressed, and how the great victory for the yellow beaks was won.
All but the last of the series are being made into prints. The last was done mostly for the benefit
of the Cowdisley readers.

Painting small waves
PAINTING LITTLE WAVES
Remember the first lesson on the
importance of really looking at
things and studying them? Well
this lesson is a reminder of that
and will also give you an
understanding of how a painter
must analyze the smallest things
so as to best understand how to
paint them in the biggest way.
Nothing is more important than
understanding this. You might
think the figures I put into the
following painting are the key. Not
so, it is the study of the wave that
makes this painting unique.
Have you ever wondered how those bright lines on the shallow end of a swimming pool come
into being - or when you wade in shallow waters, on a sunny day, how the patterns rippling
across the sand are made? Well so did I. So I took myself to the seaside on a sunny day and
looked and looked (all in the nature of an artist's everyday grind).
Right is a photograph I took so you will can see what I mean. Below is another with an
analysis of the reflected light that operates on the surface as the eye is raised.
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Note the yellow line that shows how the little blue wave top is parallel to the pattern in the
sand.
So, how do these bright lines form
on the sand? Well they form
because the top of the wave is not
sharp, but curved like a lens and
like a lens, it focuses the light like a
lens(see diagram opposite).
Were the wave 'peaked' the
difference might occur as shown in
the second diagram.
OK, so now we know that small waves
are usually rounded. The more
scientifically minded might say the were
flattened by gravity or that water finds its
own level.
Whatever the case I want you to consider
the information in the photograph below
and understand how the total structure of
sand, wave, light and reflected light
works and how we might transpose that
to any painting we might do of a wave.

Let's not waste too much time on the beach (why not!) but get back to the studio and see what we can
make from the information we have learnt, gathered and understood.
GO TO .... waves part 2
lesson menu

Painting small waves No. 2
PAINTING LITTLE WAVES No.2
In the detail of the wave shown opposite you may
be convinced you are looking through the wave ...
but this is mere illusion. My steps in painting were
as follows:
1) Paint the whole canvas a thinned mix of dirty
sand colored raw sienna mixed with a little raw
umber and white. Adjust for a approx value 5 or 6.
Let dry to the toutch.
2) With a nice runny flake or lead white with a little
ultramarine and cobalt blue and using flowing figure
eight horizontal hand movements create the wave
tops.
3) Add some white to the raw sienna/umber mix and
paint the pattern into the verticle wave surface
making sure thet the lighter more intense pattern is
in the shallower wave's forward edge as I have
shown.
NOTE: Don't begin the painting until you see the
finished article and understand all the steps ...
particularly that to make something look as if it were
behind someting else does not necessarily mean
painting it that way - as in the sand 'beneath' the
wave.
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You should now understand the absolute simplicity of the whole scene; though there are a few
points to be noted from looking at the painting above.
1) The reflected light on the top of the waves gets lighter as it goes back (the angle of incidence
with the horizon decreases. In other words the tops of the closer waves are slightly darker in
value as they reflect a higher part of the sky.
2) The waves get smaller as they receed.
3) The almost vertical fronts of the little waves get darker and bluer as the water deepens. In
other words the sand color disappears.
Every problem can be solved by a careful study of the photographs shown on the previous page
or by another visit to the beach ... which is never a bad idea anyway!

The figures are from sketches I made and I added the swimming costumes and altered there colors
and to give a more satisfactory color scheme. (A full view of this painting can be seen by pressing here. It
is also available as a quality giclee print.)
STUDENT ACTIVITY: Make your own study (drawing) of some simple natural event or thing
such as a clump of grass, part of a grape vine, a fish pond, a pile of autumn leaves or a
neglected corner of the garden. Allow 40min. Later you might decide to base a major painting
on your particular study?
Information for new CD releases!
GO TO .... other transparencies
lesson menu

Art lessons - learn about shadows and transparency in painting
3-3 SHADOW AND TRANSPARENCY
Let us recall our lesson on sunset and sunrise and remember the effect of atmosphere on light rays. Remember
how the motes in the sky or mist intercepted the long blue rays and let the red through?
Now we will treat that 'mist' as a piece of glass or plastic; a solid yet semi -transparent medium.
In the first example below the reddish pigment particles suspended in the glass are sparsely arranged. As with
the earth's atmosphere at sunset the pigment particles in the glass absorb the blue-green light rays ... and this has
a dual effect. (Fig 1.)
1. It reflects the red light rays back to the observer making the glass appear red.
2. It allows some of the red rays through to strike the surface behind. Here, that surface (green), absorbs some of
the red rays. This tends to slightly neutralize the color. If the green was stronger the shadow would become
grey.
The solid object in Fig.2 blocks out all
the light rays and casts a theoretical
neutral shadow. Most painters find it
useful to paint a warm shadow if the
light source is cold and a bluish shadow
of the source is warm. In this example
the greenish background and reflected
side light prevent an altogether neutral
effect.
In the third example thicker glass is
added to the center. This has the effect
of both blocking the light and un-
saturating the red. (see previous lesson
on saturated color)
The principle regarding transparency is useful when painting with semi-transparent dark paint as the value and
depth of the darks can be increased. As opposed to opaque darks, transparent dark allows light to penetrate the
surface before reflecting back off what is underneath. This has the effect of filtering out light rays on the way in
as well as on the way out thus allowing less of the light rays to escape and for our eyes to read richer, more
ineresting darks.
Application ...
THE SEMI-TRANSPARENT RED RUBY RING
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1. Create an oval and smear with shades of red allowing a transparency around the edges. You could do this
with a semi-transparent crimson red like alizarin.
The rest is pure fiction and applied logic ...
a) Light source (top left) determines the position of the shadow as well as the position of the reflected light on
the stone.
b) The highlight on the stone tell us the much.
As it is sharply focused we know the stone is
smooth and shiny (very reflective). Here it is a
window - reflected twice (the second time gives
the stone greater transparency). By its position
we also know the window is the main light
source for the object and a line drawn from the
observer to the highlight would reflect at an
angle and pass out the window. This tells us
that the object's surface is at an angle (round)
and that the window is high left. This
information should tally with the position of the
shadow.
c) The horizontal bands on the ring band define its texture and roundness. The elliptical shadow reinforces this
assumption.
Here again this object is not drawn from anything real. It is a pure construction using logic and remembered
observation.
STUDENT ACTIVITY: Find examples of gold, silver, chrome and copper and describe them in terms of
reflectiveness, edge and color (light hue and dark hue).

GO TO ... lighting it up
....or back to main lesson list

The magic of painting
PAINTING BEYOND FASHION
Basic painting and drawing principles and techniques from the
Renaissance to the present
by John Hagan
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Intro - Learning to look
1. aerial perspective -6
lessons
perspective - the basics
perspective - lets go outside
veils of atmosphere
sunrise and sunset
reverse sunset and night
clouds, mist and other veils
2. color - 2 lessons
color the hows and whys
color a different approach
3. looking harder - 3 lessons
painting waves[2]
shadows and transparency
4. light and shade - 4 lessons
backlight works its magic
side light and turning points
front light, and artist's light
cascading light and shade
5. drawing texture design-6
lessons
drawing and proportion [2][3]
pattern and texture
design and golden mean [2]
6. analysis -5 lessons
what to paint and why
analysis of 'girl with pearl earing'
depth of field
abstract and texture work
chaos and disorder
7. practical application -32 lessons
practical painting [2][3][4][5][6][7]
portraiture [2][3][4][5]
demo Alexander [2][3][4][5][6]
demo nude [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
framing [2][3]
8. personal paintings used here
[press here]
advanced art lessons
*The artist's role and making a living from painting. [2] [3] [4] [5]
[6]
All artork is by John Hagan unless attributed or known pre- 20th century masterpieces!
NEW Information for new CD release!
LATEST: A fuller view of particular paintings available as prints can be seen by pressing here.
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Art Lessons - learn design and 'instinctive' proportion
5-3 DESIGN
TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS (and get to the theory later)
Let us assume we are faced with the situation where the following picture must be cropped to fit a particular
frame. How should it be done?
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You probably have quite definite ideas about your preferred option ... and if I said I preferred No.2 you may
decide I should seek serious counselling or some other form of professional help.
But most paintings do have accents or points of natural interest. Sometimes these are the areas of maximum
contrast (lightest against darkest), other times it is a color accent (hue), or in a narrative painting, it could be an
area of high dramatic intent - or it may even be a combination of all three. There can, of course, be dominant,
secondary and many other minor accents. The question is: where to place them within a defned space so they
look right?
Without explaining the complexities of physics, calcalus or harmonic proportion (all of which I forgot as soon as
I gave up my promising career as a rocket scientist - I ran out of chalk). Still, I have found the following method
a helpful starting point for the humble painter.
1. For primary accents - corners of the center rectangle.
Try and counterpoint a dominant accent with a two secondary or some minor accents (mostly outside the
rectangle).
Remember, everything is a balance with the relationship of all the parts to each other as they are to be
sympathetic to the whole. Extra accents could lie on the corners of the second rectangle as shown below.
Remember the diagonals are powerful lines in any composition (below).

Later you will see where spirals and curves can also assist in forming the basis of compositions.
An example- one of my most difficult design tasks was to construct a painting to form the frontpiece of my
tryptic (a three paneled paining). I was faced with a square to be split down the middle - upon which I wanted to
place a single portrait. The problem was I did not want the figure to look as if it were cut in two by and axe.
1.The diagonal forms the main element of the composition.
2.The triangle forces a relief to the diagonal and is the principal construct of the figure.
3. The green and red circles are counterpoint highlights equidistant about the split just like you would balance
weights on a seesaw (fulcrum).

With enough counterpoints we can almost create pattern ...
STUDENT ACTIVITY: download or cut and paste into your book a famous painting of your choice. Analyse,
showing diagonals and counterpoints and explaining elements that bring the painting into 'balance'. Time:40min.
GO TO ... the 'golden mean'
......or lesson list

How to frame your painting
7-5 FRAMES AND OTHER DECORATIONS
Historical developments
It is useful to understand the evolution of the picture frame. Frames evolved from painted decorations of
architraves and cornices that surrounded frescoes on walls and ceilings (as in the Sistine Chapel below), to
actual plaster and timber mouldings used when oil paintings became transportable. Today frames have become
‘stand alone’ items of mass production.
From the early renaissance architectural fashion has often determined the design of frames. Popular architrave,
cornice and skirting designs, often in miniature, formed the frame. If you desired to frame a Watteau painting, if
you are lucky enough to possess one or one you painted yourself in the Rococco style, then you should check
out the famous houses of the period noting all their architraves and cornices. The great decorators and designers
of past eras were usually universally consistent in their style. This approach can be just as valid today so look to
architraves and cornice when deciding what frame to use (see below).
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I have sometimes taken to painting decorations or frames on the canvas to achieve a historical effect as in the
following example below.
From an artists point of view this allows you to paint a frame before the framer gets his hands on it. Other artists
throughout the centuries such as Rubens, Tieopolo and Raphael have done the same often using fruit, leaves
vines etc. as decoration. Some might argue it is a tradition worth keeping if only to keep the apprentices active.
With the development of oil painting as a medium and canvas as its ground it became important to protect these
new 'mobile' or moveable works of art. Obviously someone had the bright idea to make the frame perform all
functions, protection, decoration and finally as part of some intended environment (room). All this has led to
much confusion with a minefield of styles, frame mouldings and architecure to negotiate.

