A good drawing that delights the masses is almost impossible to create without knowing the basics of painting. Of course, contemporary art proves the opposite: works made by an elephant sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, or two brush strokes that remind someone of a starry sky. But is such art forever? Most likely no. But “Mona Lisa” or “Madonna and Child” - these paintings were created a long time ago, but still delight the viewer. What needs to be done to learn the basics of painting?
Where to begin
Before you sit down to create a masterpiece, you need to study some theory. It is also very important to catch your muse or think in advance what will be shown on the canvas. But first of all, every artist must take care of his workplace.
Of course, in the modern world there is a huge amount of materials on which you can create - from a regular sheet of paper to a graphics tablet. And each person should choose for themselves 1-2 ways to create paintings that he likes the most. If it is an easel, then the room should have enough space for the canvas itself and its fastening.
Tip: do not draw on a horizontal surface. The vertical will be much healthier, and an angle of at least 30-40 degrees will help to better apply paint.
Art supplies
In addition to enough space and an easel, a person will need various paints, pencils, pastels, brushes and water. In general, everything that can come in handy for creating a picture. This should be all at hand, but not so close that you can easily touch the elbow.
At the initial stage of creating an image, only pencils of different softness can be kept nearby. Even if you can create sketches in one day, it will be useful to walk a bit for materials and tools for painting. This will ventilate the head and, perhaps, a person will look at his work from a different angle, which will allow him to see some flaws even before the paint is applied.
Workshop lighting
Studying the basics of painting, you can understand that sometimes a color of just a couple of shades can differ from the ideal and look completely ridiculous. That is why working on a painting is necessary only under natural light. Best if it is the sun. But if there is no way to create during the day, then you can put powerful lamps that mimic sunlight.
Although such lamps practically do not distort color reproduction at all, their maintenance is very, very expensive. Therefore, the budget will work in the daytime near the window. This is one of the first lessons of the basics of painting.
Practice and imagination
In addition to obtaining knowledge, it is necessary to develop creative qualities in yourself. Studying the basics of painting does not give guarantees in the future creation of masterpieces. Very often in this creative profession a crisis arises for the artist due to the fact that he simply does not know what to draw.
One way to develop your imagination is to attend classes taught by famous artists. For example, you can sign up for the most popular oil painting workshop in Moscow. There are also remote webinars. But it’s better to attend events live, this will allow you to chat with other artists.
And it is also worth noting that a large number of practices can improve your imagination. If a person does not know what to draw, you can draw everything that catches your eye. Or even try to reproduce world masterpieces. As appetite comes during lunch, so the muse to the artist appears during the creative process.
Tip: not everyone wants to rewrite other people's paintings, in this case, you can try to recreate the same story, but in a different genre.
Theoretical foundations of painting
Despite the fact that practice is very important, without a theory a person can spend tens of years to come to perfection. But why make such sacrifices if in the modern world there are many free sources with the basics of painting and drawing. For starters, it's worth exploring the graphic moments.
Straight lines, circles, even ovals of the face - all this the artist must be able to draw without improvised means. Of course, you can use the compass to portray a plate, but then it will not have individuality and realism. Perhaps Malevich would not have become so famous if he had not drawn his famous squares by hand.
To learn how to create geometric shapes, it will take practice. It is best to take an easel every day and draw lines and circles. If an artist cannot force himself to study, then it is best to go through any school of drawing.
Black and white drawing
After the student has mastered the geometric shapes, you can begin to more complex foundations. Almost every future artist plans to create his masterpieces not in a flat space. And for this you will need to learn to see light and shadow.
Of course, even a child knows that any object is perceived differently, depending on how far it is located and how much light falls on it. To convey volume on a canvas during a sketch, you must use techniques such as hatching and grouting. By the way, this is also taught in any school of drawing.
Do not devote too much time to the draft. The most important thing is to schematically depict objects and catch the black and white drawing of the whole picture.
What is composition in painting?
The next piece of knowledge for the artist should be questions about the future. First of all, you need to learn how to create the so-called well. Using various pressure from the pencil, draw intertwining circles of arbitrary diameters. The whole structure should resemble a well from a top view. That is, the largest and largest bright circles are located at the top, and the deeper the picture, the weaker the pressure and the smaller the circle. With such a simple exercise, the artist will learn to portray perspective.