So a picture frame can have certain characteristics and many functions;
1. Protect the painting
2.Unify the painting with the architectural style of the room as in repetition of color style or other design
elements.
3. Separate the painting from the wall.
4. Tunnel the attention to the painting so it will become the focal point of a room.- or do the reverse.
An artist may require the frame can echo all the qualities of the painting. Accents of similar texture, color, line
or shape.
Echoes between painting and frame:
Just as parts of a painting can relate to each other in echoes of texture, color and form so can the relationship
between the frame and the painting. This is a relationship the renaissance artists knew well. Some of these
relationships I demonstrate in the following example. More can be observed on the following page.
This traditional example (above) only works in isolation and miniature as most eliments are fierce. However,
texture of frame and breastplate, color values of frame, sky, armour and directional form match. The frame
struggles to confine the painting and will only succeed if surrounded by a bland background. The frame is a
color compliment of the painting while the gold still echoes the strong yellows.
We are now going to simplify things and examine three elements. The painting, the frame and the background.
GO TO ... traditional
configurations

............or back to main lesson list

How to frame your painting -2
PICTURE FRAMES
The classic tradition of museum display is that of the Uffizi - deep gold frames on a salmon red background wall.
This is a formula often repeated for many renaissance paintings. It is also one I sometimes use in internet gallerys -
but mostly without the frames. For landscape paintings of high contrast and dark greens the salmon red works well
particularly if separated by a neutral (off-white, black) or transit (gold) color.
This is a handy hint for painting as well as framing. When dealing with complementary or opposite colors red-
green or blue-orange try and separate them with a transit or neutral color. Even modern minimalist paintings of
clashing compliments are often framed to separate them from a colorful wall. Fierce agressive paintings and color
schemes are often impressive and eye catching - but difficult to live with. As with most art the understated is
usually more powerful in the long run (less is more - again!) Below we examine three overall elements and their
relationships - the wall, the frame and the painting.
Example 1. Complementary red wall green painting. Frame echoes the painting in color(darks and green-gold) and
swirling shapes.
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Example 2. Complementary colors of wall and painting with transition light gold between. 1800's style rococo style
frame matches swirling wave. The important feature here is the 'value' differences between the frame and the wall
and the frame and the painting.
Example 3. Complementary again. Here the frame and the picture provide a unified package where the rust color of
the painting is made even more dominant with the matched frame. This allows the wall green to work.

Example 4. Wall and painting colors are the same and the light gold frame is the complement. Echoes of light and
dark from painting to frame.
Example 5. Wall frame and painting colors are the same which allows the small blue and yellow accents. This
arrangement gives the painting great depth.
GO TO ... some aspects of modern framing
... or back to main lesson list

How to frame your painting - 3
MODERN FRAMES - ACCENTS AND ECHOES
When the print or painting itself is intended as a decorative item - fashion often dictates the frame. It is perilous
in this instance to buy a finished item without checking its intended placement. All sorts of factors such as
lighting, wall color, furniture etc. can have their unforseen effects. In this section I shall concentrate on those
principles of framing that confine themselves to the picture and the frame. The principles of modern framing are
the same as principles of the past but often with more of a bold fashion statement.
Floating a painting: This is the relatively modern approach of physically separating the painting or print from
the frame and/or the wall by the use of neutral or semi-neutral barriers such as mounts, slips or other such
devices. The general rule here is to continually vary the widths of the divices and the distances between them.
Texture echos: ( also above)This is the repetition of a texture from painting to mount or frame.

How to frame your painting - 3
Hue echo or tonal framing: (above) This is the name I give the practice of balancing hue values between
painting, mounts, slips and frame.
Borders, lines and bevels: a strong border or dark line is not always mecessary as the example below
demonstrates.
Size of frame & minimalisim: sometimes the simplest is the most effective. Here the print as well as the frame
combine to give a three dimensional feel.
GO TO ... making money from painting

Art lessons - learn how to paint pictorial and ambiguous light
4-3 HOW LIGHT WORKS ITS MAGIC
3. FRONT, PICTORIAL AND AMBIGUOUS LIGHT
1. Front Light - the favorite of photographers, two dimensional artists, children and colorists where
emphasis is on color and texture over form and value. Front light can eliminate the need for shading and
shadows (which is a pity for they are a great joy and keep many artists from wandering aimlessly about the
streets in the dead of night). Front light is also excellent for use in portraits of unremarkable people.
Holbein's front light portrait of a Dutch princess eventually caused the schism that resulted in the formation
of the Church of England. Like good putty front light can cover-up many faults.
USING THE JMW TURNER FRONTLIGHT PAINTING TECHNIQUE: (From my 'Arrive
Timor' (60" by 36") painting from the Bounty series)
1. On a prepared canvas begin with a thin glaze (stand oil/spirit medium) of yellow with touches of red and
blue. (blue suggesting the distance, yellow the middle ground and red the foreground). These thin 'washes'
serve as a beginning - the overal plan for solving the problems the subject presents.
2. After drying make light compositional drawing with chalk.
3. Lay in the large masses boldly with impasto white/color mixtures and allow to dry.
4. Draw/paint in the forms in greater detail with a light brown (burnt sienna).
5. Begin to add colour using glazes and scumbles. Do not fear adding white to the glazes as this can create a
broken light effect. Build thin layers of colour on top of each other maintaining a luminous transparency to
the canvas and the textured white below. (note - can be wiped)
6. Apply accents and details including dark local colours as well as impasto white highlights strategically
placed to give the effect of glimmering light.
7. Finish the painting in the frame touching up with fresh varnish and using thin brushes to drive paint into
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Art lessons - learn how to paint pictorial and ambiguous light
the cracks etc and other areas.
THEORY : In fact this method of painting I used copys Turner but most likely had its beginnings with
Rembrant. It gains its effect by glazing over dried impasto to other textures. Rembrant devised a method
employing two whites; one for impasto and one for smoother passages. The impasto white was faster drying,
probably made so by the addition of egg and ground glass, into the formulation. It was very lean, and
consisted mostly of white lead with a minimum of binder ( a variation on Step 1 above). He began applying
it more and more heavily (Step 3 above) as the first stage of a two (or more) stage operation which was
finished with transparent glazes and wiping, to create fantastic special effects, the most extreme example of
which is the man's glowing, golden sleeve in the painting referred to as "The Jewish Bride," in the
Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The brilliance of this effect cannot be gotten in any other way.
By wiping the glazes off as soon as they were applied, Rembrandt and later JMW Turner were able to create
a bas relief effect of remarkable three dimensionality as the glaze remained in the nooks and crannies (Step
5-6 above). By glazing again, this time with transparent yellows and/or browns, instead of Ivory Black gave
the textures a rich, golden glow (Step 7 above).
STUDENT ACTIVITY: Look up some paint manufacturers or go to your art supplier and find answers to
these questions. Name three oils that can be used in oil paint manufacture. What is stand oil? How is sun-
dried oil made? Name a non-drying oil. What is a varnish? What is a resin? What is a medium? Which is the
most transparent white of those commercially available today? What medium is used for acrylic paints?
APPLIED PICTORIAL AND AMBIGUOUS LIGHT
In the painting above 'Allegory for a time capsule - (detail)' I constructed a sky spanning morning, noon and
night. The possibilities of broken light on the ground are immense, but still, within in their particular areas, the
scenes must be light consistent. The transition areas, as always, pose the greatest difficulty. Here I used the
frame divisions to create artificial boundaries but the changes of pallet (colors) and angled light made the true
difference. Note the pyramids are lit from the right, the Venetian castle from above and the skyscrapers from the
left.
GO TO ... Cascading light
......or back to main lesson list
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How to make money out of painting history
OK, now you have learnt your craft and you want to paint paintings that you can sell either the original,
or the copyright. This may help you buy your round of drinks at the local tavern and perhaps, at last, put
a roof over the heads of your nearest and dearest. You might even have dreams of becoming a responsible
member of the community, regain the respect of those outlaws and in-laws who have long since given up
on you. How do you do this? Below are some of the methods I have employed that won't leave you feeling
like an absolute 'quack'.
q FILLING THE GAPS OF HISTORY
q MAKING ORDINARY THINGS EXTRAORDINARY
q ILLUSTRATING FABLES AND LEGENDS
q RECONSTRUCTING LANDSCAPES OF TIMES PAST
q PAINTING PORTRAITS AND COMMISSIONS
q PAINTING FOR DECORATION
1. Filling the gaps of history
Don't let anyone tell you this is not a legitimate endeavor for a painter. Someone once spoke thus to
me...
'How could you paint Shakespeare or Fletcher Christian,' they scoffed indignantly, 'did you ever meet
them or see them? You can't just go around doing that! Anyway, they died hundreds of years ago.'
I replied, 'I don't expect Leonardo met the Virgin Mary, nor to my knowledge did Carraviggo meet John
the Baptist, or was Michaelangelo ushered into the presence of God for painting purposes...! I also
expect neither Rembrant nor Rubens was present when Jesus was lowered from the cross'. And all
these things happened over one thousand four hundred years before they were painted.'
In fact it is the artists duty and obligation to do exactly these type of paintings and make them
believable. Thus will we enrich history for those coming after us.
First of all let's look at portraits of those folks who were not captured by photography or painters of their time.
Perhaps most became notorious well after the event. Anyway here are two examples that have been used on
book covers, magazines and in television documentaries from which I gained financially by my agent selling a
limited copyright. The originals, of course, I usually retain and will will to my children.
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William Shakespeare
who was never painted
in his lifetime
Fletcher Christian
Alexander and the Gordian Knot

These paintings have been copyrighted and used more than once in publications and documentaries and book
covers. It shows that any artist still has great scope should he or she wish to properly research and produce a
painting that is definitive in its portrayal of some event of person who presently lacks any adequate
representation. What other 'gaps' might the 'journeyman' painter tackle? Here is a list off the top of my head:
Milton of paradise lost fame
The philosopher 'Gothe"
Chaucer
A real flesh portrait of Julius Caesar
Sir Francis Drake
John Paul Jones
Christopher Columbus
Sir Francis Drake
Stanley meeting Livingstone
Plato
OK, so you can now see the possibilities should you want to research the subject matter, and have the technical
skills to produce a painting that has both feeling, drama and definition. In my atelier my primary duty is usually
to give students the skill so they can paint whatever style or method that might suit the period - or otherwise,
should they determine something else is required. That is up to them and their reasoning. In this sort of work it is
important for future copyright use that the artist refrain too much from 'stamping their personal style' on the
work; instead making the painting identify with the time and place or the person and particular event. This
sometimes needs much research - but the rewards are great should your portrait or work become the definitive
one, as did my Fletcher Christian. You see it was well researched had the benefit of not looking like Mel Gibson,
Marlon Brando or Erol Flynn!
Beware that, like the novelist or actor, you might become so attached to some period or person it could almost
become obsessional - as I nearly did with my late 18 century era of sail and romanticism.
Finally you need to put these images where folk who need them can see them and this means originally on the
web, and perhaps giving them away free (within defined parameters) to educational and other non-profit
organizations that require them from time to time.
GO TO ... Ordinary things
OR ... back to lesson list

How to make money out of painting deocrative pictures
6. Painting Decorative paintings
When everything else fails... So how do you do formula paintings, and what are the formulas that always sell?
In the business we call these 'potboilers' and the problem is not in painting them it is disguising them
sufficiently so they seem fresh and new, one off originals instead of formula paintings.
There are of course certain things that have universal appeal and I will show you two variations of them in this
lesson. Understand however, this universality needs to be tweaked and adapted depending on the country or
other demographics, like your target audience. It is a fact, for instance, that folk in the US and Europe will
appreciate more colorful paintings than those living in South Africa or Australia who, no doubt due to an
abundance of color and light and the absence of winter grays, appreciate that which they don't get to see a lot ...
the more subdued hues.
Here is our first example ... a girl frolicking in a surf on a hot summers day and pelican investigates. A universal
desire.
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The secret of selling this type of painting is to make it decorative. In other words a fashion item as well as the
remembrance of some pleasing experience. To do this I have deliberately made it a 'high key' painting. In other
words it has mostly light airy colors - though I do make sure the areas of contrast are there and catch the eye.
So the secret here is mostly presentation. A decent frame matched to the painting in a decorative and
unassuming manner (that way it will fit most homes). The painting is not designed to stop people in their tracks,
but to create an atmosphere wherein folk are comfortable and relaxed.

To produce this type of painting (above) you will need a basic understanding of the elements of waves and
reflections and atmosphere, but it is fairly rudimentary and is well addressed in the lessons so far. Then you will
need a camera or sketch pad and a few summer days to sit around the beach ... of course that's the tough part!
Another formula that seems to have a universal appeal is the one with wrought iron fences, balustrades etc.
and flowers. In my variation it is best if the wrought iron is painted white and the flowers are climbing roses or
suchlike. An abundance of vegetation is also helpful. Again summer and high tones are well placed but make
sure there are areas of deep contrast that draw the eye. If you add small children and romantic remembrances of
childhood then extra appeal can be added and the clientele and focus groups will not doubt appreciate the effort.
And so in this scenario I have utilized in my 'beauty and the beast' work that you see below. I deliberately
evoked the summer Mediterranean feel so as to counterpoint the horrible 'beast'. This of course would prevent
otherwise good sales, but then again - is fame and fortune worth all that? In the marketplace this is a dollar each
way painting. There could be someone our there who might like both elements.
Well, these paintings are but two variations on good and tested formulas that may make you a fortune if you
need one. I have maybe ten other tried and successful 'themes'.

Seriously though folks, if you want to paint for fame and fortune, forget it. I have no personal fortune but I am
usually welcomed wherever I go and I get countless invitations to address folk, talk and demonstrate my wares.
I can never retire, my financial stability relies not on what I saved but what I may be capable of doing
tomorrow. Otherwise I am quite happy with the paintings above. I am not raising the bar so you might be
dissuaded from even trying some painting formula, rather you MUST do it to learn the basics. I am only
warning you against complacency, repetition and false success.
So I no longer paint for the lowest common denominator, though when I was stuck in Brussels, with no
money ...
GO TO ... Advanced lessons
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How to make money out of painting commissions
5. Commissions
Due to 50 years of the press showing works of 'art' being made by elephants with brushes held in their trunks,
monkeys, guys riding over canvas with bikes, kindergarten children and anyone else with no talent and no training;
it is increasingly difficult for any member of the public to believe a professional painter should receive a per hour
renumeration that might be similar to what a plumber or an electician might recieve should they spend an
equivalent time at a contracted task or job.
This has become the sad lot of painters so the point must be made forcefully and prima facie before any work is
undertaken that you expect to be paid on a scale commensurate to your study, skill and experience; at least at a
tradesman's hourly rates.
Here I will discuss just a few basic rules for graduated painters who intend to make a career out of commissions.
q Be professional. Make the client aware that your hourly rate should be adequate.
q Define the work: Make sure the size of the canvas, paint, the mounting and frame are all costed and defined.
In a lot of instances it is appropriate for the client to agree to pay separately for the frame. This does not
preclude a caveat by the artist on the type of frame to be used. I find it useful to make this provision at this
stage.
q Take a deposit - at least 10%. More if you are including the frame and mention the cost of artist quality
paints, particularly if you intend using any seriously expensive colors such a cobalt blue etc.
q Settle on a completion date with + or - variations for unforeseen circumstance. It it is a portrait this time
should run concurrently with the sitting times and the sitters availability.
q Agree on the scene/portrait - general colors and style and if a portrait the mood and props. Don't rush this as
it is most important. You should value a happy customer for it is from them you will get a plethora of new
clients.
q Be careful the client understands that you will exercise your skills to the fullest but not all paintings turn out
to the clients perfect satisfaction. In fact the client should be made aware there are certain risks involved that
are separate to actual performance.
q If possible get your signature and your clients on a piece of paper!
q And never, ever, take on more commissions than you can handle. Portraits particularly, can become very
demanding whereas commissioned landscapes are usually a joy - particularly in summer.
q Be professional.
GO TO ... decorative paintings
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How to make money out of painting commissions
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How to make money out of painting landscapes
4. Reconstructing Historical Landscapes
There is a growing opportunity for painters to make a living by painting historical landscapes using old postcards
or photographs as reference material.
I recently experimented with this by taking three old faded, black and white postcards and reconstructing the
landscape. They were subsequently scanned and printed and sold in the area they were painted. This could be
done in any location should you possess the skill of an adequate landscape painter and a modicum of flair for
color and drama.
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This painting (24"x36")depicts a flood in a main street of a seaside town in 1892
Taken from the postcard immediately above.

This depicts a dry dock in the same town 1895. I applied a Turneresque look to the scene.
These paintings were also made into postcards and small prints for which I receive a small income.
Again, the painter should not be so elitist as to spurn such work. Society has, and always will, treasure such
efforts should they be atmospheric and definitive. With the right training a painter could always make a good
living traveling up and down the coast, or around the country just producing such pieces of work. You might find
the local Historical Societies are also interested in commissioning such work - they surely have a wealth of

material you could use!
GO TO ... Other Commissions

2. Making ordinary things extraordinary
The idea here is to take something entirely common and paint it in such a way that viewers are forced to look or
'see' the thing in some other way. Just this morning I purchased a packet of beautiful chopsticks. My aim it to one
day paint them in in conjunction with a fork or other eating implements. This might just question the process of
getting food from dish to mouth.
Anyway painting simple things is also a major obligation of any artist for it promotes lateral thinking and
wonder.
Such things might include:
q A footprint in the sand.
q A small wave on the beach with a shell.
q Cooked pasta.
q A map of the world.
q A mailbox.
q Beans and toast.
Look around, walk in the park, go to the seaside, there are thousands of suitable items. Below are a few examples
of mine I have found that made successful and saleable paintings.
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Pasta (36"x24") Beans and toast (36"x24")
'Landscape'(100"x50") - I intend to follow up this 'world landscape' with another having the map reversed as if
looking from inside out; out into the universe. The shapes thus should be vaguely familiar but the 'views' unusual.

GO TO ... Fables and legends

How to make money out of painting legends
3. Illustrating Fables and Legends
Painters have been doing this for ever - from cave painters to artists at the end of the 20th Century. Sadly there is
little of it today but... this gives the versatile and patient painter an excellent chance to fill the gap!
To understand the importance of such paintings as Gerome's 'Police Verso', shown above, one only needs to
understand that the whole visual feel and detail of the very successful 'Gladiators' movie was, according to the
director Ridley Scott, based entirely around such 1890's work. It is a shame Gerome is not around to claim his
legacy. Someone who was however is H R Giger whose paintings and drawings were the inspiration for Scott's
'Alien' movies. These works in turn related back to Goya and Blake's 19th century gothic works.
Others might include:
q Any Shakespearean theme
q St. George and the Dragon
q The Pied Piper
q The Homeric Epics
q The Old Man and the Sea.
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q Any of the Myths of the Gods.
You should look toward your imagination and try and paint such paintings or perhaps marrying such legends (St.
George) to modern events as allegories as I have done with 'Perils of a Chemical Life' below. It is good practice
to be working on one or two of such paintings in the background to your usual commissioned or current work.
Beauty and the Beast (48"x48")
Thor God of Thunder (48"x48")
'Perils of a Chemical Life'(48"x48") - This is a modern day allegory based on the St.George theme where the
knight attempts to rescue the heroin stricken maiden who appears as both the serpent and the girl.