An equally important basis in the composition is the “Rule of Thirds”. Conventionally, the image is divided into three parts of the same size vertically and horizontally. For the first time creating a picture, such a grid can be drawn with a faint pressure. Those points that turned out due to the intersection are ideal for the location of the object.
The meaning of this rule is that it is precisely in these places that a person first of all involuntarily looks.
Creating a picture from nature
Before you start creating a full-fledged work, you should decide on the genre of the picture. For your first masterpieces, it is best to use fruits, vegetables, flowers and other improvised means.
After the artist has decided on the genre, you can begin to staging. It’s necessary to arrange the inventory immediately beautifully and accurately, as this will greatly simplify the work. It is worth noting here that it is advisable to place objects given the existing lighting. Although you can use additional sources, for example, to create soft or, conversely, contrasting shadows.
Tip: for better assimilation of the material, it would be nice to go to open lectures, where famous artists clearly show how to arrange and draw from life. A great option for visiting is a master class in oil painting, which takes place annually in Moscow. By the way, it can be visited online.
The spatial properties of color
After the sketch has been drawn, you can proceed directly to the creation of the picture itself. Before decorating the drawing, it is worth carefully presenting the final result and choosing the necessary gamut. In the future it will be much easier if all the necessary shades are created in advance.
Each artist should be able to combine colors, but such a skill is developed only after a few years of constant work. To avoid the most common mistakes, such as a combination of acid green and pearl brown, you can use color circles. To create the best collaborations, two opposite shades are taken. But if it is necessary to combine three or four colors, then the desired number of shades is selected, which are located next to each other, on the same strip.
While the mixing of colors in painting is a rather individual topic, nevertheless, it is worth approaching the selection of shades with all responsibility.
Types of prospects
Despite the fact that the position of the object affects its black and white pattern and size, the shade of the object also changes. All distinguish two main types of perspective. After creating the sketches, the artist will already understand which method of creating the picture to choose.
Direct linear. This kind of perspective is designed to fix the vision at one point. An example is an alley along a road. The trees that are closest to the artist will seem taller and more powerful than those that are located somewhere in the distance. Perspective on paper works in exactly the same way. But besides this, it is necessary to depict the vagueness of objects. That is, the farther the tree, the lighter / darker it will be. And also it is necessary to change the contrast, muffling distant objects.
Tonal perspective. In this version of creating a picture, the circle is taken as the basis. Having depicted the main object, around it you need to mentally imagine a circle, beyond which changes will occur. The farther the parts are located, the less contrast they will be. This type of perspective resembles the very well that was described above.
Floristics in painting
After the artist has figured out all the basics, you can proceed to a more in-depth study. It is worth remembering that each theory is reinforced by practice. And the more a person draws, the faster he will achieve perfection.
Floristics in painting is primarily a circle, which was discussed above. It includes spectra of shades in which the transitions of the entire rainbow are recorded. Any color wheel contains gray in the middle. This is because it is precisely this shade that is considered neutral in painting.
In total, there are three primary colors - of course, red, yellow and blue. They are necessary in order to create any shade. But this is only in theory, in practice it is quite difficult to choose the necessary proportions of each for a perfect combination. But still, three new colors, using only the base, can be created easily - it is orange, purple and green. Thus, a novice artist can not spend a lot of money to buy all kinds of shades.
Cold and warm shades
Also, for the successful combination of colors and their use in painting, it is necessary to distinguish them by temperature. This is done very easily. To begin with, we take an already familiar circle so that the brightest yellow tint is located at the top. Now the artist will see only warm colors on the right side and cold colors on the left. Moreover, all the shades from these spectra are well combined with each other.
To choose the most harmonious two shades, you can spend a little experience. Choosing the opposite colors, it is necessary to recreate them as accurately as possible in reality. After that, a small amount of paint from each shade is mixed with each other. If you get a gray color, then the artist perfectly matched the palette.
Of course, in practice it is almost impossible to achieve such an effect, but if the result is an approximate shade, then this can already be considered a success.
To draw a masterpiece, most likely, you will have to spend many years. But this does not mean that we must give up and give up. Perhaps the paintings that will be painted during their studies will already delight the audience. In any case, you should focus on your heart, and not on the opinion of the crowd.