Even though this type of painting appears, a first glance, attractive to only a small market the painter should
always remember the first rule of selling a painting: that is to produce a painting for the one person who cannot
live without and not to paint for that 99 out of 100 people who will think it is OK. This happens regularly as
galleries are often seduced to hang bland, mediocre works always attractive for the widest possible range of
people. Serious collectors however always favor the definitive, unique work that has obvious craft and value.
Should you need to appeal to wider audience this should be done with smaller works with affordable prices
rather than quicker large paintings. Remember your small purchaser today will become your collector of
tomorrow, so always have some smaller works priced accordingly at any showing.
GO TO ... Landscapes

Art appreciation and some definitions of 'fine art'
6-1 DEFINITIONS
Before you start painting you must decide on your object in learning to paint. There are many styles and
methods of applying paint to a surface but there are three main reasons for doing so. After you have looked at
these reasons and the examples I have provided you should be able to follow your purpose and utilize the tools of
drawing, color, texture and design to your best advantage. The categories are not definitive as many paintings
encompass more than a single element - nor is any objective better or worse than any other.
None should ever gain from a painting any dividend in excess of what the artist invests - and if he or she does it
is a fool's profit. Sadly so many twentieth century artists hold their public in the same regard a con man would a
victim. Even Picasso and Dali made some unfortunate comments in this regard. If we train our senses sufficiently
they can evolve to the extent they are able to discern great subtlety. Just as a wine taster or gourmet train theirs so
can a visual artist and it is truly a joy.' ...
The categories are:
Fig 3Fig 2
1. Decoration - I want to paint because I love to decorate.
Fig 1.(above) Here color and proportion are made pleasing to the senses.
Fig 2 Impressionist decoration.
Fig 3 The use of an accent (bright red in a sea of grey) for an eye catching wall decoration
I would have you paint decoration for the appreciation of decoration, paint subtlety for the appreciation of
subtlety and paint messages for those looking to pictures for meaning. Why deny people their decoration, why
deny the high church their subtlety, why deny the communicators their messages? There is no good reason—still,
I would have the artist be all, at the same time. But if you find you cannot, just rejoice in the diversity and do not
judge one better than the other.
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Fig 4 Fig 5 Fig 6
2. Fine Art - I want to paint to understand and enjoy visual ideas.
Here I will quote a respected food and wine judge, 'In summary less is more. The flavours and fragrances we
most enjoy are the ones we only just perceive. More than that, they make us sick. Rose scent is a good example.'
Fig 4 One of the greatest paintings of all time - sublimely subtle. The viewer knows exactly how the artist felt
towards the subject. (note the lips slightly apart - a rarity in northern renaissance portraiture)
Fig 5 The mystery, subtlety and the innovation in this painting makes your hair stand on end.
Fig 6 The use of light and landscape in an allegory about painting.
Fig 7 Fig 8

3. Message - I want to paint because I have a message to communicate.
Fig 7. (above) Never has design, contrast and color been so forcefully used in the cause of humanity. A rare feat:
no action photograph could ever compete.
Fig 8 There is little decoration or subtlety in this painting titled "Executions at Portsmouth'.
The examples are selected to best illustrate their category by single-mindedly ignoring the other two(ie. in the
decorative category the artist has made no attempt at description nor is there any message to be had. In the
second category decoration and message are absent whereas the message in the third category swamps
everything else.)
To show I am unbiased the last example in each category is one of my own paintings.
STUDENT ACTIVITY: Make you own list of five paintings nominating their categories. Note - some might
have more than one category and if so you must name them.
GO TO ... analysis of a
vermeer
.... or lesson list

Art lessons - learn painting analysis
6-2 ANALYSIS OF 'GIRL WITH A PEARL EARING'
What is realism?
The real world, you say? Now that is novel. Perhaps unique. Why would an artist be interested in reality? Of
what use is that to the galleries and museums? People don't want an exhibition of the truth. They don't want to
see the intestines of a cow nailed to a wall. They never do, and they never did. They want magic and illusion.
Magic to make them wonder, and illusion to transport them elsewhere. They want to see pictures that make
them laugh and cry they want to see good and evil narratives of honour, and of misfortune, cunning, grand
landscapes of history or intimate portraits of seamstresses and blacksmiths. They want the artist to use all the
skill, all the tricks, the smoke the mirrors, all the alchemy and all the the magic of painting to make them
believe.
They would sweep realism from the wall and stamp it beneath their feet like a cockroach. Realism has an ugly
face, you see. No you don’t want realism and neither do they. Realism is a poisoned dagger in a dead hand, it is
the stuff of body fluids and blackened lungs. No folk want beauty, they want the spectral magic of an angels
wings - or to see the dragon twist at the end of St George's lance - and they want to believe!
However the painter's job is not easy. It has a long and ancient apprenticeship and it requires courage and skill.
It is to provide the stuff of illusion, the ideals realized. Payment is usually small in coin but large substance
when we see the wonder on the face of the child ... or some adult who makes mentions of the image made that
dwells in that special place in the mind where people live.
COLOR
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Note the extremely limited pallet.- a light red, a cobalt blue and a yellow ochre.
The rest are gradations and mixtures.
Also note the values on the grey scale range from 1-10
PATTERN AND REPETITION
DESIGN

Some of the most effective designs are the simplest. The head is centrally positioned.
The horizontal line of the eyes is 'golden' approx 3:5 up the canvas.
The two vertical straight lines provide the 'discord' to the circular patterns.
TEXTURE
The hard edges of the pearl (which I think is really a silver ball) eyes, and face make them all equally smooth
and spherical. Here again we encounter repetition. The eyes and the pearl, because they are more reflective,
have sharper and more defined highlights. The 'pearl' also shows an extra luminosity by its secondary reflection
of the white of girls collar (Fig 3)
TURNING POINT (Fig 1 and Fig 2)
The transition area from light to shadow is the key to this picture. The transition color between the flesh tones is
the background color (Fig 1). The transition values from left to right in Fig 2 are 8-6-4-2-4. The background
value ranges between 1-2
EXAGGERATIONS
The reflection of the collar on the girl's jaw shows the artist's skill but does it really exist to the extent shown
here? What is the color inside the girl's mouth? Here it is highlighted for effect. These elements show the artist's
deliberate and personal touch.

STUDENT ACTIVITY: Pick a painting you like and analyise it by design, texture, pallet and repitition.
GO TO ... depth of field

A study of the effects of depth of field
6-3 DEPTH OF FIELD
The human eye, like the camera, has a limited depth of field. In other words we focus on one level and the
objects in front or behind are often blurred. When Deigo Velazquez painted Las Meninas he, along with many
artists (pre-photography), painted everything in focus. This was part of the magic of painting as the viewers
perception was thereby expanded - rather like a hologram. Today wide angle lens may produce something
similar but unless you intend to spend hours in a darkroom it is an all or nothing solution.
There are good lessons to be learned here and this painting by Deigo Velazquez will serve us well as it has a
defined foreground, middle ground and background. Let's experiment then ...
First I will separate the fore, middle and back grounds then utilise three focal depths and observe the results.
The essential question I ask is one of choice - what do you like most?
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The foreground in focus.
The background in focus (the artist's preferred model?)

The middle ground in focus.- note the exciting change of emphasis.

Ahh... you say - and why not! But don't you find the blurring unsettling? The artist would have.
This particular painting is huge and designed as a feast or as a complete visual experience. I am merely toying
with the work and I hereby apologise to the master for doing so. Today we may find no magic in multi-focused
paintings but the lessons in design and emphasis are worth considering. The example in the abstract lesson is
essentially a similar manipulation. Note: the artist painted so well that the dwarfed figure in the foreground has
recently been diagnosed as a victim of congenital syphilis.
STUDENT ACTIVITY: There is a painting to be made by focusing on the girl directly behind the dog as her
head and body in this composition is located on a diagonal and in a premier design position. Find a copy of this
painting and try it (see lesson on design and proportion for hints).
GO TO ... abstract
...or back to main lesson
list

Art lesson - abstract and texture painting
6-4 ABSTRACT AND TEXTURE PAINTING
Many confuse abstract painting with modern painting or modern 'art'and wars and battles rage in the 'art' world
over definitions of what is 'art'.
We are concerned here only with painting.
In truth, an abstract design is one that has no pattern and an abstract painting is one that has no form.
The painting above is not a photograph but its realism is undeniable. It has form but no pattern (repitition).
In a previous lesson I stated 'the human mind does not
like to be overloaded with detail, particularly in a
painting. It revels in its ability to complete the picture
itself. And it must be allowed the latitude (hazy bits) to
do this. The degree you allow this will say something
about your estimation of your proposed audience. My
rule is to always assume they are smarter than you, in
other words leave plenty of for the imagination.'
This idea of involving the imagination was the genesis
of most post 1850 art movements and
experimentations. In the more extreme any cognisant
feature became a disadvantage.
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When contemplating painting an abstract picture or one with symbolic meaning try and recall no one will gain a
dividend from the finished work in excess of your input. So no cheap shots for, to rob your audience is to rob
yourself.
Sharpness and smudge the layered effect.
Here I have taken a section from an action painting and
blurred it before overlaying it with thin, sharp-edged black
and white lines and shapes. This 'depth of field'
photographic effect is relatively modern as (excepting
Vermeer and a few others) the artists of the past insisted on
bringing everything into focus. It must be said their clients
often demanded this.
TEXTURE PAINTING
The worth of an artist was once determined by his or her ability to disguise brushstrokes and produce 'magic'
surfaces and textures. A few - Rembrant and Titian in their later years - decided paint had a tactile quality itself
and sometimes layered the paint to produce a separate effect. Rather like Rodin often left parts of his marble
sculptures 'in the rough' to emphasise their other qualities. Mostly they used white as that pigment was the
cheapest .It was also the slowest to dry and could be safely applied over the successive layers of dry thin darks.

This use of excessive body in paint took off with the development of cheap mass produced paint in the early and
mid-eighteen hundreds. One of the first exponents of this 'impasto' method was Turner and his use of white.
Turner would often sculpt some landscape element in heavy impasto, wait for it to dry then coat and wipe with
successive transparent galzes. The depressions and cracks would fill and the highlights would realise their
sculptured effect. Also the galze over the white would make it glow - even more so if even more galze and
white was later applied.
STUDENT ACTIVITY: The ultimate weapon in this texture effect is the pallet knife. If you would like to
experiment with this you will get remarkable effects by treating your canvas like a mud heap and shovelling
paint around with the knife. Create loose forms if you like. Stop just before the colors completely disappear into
a mass of grey mud. Now take some pure color and with the knife gently fold it into the mixture - blending in
some areas and in others leaving a few of the edges sharp. Be liberal with your paint but just use a small
surface ... Allow 40min.
Then there is the dragged dry brush or scumble effect, mainly in the distant sky (dry the oil out of the paint on
blotting paper if you need to).
Or the slick oily in the bottom half of my rose painting (adding more oil or medium to your paint).

Experimenting with paint and texture will provide wonderful moments but try not to make this and end in itself.
Great paintings have a magic that transcend the sum total of their parts.
GO TO ... order and chaos

Art lessons - learn about relationships chaos and disorder in oil painting
6-5 RELATIONSHIPS, CHAOS AND DISORDER
Relationships
We don't just paint 'things' we construct visusl relationships. Now approach a topic of which, in art
(relationships) I have some knowledge. Obviously in life it is otherwise - single and thrice divorced.
Back to safer ground and painting; every element in a painting can only be considered in its relationship with
the other parts. Below in my portrait of Fletcher Christian the parts that draw the eye are usually the areas of
maximum contrast.
This portrait has three competing areas of contrast, the forehead the background and the hands. They create a
triangle and their relationship is crucial. I am still unsure as to whether the distant light is too bright in
relation to the other highlights. Should I dim it and draw the eye more to Christian's face? These are
judgements of relationships. Above I have used three computer devices to analyse the design.
. .. AND USING CHAOS
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I view it like this:
Let us imagine our life as a room and the room has a partition. On one side of the partition is a continually
moving, changing world of disorder and chaos. It is populated by all the creatures of the imagination - and
more than a few not invited. It is a world of the surreal, of dreams and nightmares, of anti-logic and
senselessness. On the other side of our partition we have order, logic and regular forms. The world of the
pyramids, spheres and cubes - the world of habit, pattern and order.
Some people are not comfortable until the partition is forced almost completely to one end of the room (90%
order 10% chaos) while others can live in a 50/50 situation. Some will rejoice in the high chaos while others
believe it is a factor of age, gender, right and left brain, or potty-training. Some even go so far as to refer to it
as the Jeckle and Hyde, Don Quixote or madness syndrome.
I believe we must live with both sides of our existence and recognize the importance of each. We need chaos
to think laterally, to be inventive, to associate disparate ideas and concepts. That is the life blood of the
creative idea. This is not to underestimate the value of pattern, order and habit. They are the very tools that
allow meaning to be drawn from disorder - the foundation blocks of moral and civilized thought and the
flame that draws the fluttering moth.
You will note how, up till now, my lessons have dwelt in the rules and order side of the room in an attempt
to understand the chaos all about us. For some this may have moved the partition a little to the side of order.
Never mind! Just think of what you have learnt so far as your small toolbox with which you can use to
disassemble, reassemble and to analyse whatever your imagination demands. And remember, chaos need not
be feared, used properly it can be used to pick the problem lock.
Experiments in color, design, form and texture are the basis of most of the art movements in the last 150
years. Whether they were abstract expressionism, impressionism, surrealism or post-modernism they are all
attempts at dissembling and re-assembling, of moving into chaos to hopefully discover some new meaning.
We should all similarly experiment especially when we find order stifling creativity ... or the present art
administration becoming institutionalized and self-absorbed.
A study of fractals is useful when allowing the mind passage between order and chaos.
GO TO ... practical painting - paint in
oils
......or back to main lesson list

Basic oil paints - why oil?
6-6 BASIC OIL PAINTING
Painting in oils - what you need to know about the paint.
You can liken making paintings with oil paints as making mud pies with
different color mud or plaster
Why?
Oil paint usually has ‘thickness’ so it can be shovelled, spread, pushed,
trowelled, brushed and scraped - just like plaster or mud. It can be flattened or
piled up ... and much more.
It has all these qualities if mixed correctly. Furthermore it can be made to be spread as thin as gossamer or as
thick as clay.
All this depends on just two things:
a) The thinness or thickness of the paint, called its viscosity
b) The implement you decide to use to push it around - knife, brush, stick, trowel.
So what sort of mud or paint will we make, how dry or how runny?
Oil paint is made up of three main elements.
1. Pigment a powder made from ground rock or earth or root anything dry that is intense in color.
2. Oil (medium)
3. A drier of some sort as oil sometimes takes too long (a thinner)
You can try this:
Go to the kitchen and get a little powdered saffron, powdered red food or
cocoa and add a little oil (sunflower, poppy, walnut, safflower, it dosen't
really matter which) and mix it up with a knife or spoon. You have now
produced a genuine oil paint ( and unlike many others, one you could eat
it without harm). Find some zinc cream (used as a sunscreen) in the
bathroom cabinet and now you have a white oil paint - now some black
boot polish and you have a decent black oil paint.
If it is a little thick or hard to mix you may add a little turpentine,
thinners or petrol which will obviously cause it to mix easier and dry
faster.
Note: it is usually the chemical pigment or the thinners that causes the extremely poisonous nature of most
commercial oil paints (lead, cadmium and arsenic are old culprits). If the powder you use is unusually strong
you might be tempted to add a filler to bolster up the mixture. This could be chalk or ground marble or some
other neutral powder. Student oil paints usually have more filler than Artists' brands. Filler is cheaper than
pigment so you get what you pay for!
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OK, so now what do we do with our mixture? If we
had two lumps of ‘mixture’ (paint) say a red and a
yellow and made them very oily and put them side by
side on a flat surface they would gradually spread out
and merge and take ages to get dry.
So more oil will help paint to blend and merge as oil
is also the lubricant for the pigment and helps it
slide around on the canvas.
How can we reverse this and stiffen up the paint?
We could add more pigment or filler, or we could get rid of some of that excess oil.
How do we remove the oil? By putting the mixture on blotting or absorbent paper and waiting. The paper will
absorb the oil and a little of the pigment. Obviously to make it more runny we could add more oil and to dry
faster and spread thinner we could add turpentine, thinners or petrol.
Get the general idea!
One more thing - we can also add other things that are
mixable with oil like certain resins and varnishes
which will make the mixture sticky and shine and
maybe dry in a layer like a clear plastic sheet. This
might allow what is underneath to shine through. And
when we add a little strong pigment to this sheet we can
maybe make what is called a ‘glaze’. Then again we
could add some egg yolk for a 'matt' type finish.
What now?
Like a potter you have now made you clay, only in your case it is called paint. Instead of water you have added
oil and some pigment and, instead of a wheel, you will be putting your mixture on a flat vertical surface,
although you will mix it on a bench or pallet. There is no rush with your paint though - it is oil based and will
mostly take a long time to dry and this you know you can control adding oil or white spirits.
One main point before you apply your paint; if you first apply a thick layer of paint to your canvas it will take
ages to dry because the oil will have to dry out. If you have ever watched oil dry out you could probably also
hear you own hair growing. When thick paint dries it shrinks and sometimes cracks. So if your first layer of
paint is very thick and you add a thin layers on top of it before it is totally dry it will crack all the layers applied
thereafter - and as it continues to dry the cracks will get bigger - especially if the color on top is darker.
Painters prevent this by painting the thick slow drying layers last and usually begin with thin fast drying paint -
as their background.
'Thick over thin and light over dark' is an old painters saying.
If we don’t want to wait we can paint what is called 'wet in wet'. That means putting wet layers of paint on
other wet layers all in the one session (or over the total time it takes the paint to dry). There can still be hours -
or days until a ‘skin’ forms.
This is an important point as many painters would like to finish their painting quickly and are thereby forced to
paint 'wet in wet'.
STUDENT ACTIVITY: See next lesson. Using someof the pigments, and oils I have mentioned make up a
pallet of colors and paint a small picture. Allow 40min.

GO TO ... OILS CONTINUED
... or lesson menu

Basic oil paints - demonstraition
6-6 BASIC OIL PAINTING CONT.
This lesson is a summation of the practical demonstration I
sometimes give to further explain some of the points made in
the previous lesson. My purpose is to use common
household materials to make an oil painting while my
method of teaching this is similar to those cooking shows
you see on TV. My desire is to familiarize the students with
what 'might' have happened during the 'invention' of oil
painting back in the sixteenth century and thus remove some
of the hesitation from trying the method themselves.
The first thing I do is to search the kitchen and laundry for
the materials I need. It is best if this is done without alerting
other members of the household as they often don't
appreciate your dedication to such an elevated cause.
I describe this lesson as the ultimate alchemy since we are literally going to turn base materials into gold.
Of course the 'gold' we paint is sometimes even more valuable than the gold in the ring on you finger
which you would discover if you tried to purchase Rembrant's 'Man with the Golden Helmet'. It would
certainly cost more today than the helmet itself.
The main ingredients I will use for this recipe are a linen table napkin, artificial saffron, white zinc cream
(prevents sunburn), white shoe polish, black shoe polish, a stick of blue chalk, some sunflower cooking or
salad oil, a pack of drinking cocoa and an egg yolk. I will also use the mortar and pestle from the kitchen
though a glass bottle would do just as well.
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First I find an old frame and stretch the table napkin across the back and staple it in place. Remember to
stretch from the center outwards and not from the corners in.
Next I separate the egg keeping the yolk and mix that with some of the saffron. I paint this mixture on to
the stretched napkin. This seals the surface and gives a nice quick drying yellow surface. Those who have
made mayonnaise will also realize that egg yolk will mix with oil if carefully added and it was most likely
this transition that originally led to the development of oil painting anyway.
Next we can grind the colors with our pestle and mortar and mix the powder with the cooking oil making a
thick paste. You might like to experiment here with your shoe polish and zinc cream to get variations of
the colors you need. You will find that mixing the saffron with the white will quickly give you a rather
powerful yellow.
Next I selected a small silver bowl from the china cabinet (as my household is bereft to anything gold) and
placed it where I might paint it ... in the meanwhile changing the silver to gold. Below you will observe my
efforts. This whole demonstration should only take you an hour at most from making your paints to the
finished article while the student can take as long as they like.

You will find the brush a little more difficult to handle as the pigments are much coarser than the
commercial alternative. Still persevere and you might manage to amaze your friends if not your own
household. After the painting dries you might find it becoming a little dull and lifeless. This is easily fixed
with the application of some ordinary furniture polish or wax ... as has been done with oil paintings for
centuries!
The palette
When I started painting my palette was - red (light red), yellow (yellow ochre), blue (cobalt) and white.
Next I needed some bulk earth colors and purchased burnt and raw sienna and similar umbers. Later I
added some cadmium reds and yellows, a crimson, cerulean and ultramarine blue. Finally I purchased
some transparent colors like alizarin, Italian pink and thalo blue. I stupidly have many colors I never use.
Surface preparation
I will usually paint on anything that will hold paint but it must be dry, flat, rigid and have a little tooth
(roughness). Canvas will also do but it must be laid flat or glued on a board later, otherwise cracking will
occur. I like to underpaint the surface with a couple of coats of gesso. I usually use a flat, thick, water
based white paint with whiting or some other compatable filler to add body. If it is too thin I will
sometimes add PVA glue to bind. If I intend to paint with glazes in the smooth finish traditional manner I
will lightly sandpaper the surface. Make sure the surface is completely dry before using oil paints (two or
three days).
Underpainting
Called the 'imprimatura' or base coat. Use the cheaper opaque ground colors, umbers ochres and siennas
are ideal, and apply thinly with turpentine.
Glazing
Glazes allow light to penetrate the layers and enhance color. They also permit the artist to construct the
painting in stages. I use a glaze 'medium' (the liquid to add to the paint) of oil (stand/linseed or the like)
varnish (resin/alkyd) and sometimes a little white spirit (turpentine). Modern alkyd lacquers dry rather
quickly and may be retarded with more oil or speeded up with the white spirit.
Student Activity: Make a list of other common products you think might be oil based and therefore
compatible with oil. Also nominate those common oil based products that are slow drying and those that
dry quickly. The student should also place some small pools of various oily substances on a sheet of glass

outside and over a number of days observe the different drying times.
GO TO ....PAINTING WITH OILS
CONTINUED
... or lesson menu

Wet-in-wet: painting terminology
6-7 BRUSHES AND KNIVES AND WET IN WET
Here is a simple little (12"x 14") painting that anyone can do if they have a favourite figure they can plonk on a
beach somewhere. I will show you how it is done then you will be able to see what happens when you paint
thin over thick.
1. You will note a pinkish underpainting peeking through the waves. This is because I pre-painted the canvas
with a mixture of light red and alizarin red with a little white to lift it up. At the time I painted this it was my
usual background for seaside studies and I would prepare many such backgrounds all at once. When it was dry
I went to step 2.
2. I squeezed out some Cobalt blue/flake white on the top half of the canvas and some yellow ochre on the
bottom and using the flat of the pallet knife I sawed the paint back and forward across the canvas. Here and
there I added more dollops of white to lighten them but just kept sawing back and forth with the knife. The
secret is to blend, blend and when you think you have blended enough ... blend some more.
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Obviously in some places where I mixed them a lot I made the green you can see, in other places the yellow
dominated. I did this fairly haphazardly only lightening the effect towards the center of the painting. Where it
gets thin the background comes through and gives us a beautiful mauve tint.
3. At this stage everything was fairly bland but I could begin to see shallow water and deeper water, sandbanks
and dry sand,.and a shore line. I just needed to define them. Up till now the paint was fairly thick in places an
the only painting implement I had used was a knife. Next I loaded up the edge of the knife with white/tint of
yellow ochre and dragged it across the canvas tilting it slightly and letting the white be dragged off to form the
waves. (See below)
Note: I placed the waves just above the sandbanks and shallow water. Why? Because waves are formed as deep
water meets shallow water. Where the sand meets the water it gets a little darker. Observing things like that is
what painting is all about. I have probably spent a little too much time observing little things like that instead
of .....

3. For some strange reason I sustained an interruption at this stage of this painting and it was a few days before
I returned to it and plonked in the little girl and the seagulls. For this I used a brush and the darker colors you
see. So what happened when the paint began to dry? (Below) Well the thin brushed on darks of the girl dried
faster than the thicker lights of the background paint. The cracks thus formed allowed the whiter underpainting
of the background to show through.
A few artistic points: Note how I painted a cool shadow but warmed up its center to give it a little vibrancy.
You can do this with larger shadows. Also the costume colors and stripes I added purely for effect. The
cadmium red needed to offset the greens in the water and the cool and warm whites for sparkle.
I have kept this picture to remind me of my stupidity in ignoring a basic principle. It also reminds me of the
days I painted many similar paintings using this particular technique. Strangely enough they were quite popular
in the colder climes.
STUDENT ACTIVITY: Copy the painting above replacing the figure with one of your choice if you like.
Allow 40min.

GO TO ....LIKE A SCUMBLE
Lesson list

Likely to Scumble
6-8 LIKELY TO SCUMBLE
As the judge remarked about my life. ‘Its like paint ... parts are opaque, parts transparent, and parts
somewhere in between, according to how much light is able to pass through the tiny particles of your
credibility.’
But he was right about the paint. It can be opaque, transparent, and somewhere in between, according to how
much light is able to pass throught the tiny particles of pigment. Transparent pigments are like tiny colored
crystals, whereas opaque pigments are like little colored (or white) rocks through which light does not pass.
Example... Broken china or coal.(opaque) rubies, crushed colored glass.(transparent) Opaque paint reflects
light directly from the surface; transparent paint allows light to penetrate beneath the surface,
Opaque paints (siennas, umbers, whites, ochres, and most earth colors generally) give a more convincing
illusion of distance, especially when juxtaposed with a foreground which includes transparent passages for
the darker darks.
The student might think that in this painting (ABOVE) I used transparent paint for the sky and opaque paint
for the foreground... the sea. The reverse is the case. I built up many passages of transparent glazes to create
the depth of the foreground waves. The sky is done in s few earth color scumbles (great word - sounds like
something left after a very high tide or an epithet used to describe the neighbour’s chidren) anyway the
'scumbles' created the milky distance look I desired in the sky. With this understanding, it becomes apparent
that transparent paint allows for the deepest darks, because the light does not bounce off the surface, but
penetrates deeper before being reflected out to our eyes.
A scumble is a thin application of a paint whose basic nature is to be opaque but which is rendered
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Likely to Scumble
semiopaque by the physical thinness of the application (scumble) or by the addition of a transparent
medium. Its thinness allows the background paint to contribute to the painting. The optical effect of
transparent paints or glazes is to retain clarity. The optical effect of opaque paints or glazes is to lose clarity.
Scumbling is the method of applying thin layers of opaque paint.
How is it done? In
the example right I
had all but finished
the painting but I
wanted to put in
some beams of
sunlight. I used a dry
bristle brush with
very little paint and
dragged it across a
surface that was
itself dry. The idea is
not to mix (wet in
wet) with the
underlying paint but
to separate the
particles of pigment
as if they were
floating in the sky.
This is scumbling.
White, thinned with a little medium is painted over a grey of mid-value to create the pallid blue unhealthy
look I wanted in the woman's body here (see below).

Likely to Scumble
So the uses of scumbling are: To indicate atmospheric haze.
To give an illusion of greater textural softness in fabric.
To create the soft complexions of young women or children in portraiture.
For the the gauze cuffs and

Likely to Scumble
shirtfront in this portrait I
used extra thin glazes of
opaque white over darker
passages underneath - until
I got the value I wanted. I
used a bristle brush as I
wanted a cotton gauze; if I
desired a silk then I would
have most likely finished
with a sable.
The effect on the illusion of atmospheric perspective (below). Transparent passages exhibit greater clarity,
an optical sensation peculiar to nearby planes where the least amount of atmosphere is present between our
eyes and the plane in question. More distant planes are viewed through more atmosphere, the density of
which alters the colors and values to a greater extent the greater the distance involved, reducing clarity.

Likely to Scumble
Example .... the boat we used in our lesson on aerial perspective.
Here we could use either of three methods to apply the opaque over-paint. We could charge up a large brush
and work from the horizon outwards, the mixture thinning as we neared the top or bottom. Alternatively we
could just apply it in thin controlled layers waiting for the underneath one to completely dry, trap it with a
glaze and then apply the next scumble etc. The third method involves mixing the paint with a fast drying
medium that would thin out the pigment particles and apply successive coats.
GO TO ... Inspiration
.....or back to main lesson list

Inspiration
6-9 INSPIRATION OR HOW TO GET STARTED
Are you in and artistic Slump?
There are two problems here depending on whether you earn you living as an artist or you do it for
enjoyment or other purposes. In the first instance hunger and finding shelter are great motivational tools. In
the second you need to be obsessional, like knowing you hid a bottle of Jack Daniels around the house but
can't remember exactly where ... and it's 3am ... if only you knew where to start to look?
I suffer both so I find I must plan ahead;
1. Always carry a pair of scissors and be prepared to mutilate any newspaper, magazine or publication that
comes within cutting range, and if none do, you must actively give yourself time to seek them out (10 min
per day minimum). Be a serial cutter and cut out anything that startles, frightens, causes you to pause, gives
you a tightness in the loins or a warm wet feeling, sinks or raises your spirits or any other strong response.
It could well be a line or a drawing a pattern or merely a color scheme. Caution ... don't be selective in what
you look at- and try not to be distracted by reading any of the articles. Many excellent artists have some
difficulty with reading anyway so that is rarely a big professional problem.
2. Put all these cut-outs in a folder.
3. When the folder holds 20 or 30 start a new one. Don't be distracted by trying to catalogue anything ... if
you do, then you are probably a better accountant than an artist.
4. Try and forget about the pictures you have kept - but every now and then, as you relax at the bar, open a
folder and look again. Not only will this make you incredibly popular it will enhance you artistic reputation.
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Inspiration
Gradually certain pictures will begin to echo in your mind. They will haunt your existence like bad
colesterol counts and you will know you must do something about them.
Then, your artistic slump will vanish, just in time for your real torment to begin.
Now it becomes what, how, which combination, what is the essence of the feeling and how do I paint
(describe) it, how do I start? I had a folder here with great color schemes somewhere ... now which one was
that....? How can I encapsulate the feeling, yet be subtle and convincing? What forms/ lines/textures/
patterns/color/ can I apply?
But, just think; when it is all over - and if it all works out brilliantly, you can wildly celebrate, wake up
hungover and start all over again.
Now where did I put that red folder with the picture of Englishman on safari in the pith helmet, the Las
Vegas showgirl and that picture of the Florida swamp ... and the tree monkey ... actually this is the picture I
am painting at the moment.
I reversed the explorer ...
My show girl needed a new face another
headress and longer legs

Inspiration
OK, so now I have combined all the elements including a few others hidden in various places
Plus a monkey and an duck ... when you are on a roll don't even hesitate!
Press for full view.
Now for the fun part ... a name! (but I always had someting in mind, you see, for one of my favourite
paintings was Giorgione's 'The Tempest' - he died and neglected to name it, and for 400 years art historians

Inspiration
have specualted as to the relationship between the two principal players!)
I toyed with 'Dr Livingstone decides to stay put and continue his African studies' or 'A sporting woman
encounters a sporting man and looks away '... but then, like Giorgione, I thought it best not to be too deep.
STUDENT ACTIVITY: Make up and label three folders using your own headings then spend some time
trying to fill them.
GO TO ....Painting glow and light
... or menu

Painting glow and light
6-10 PAINTING GLOW AND LIGHT
Glow is essentially a factor of value rather than color. How is this achieved? Paint a black canvas and let it dry.
On your finger place a little white and with small circular smudging motion apply it somewhere to the canvas. It
should now look like a milky smudge. Next take a pinpoint of paint on the end of your finger and touch it once
in the middle of the smudge. The result is the essence of glow, total value differential as well as the milky area
being a transmission area that will discomfort the eye sufficiently to avoid looking to the point of the light. That
is the why we don't want to look directly at the sun. It is discomforting. For great glow or luminosity you must
set out to discomfort the eye, that is the secret. To do that the transition (the halo) is the key.
Fig 1.Here are a series of milky smudges
Fig 2. When we combine them we create our glow. Note how
I have deliberately offset to white center in an effort to further
disturb the eye.
Fig 3. Now I add a little color (any will do) some dark shapes
between the spectator and the light and a halo. The halo and
spike here are artificial - like the ones made by a camera lens
reflection - it is not the same type of halo in the example
below.
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What discomforts the eye in painting is similar to what discomforts the ear in music. Music is a 'transition'
experience in which time is a fixed element (beat). But the eye roves the painted surface in a manner hopefully
controlled by the painter. The painter may cleverly force a discomfort in much the same manner a jazz musician
will use a discordant note to lay emphasis on a beautiful (intoxicating) chord. What discomforts the eye can be
many things, adjacent compliments, illogical form, concave mirrors or, what I mentioned above, unfocused
edges. (Rothko used fuzzy rectangles to try and induce a extra translucent brilliance to his plain color areas - it
is an old formula).
Why a discomfort? Because the eye naturally avoids looking at bright objects so to paint one the discomfort
must be artificially induced. Painting suns and moons was usually referred to as a 'brave exercise' and avoided
by all but the most accomplished landscape artists (Turner was accomplished while VanGough experimented).
We can never paint surfaces as light as natural light so we must use device and illusion to convince the eye what
it is seeing is a light as it should be... that is the fun of illusion!
Painting glow without showing the light source.
Here the principles are the same with the darks superimposed over the lights.
Detail of morning glow from another painting I did for the 'Bounty' series.
STUDENT ACTIVITY: Do the exercise proposed at the start of this lesson. Allow 20min.

GO TO ... Pearly luminosity
Lesson Menu

Painting a pearly luminosity
6-11 PEARLY LUMINOSITY
There are two factors to consider here if your aim is to achieve that luminous pearly look that dominate certain
landscapes and seascapes. First we must create the 'pearly' look then give it presence and dominance within a
framework (painting). It is the nature of that presence that will make it look luminous.
So what makes a mother of pearl shell look pearly? If you look closely it is merely a high value grey-white
infused with red, blue and yellow or 'rainbow hues' of equal and similar values (above).
To apply this to a painting as I have done below to a sky by Gerome you will see what I mean by a pearly sky.
Obviously its use here is unsatisfactory but the principle was one destined to be developed further by the
impressionists.
The impressionists did this exercise using short brushstrokes laden with impasto paint which produced a
shimmering effect from a distance. You will often notice when people view many impressionistic works in
galleries their main concern is their viewing distance - they will usually move back and forth until comfortable.
I find it good policy to wear stout shoes when visiting such galleries.
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This painting by Monet is an excellent example of an artist employing equivalent value hues, dramatic
contrasts, and uncomfortable undefined edges to achiever that shimmering light the impressionists so loved. It is
important to differentiate the values in the foreground from the background. While the figure of the woman may
seem to almost merge into the sky in fact she is considerably darker. Squint your eyes to better understand the
contrast.
Luminosity is achieved by merely pushing the contrasts until the light dominates everything (below). Many
artists spend their life trying to make their paintings glow ... mine probably glow most when I throw them on the
fire...
... but I never quite give up! Anyway glow isn't everything.
STUDENT ACTIVITY: Collect at least 5 examples of pictures you consider to have 'that glowing quality' and
add them to your folder you created in the lesson titled 'Inspiration'. Allow 40min.

GO TO ... painting portraits

How to paint portraits - some practical advice.
6-12 PRACTICAL PORTRAITURE
A PAGE OF THEORY BEFORE THE PRACTICE
Painting a portrait is quite a personal thing. It
demands that the artist make some sort of
estimation or judgement. The painting opposite a
'detail' from my portrait of John Morgan.
After deciding on the client (if not the sitter), why
the work is commissioned and what scope is the
artist allowed - you then ask yourself:
1. What is the essential character of the sitter?
2. How does the sitter view his or her own
presence in the world?
3. Is there a pose that seems natural and
expressive of the sitter's personality.
4. Are there clothes, uniform, jewellery, favourite
pet, room or setting that may contribute?
5. If asked to draw a caricature of the subject
what features would best define the sitter?
6. Does the client have any favourite photographs
of the sitter (this can be an excellent clue as to
expectations - and also to eliminate the
unwanted!)?
7. Next you must discuss size. Life size? Head
and shoulders with or without hands? Three-
quarter or full length? Vertical, semi-reclining or
reclining?
After answering all these questions and getting some clear idea into your mind I usually ask if there us any role
the sitter might like to play? What historic figure does he or she admire the most? The prospect of painting a man
in a plain suit and tie or a woman in a business suit apalls me. Where is the joy in that? Portraiture can have
elements of narrative, tools of trade, costume etc. Anything is possible. Painting a portrait of a carpenter
(workshop, tools, apron), airline pilot(plane, sky, uniform) or architect(building, drawing board, blueprints) is
obvious, but think of the possibilities for an insurance salesman, banker, used car dealer or school teacher. There
lies the greater challenge - and the greater rewards. This is where portraiture can, and should, and does transcend
photography. The sitter must also be encouraged to imagine ... and believe.
History teaches us a masterpiece makes the sitter famous. We refer to the Mona Lisa, Mrs Siddons or the bust of
Madame Houdon often before we nominate the artist. Who were these people? Who was the Mona Lisa and what
was her life? Make this point to your sitter or client as it is to future generations that the work will be presented,
and it is to them the spirit and life and history of the sitter must be addressed.
Practical considerations:
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Physical likeness - for me this is probably the most enjoyable - if you follow some simple rules and ask yourself
and others the questions the cartoonist asks himself every day. Silently ask yourself (in the presence of the sitter)
what are the most distinguishing characteristics. Then ask yourself the same question later in with the sitter
absent. Try and remember some aspect of the person like thick eyebrows, wavy hair, big ears etc.. Also try and
remember a mannerism like, a pose, smile or use of hands; finally return to the sitter and experiment with some
sketches. If nothing happens don't despair just keep trying and make some more simple sketches to help you. If all
this doesn't work start your painting regardless!
The eyes - I make it a point of detailing the eyes (above in the portrait of Fletcher Christian as a young man). The
eyes are the gateway to the visual world both for the viewer and the sitter. They must be as fine and detailed as
you can achieve (unless the sitter is shy and for some reason seems to avoid looking directly).
A few hints: widen the iris to give a more open and generous face. Add some flesh color to the whites and paint
them as if they were pearls. They must appear round. Be subtle with the highlights. One eye is not the exact
replica of the other. Make them a little different.
The hair - the hair usually separates the head from the background and should not be overworked. Only some
small area showing some individual hair will suffice for an overal hairy effect.
The mouth - if the eyes are the visual gateway, the mouth could be said to be the emotional one - the enigmatic
smile for instance. If the mouth does not obviously describe the sitters emotional disposition then the viewer is
forced to look to the eyes. It is the trick of the Mona Lisa. Leonardo will not allow the viewers eye to settle. He
keeps asking the question. Be careful with the little angles at the corners of the mouth - 45 degrees is the default.
The hands - adding the third element to the 'non-description' of the Mona Lisa are the hands - also in repose. No
clue there either.

Note how, in creating substance, Leonardo does not define many edges - neither on the hands or the face.
The costume - sometimes I paint the costume before the hands, face and anything else. Then I save up my joy for
later when detailing the folds, jewellery adornments etc. That part is relaxing and doesn't require the absolute
concentration needed for flesh.
The background - here you can tell your story or make your narrative. For best practical results try and echo all
the colors you have used for the flesh tones and costume in the background - just echoes in hue not value. Use
value to make the narrative. See lesson on turning points.
A cautionary tale for the discerning student about two Dutch artists and what was fashion!
Two brilliant dutch artists born 300 years apart - one whose work was appreciated and the other shunned, one
who lived in luxury and the courts of kings while the other lived in poverty, one whose art provided happiness

and security while the others' sent him mad. Who would say one was a better artist? Here I have combined two
famous portraits to make the one. I wonder, had they changed places, how then would they have painted?
DRAWING WITH PAINT AND THE INSIDE OUT AND OUTSIDE IN TECHNIQUES
Inside out:
When painting a head and shoulders portrait I usually establish the rough proportions of the sitter by way
of freehand line. I plan the future positions of the areas of maximum contrast and interest. Next I paint the
eyes mouth and nose. In other words I work from inside the overal shapes. As I reach the boundaries I
find they often suggest themselves. Some I might like to edge or define while others I let fade away. In
general it is appropiate to paint inside out if the figure inhabits more than 50% of the canvas and outside
in if it is less.
Outside in - in painting a 'genre' picture or mural (small figures in a large painting) I carefully draw the
shapes and figures and fill them in rather like (cartooning) painting an ancient fresco. My drawing in such
circumstances must establish a rhythm and place (reality).
STUDENT ACTIVITY: As I used the Mona Lisa to discuss the relationship between hands, mouth and eyes the
student should find another example and do the same. Also find the derivation of the word 'cartoon'. Allow 40min.
GO TO ... Painting hair
.....or back to main lesson
list

Painting hair.
7-1 PRACTICAL APPLICATION - PAINTING HAIR
Subject: Driving me hairy
John,
Was writing the other day about women's hair. This one (attached) is giving me problems trying to make
realistic ... thanks.
My reply; You are not having trouble with hair, you are just overdoing its rendering. In a painting hair is not
drawn, it is colored! First decide the general color (try and add a repeat of some deep facial coloring) then block
it in as if it were just another part of the face. Add a few individual hairs (not too many) as they fall across the
forehead, or as the light highlights them. Let the rest suggest themselves. The mind of a sentient needs only the
minimum of clues as too many becomes boring. Any study of Rembrant (in particular his self-portrait 1629)
will sufficiently demonstrate the proper balance.
The facial moulding in the picture you sent me is excellent!
Block in the hair as if it were part of the face - not hair! In general try and create a dark side and a light side of
the face with a definite turning point (see lesson on analysis - Vemeer), and don't be afraid to alter things to
create a feeling in the finished product.
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Painting hair.
This problem goes to the heart of painting and is better discussed with reference to the lesson called 'The Pearl'.
We all know what hair feels like, its texture, its color, its breaking strain, and its usefulness in keeping the sun off
our head. We can love it or hate it. We spit it out with disgust when it invades our mouth and admire it lustre and
beauty when it cascades the bare shoulders of a beautiful woman. All this has everything, and nothing, to do with
painting hair. As I keep pointing out the concept of something must be married with its scientific reality before
you can truly paint it.
Before we open our tool box of painting techniques and deal with the problem of the hair let us recall the pearl as
it provides us with an example that explains the rules a painter uses to render convincing existence.
Are the pearls real?
Things only exist as they relate to other things. Without light (place the pearl in a dark room) the pearls will
cease to exist. The question is - without light does everything cease to exist? Does an ant need to be a
mathematician to know it walks on six legs? If it can only count to five does it mean it must walk with a limp?
For the painter the answer is yes. Like Einstein's famous equation light is everything to the artist, the great
unifying constant.
In the lesson on the pearl, by beginning with the room, the window, the table, and the observer I first created an
environment (for variation I selected objects with both curves and straight lines). It is always useful to create the
environment first. - either in the imagination or by physical positioning. Since it is semi-reflective the manner the
pearl interacts with this environment becomes the 'reality' of the pearl. The painter lives his or her life by
investigating relationships between objects under the influence of light. The painter's job is the discovery of the
general rules and their employment in creating an imagined reality - that is the joy for the boundries are endless.
But the mortal truth you ask? Who wants the truth? Let us sweep that off the table and crush it like a bug!
Dangerous stuff eh? No wonder artists sometimes lose their grip in reality!
Mmm ... so to paint the hair we must create its environment?
There are really only four elements in this picture. The face, hair, background and the light. Unfortunately the
face is front lit which restricts any opportunity for secondary light effects or a nicely modulated turning point.
First I will slightly smooth the facial contours as they will otherwise compete to much with the hair and
background.

Painting hair.
Next I create a background echoing all the colors in the face and the darks in the hair. Now you can see the
problem. As soon as the background was applied (Fig 4) the hair, although nicely rendered, becomes a foreign
object ... and excessively light.
It is not major problem however.
Let us separate the hair and apply a screen tint of a warm dark. Say value 2 at 50% for the more mechanically
minded. With paint I would simply use a alizarin - raw umber glaze. Note how the texture is not lost. Saves
work later. Next is the favourite part - soften the edges and lose some of the texture.

Painting hair.
Explanation: the human mind does not like to be overloaded with too much detail, particularly in painting. It
revels in its ability to complete the picture without help, and it must be allowed the (hazy bits) to do this. The
degree you allow this says something about your estimation of your proposed audience.
My rule is to always assume they are smarter than you, in other words leave plenty of for the imagination.
Fade in fade out...
STUDENT ACTIVITY: Find two examples of paintings where detail is overdone and two more where it is
insufficient - in your opinion! Allow 40min.
GO TO ... skin colors
......or back to main lesson
list

Art lessons - learn about skin-coloring in portrait painting
7-2 SKIN COLORS OR FLESH TONES
I wrote this lesson in response to a number of letters - to quote but one;
'Some people have difficulty mixing what are called "skin colours." I have seen portraits where no flesh tones
were used at all (somewhat like the dutch painter example in your lesson). How do you actually decide what
values and hues you will use for a certain person's skin tones? Do you think "cool" and "warm" colours? Do you
decide the hue based on the shadowed colours or the colours in the light, or perhaps you use some other
method?'
My Reply; The meat of a cooked crab is a delicacy but the environment of the crab itself, and its food, are quite
too revolting to contemplate ... which brings me to the skin color or flesh tones of the pale-skinned European
and the pallet most suitable for their rendition.
My guide is this: 'find the nearest color matches to the bodily fluids, add the hues of arterial and congealed
blood, and the blue of a good deep bruise, line them up carefully and you will have a pallet suitable for the
finest of skins'.
Without being too specific yellow ochre, raw and burnt umber, light red, rose madder, cobalt blue and white
seem to work well enough. Sometimes a transparent yellow and naples yellow can also be useful. Strangely, this
pallet also seems sufficient for African and Asian skin colors.
Painting skin color, throughout history, has been more an exercise in fashion rather than anything else. Today
the brown suntanned flesh is attractive to the northern races while the pallid sun-shy color seems desirable
among darker skinned people. This may derive as much from envy or our fashion industry as from anything
else. For sexual allure the rounded shapes that denote health and vitality are probably far more powerful than
the hue - and if they come in pairs even more so.
I learned a lot by trying to paint people of various races, and by discerning the similarities as well as the
differences. The first thing I learned was that there is no such thing as a formula for skin color. Skin has texture
and this can alter if it is wet or dry, male or female, old or young. Skin, glistening under an oily sweat - as say
with a 'black' body-builder - could create a totally different look than the skin of a 'white' Scottish damsel
reclining under an umbrella in a summer country garden. How do we discriminate? Texture is a product of edge
definition and sharpness of the reflected light (see lesson on texture).
Whereas the body-builder may create forms like polished ebony the skin on the damsel may well be bone
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colored - but we know they both have the same flesh; the same muscle and tissue structure underneath!
We often use warm and cool tones when painting flesh. The artist's general rule is warm light - cool shadows
and cool light - warm shadows. This is an artificial rule often used by professionals to give vibrancy to a
painting. Note the cool bluish greys in the facial shadows below.
Goya
OK, let's get specific for the anglo-saxon or white european. Forgetting the light source rose madder was the
color the masters used for the cheeks of their feminine subjects. Yellow ochre, the siennas and the umbers were
the base and ultramarine was usually the blue. The rest is just modulated tone. These were all mostly all
inexpensive pigments. Today rose madder is often repalced by a colorfast alternative. This same formula can be
applied to the darker skinned - but with the absence of most of the red hues - a little blue added to the highlights
will also assist.
Blood is red. Hold your hand before a powerful light and what do you see? You see a deep glowing cadmium
red. A bruise is blue. It is the rupture of blood vessels that turn the captured un-oxygenated blood blue. Both
effects are beneath the epidermis which in pale skin is more transparent in the European than in the African.
Technically the red 'blush' of the cheeks or elsewhere is the red of oxygenated blood under a semi-transparent
layer of skin (epidermis). Very rarely does the artist have an opportunity to use this effect. I did once. I painted
a picture where the hand of the subject was directly in the way of the sun. I made the outline white, the
secondary outline a bright red and quietly darkened the center (much like a sunset). It created a powerful effect
and became the focal point of the painting. So much so I was enticed to forget about everything else. Dear oh
dear! One for me and not the client. I must admit the client liked it also and kept it - and I agreed! Professional
stupidity in many ways but at the time I needed the money.

The blue of the bruise should not be so powerful as to denote the bruise but rather the shadow shadow of flesh.
The same blue you might use for the jaw of a close-shaved jaw. This is the warm and cold. With an alabaster
skin tone the hint of the grey-blue is sufficient to make the shadow. See Boucher and other French artists of the
1700's.

Above is an example of my deliberate abandonment of any warm flesh tints. The addicted girl is raised from the
mire .... As a student I was once given white, payne's grey, raw umber and burnt sienna and told to paint a cup
and saucer on a white table cloth. Since then flesh colors became less of a problem. Anyone familiar with make-
up (scumbling for artists) should have no problems.
STUDENT ACTIVITY: Television has come to make most people believe flesh color is more red/orange that
it really is. Why is that? Explain in 200 words.
GO TO ... painting John Morgan and Grandson

How to paint portraits - some practical advice - 4.
6-12 PRACTICAL PORTRAITURE 4
THE PORTRAIT OF JOHN MORGAN AND GRANDSON
John Morgan and his wife Robyn own and operate a large earthmoving and road-making company. John has
always been a 'hands on' manager and is often happiest working alongside his men and is attired accordingly.
His grandson Sam takes after his Grandfather, whom he follows around whenever he can. He tries to do all
those things his grandfather does and is a born mimic in this regard. So much so John bought Sam a battery and
gear operated little four-wheeled vehicle of his own. The three-year-old Sam is remarkable in his ability to
maneuver his little vehicle 'just like his grandfather'. Needless to say a firm bond exists between the two.
After assembling all my sketches, color notes and photographs of the subjects I set about thinking of how
exactly I was going to fit both into the one painting. I finally decided on an arrangement that would combine
them by their similar facial expressions that leave no doubt as to their closeness. They are posed to look out of
the picture as if challenging the world to view them in their space as they would view the world.
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You will note the huge difference in skin-tone between the weather-beaten and tanned John, and the milky
fairness of Sam. His skin is very pale, his eyes blue and hair fair. Nevertheless I used the same palette for both.
I began the painting with an imprimatura of raw umber which I allowed to dry. I then drew in my figures using
charcoal. Next I worked the deepest shadows with a thin mix of raw umber and cobalt blue with a little light red
where I wanted a little temperature variation.
Working up with a slightly thicker mixture I started blocking-in the semi-tones. This is the stage that should
take the longest and the painter taking great care to get all the values correct. Keep working them towards the
light by adding a higher value color as well as introducing as many interesting tonal variations you can.
Now I can work and blend my shadow planes with a thicker mix of light red, naples yellow and raw sienna
being careful not to bring the highlights up too soon. As I am doing all this I will usually wipe excess paint from
my brush on the canvas around the figures.
When I am satisfied with my shapes and planes I will begin to detail some of the features, mouth, eyes, nose
and hair with a small brush and a 'long' easy flowing mixture of paint.
Now I will add the highlights to the face glasses and hair. John lost an eye in his 20's therefore the slight
difference in the eyes.

Finally I add the simplest of all backgrounds, an atmospheric mix of light and darks composed entirely of all the
colors I have already used. This also generally cleans up my palette nicely.
STUDENT ACTIVITY: Print out a copy of the painting and nominate all the shifts in value by placing a
number from 1 to 10 on the specific areas. Refer back to the lesson on colors if you are in doubt as to what is
meant by color 'values'.
GO TO ... Classical portraiture

Learn to paint pearls - a basic lesson in looking
FIRST THE PEARL - A LESSON IN HOW TO LOOK AT THINGS
An apprentice painter might learn how to hold a brush, mix colors or how to use a palette knife, but it
matters nothing if the same person does not learn how to 'look' at things, and to look with the eye of
someone who wants to explain the world in terms of paint. After many years of learning to 'look' we come to
understand the nature of things and how they relate to each other.
This first lesson is an entertaining introduction to give you some idea of what I mean by 'looking'. Don't be
too worried if the world I now introduce seems alien at first, because as you progress with the lessons, you
will begin to understand that the real joy of painting is not so much occupying your hands, as truly
understanding the laws, the lights and shades, and the memories of all the things around you.
OK, I think I remember what a pearl looks like. Ah, its been so long between pearls. I will try to construct
one from memory, first principles and logic.
To begin, let us imagine the largest pearl in the world sits on a red table in a room with a blue ceiling. I am
the viewer and I view the perl from the front while behind me is a window. Outside it is a fine bright sunny
day.
Now if the pearl was someone elses 'eye' we must imagine what it would see!!.
It would see me, basic and a little crude - but that dosen't matter at this stage?
The window in the same condition.
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Together ...
Add a blue ceiling, some walls and a red table (this is roughly what the pearl would see if it could see). Next
we squeeze it into a round shape (with a computer this is easy, in a painting you would work backward.) I
am a little disappointed at this stage as it looks rather raw and nothing like a pearl. But, staring failure in the
eye, we must proceed (forever faithful to our logic).
So lets us rid ourselves of the black edges. Then, since a pearl is not a perfect mirror, I will blur
everything ...

Now we can and add a little milky screen (I somehow remember pearls are a little milky, aren't they?)
Still too much saturated color and dark values - so maybe another yellowish screen (glaze) ...
OK ; Now let's cut it out and give it a hard edge ... as it is not made of fur! (later we will look at a lesson on
how edge effects texture) ...

That's looks better. Now for the suggested table and ceiling
But can't I have a string, seeing I made it myself?

Why, I'm virtually rich! So why can't a pauper have a millionaire's imagination? I expect any artist can
always be rich beyond the dreams of mere mortals, the difficulty becomes one of keeping reality in plain
view.
PS. I am concerned you may think I am confusing computer graphics with oil painting. I am not as this is a
lesson about 'looking'. In either case we must still learn the essence or nature of things before we can make
them - using paint or computers. With our 'pearls,' as with the world, that is the starting point, and
remember, everything exists in relationship to light and other things nearby. The rest is simple logic - either
with a brush or computer. OK, lets look some more into the world of the painter.
STUDENT ACTIVITY: Draw and color your own string of pearls using oil pastels or crayons. Hint ... use
a toned paper for background. Allow 40min.
GO TO ... looking into a deeper, deeper world
.....or back to lesson list

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