146 Pages of inspiration and practical advice!
How to draw & Paint in pencils, oils, acrylics & more!
FOURTH edition
over in-depth TUTORIALS INSIDE!
Top artists show you how to get the best from acrylics, gouache, oils and much more
Improve your...
Drawing expertise Masterclasses in anatomy, colour and composition
fOURTH edition
Digital Edition
Master new ways to draw and Paint in pencils, oils, acrylics & more!
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Master new art skills
Artist insight
Charcoal Find out how to improve your sketches
Learn new techniques
find shape Use geometry to achieve accuracy
paint mixes
Embrace a unique colour scheme
alla prima Ethereal effects in a single layer
Acrylics Tips and tricks for going further with these vibrant paints
Watercolours Easy ways to make more of this versatile medium
Gallery 06
T raditional artists
An inspiring showcase of the finest artists around
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Artist’s Studio 20
Inside artists’ workspaces
Take an exclusive peek inside leading artists’ studios
Core Skills 30
Sketching basic animal shapes
Brynn Metheney helps you capture essential forms
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Understanding skeletons
Getting the skeleton’s shape and gesture correct
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Depict muscle groups accurately
Simplify complex muscle groups into basic shapes
Techniques
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Drawing animals in action
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H ow to paint with watercolours
Use line of action and gesture to pose animals
Get the best results with this tricky medium
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Depicting animal colour and detail
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H ow to paint with acrylics
Capture the colour and ornamentation of animals
Started with these versatile and affordable paints
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Anatomy masterclass
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Going further with acrylics
Focus on form for expressive human renditions
Learn advanced and experimental techniques
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Colour thumbnailing
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Get going with gouache
Devise an effective colour scheme from the start
Demystifying the curious medium of gouache
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Using a master artist’s palette
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Mixing a gouache palette
Paint using the palette of a 19th-century master
Find out how to create a harmonious colour scheme
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Using the colour of your imagination
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G ouache layering & workarounds
Paint with colours from the imagination
Explore the idiosyncracies of gouache
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R endering form using colour
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Control your edges in gouache
Use colour temperature to render forms
Learn the importance of edge control
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Practical Painter
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Getting started with oils
Boost your knowledge of this age-old medium
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A rrange and mix your oils
Sort your palette and mix paints correctly
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How to apply your oil paints
the best tricks for applying paint on canvas
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Canvas stretching and setting up
Prep your surfaces for oil painting
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Techniques for painting in oil
Focus on shapes in order to paint a portrait
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How to mix paints
Explores colour theory and for prepping paints
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Workshops
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Bring a fantastical fairytale to life
ran Nguyen gives us insights into creating our cover T image using acrylics and coloured pencils
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Painting wet into wet with gouache
ao Pham mixes watercolour techniques with B gouache to create a peaceful and vibrant painting
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Learning from the Old Masters
oward Lyon demonstrates how studying Old H Masters can give us insights into their techniques
108 Create motion effects in pen and ink
Download your free resources… Work-in-progress images and videos Study our artists’ image files in detail, and watch them work in exclusive videos • Bao Pham See this watercolour and gouache painting evolve in time-lapse
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• howard lyon Find out how to focus on key shapes to paint a portrait Wherever you see this symbol, there are resources available for you to download
ocar Myles demonstrates an ink technique that S favours value over line, to create beautiful lighting
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Get planning for alla prima oils
ollow Rob Rey’s workshop as he achieves this F distinctive wet-into-wet look
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Improve your charcoal art
queeze greater artistic expression out of charcoal S and blenders with techniques from Patrick J. Jones
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Be expressive with watercolour
arc Taro Holmes shows you how to turn traditional M media to your advantage
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Draw accurate bones and muscles
tan Prokopenko helps you get to grips with the S human skeleton and muscle structure
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G et more from your life models
atrick J. Jones takes us behind the scenes of his P photoshoots and shares his tips for useful results
Practical Painter
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Photo gear is my big weakness. This is a mix of modern and vintage equipment, but almost all of it sees use.
An original Sam Weber from his Lord of the Flies collection. This was the first sizeable painting I ever bought and is still one of my favourites.
Soft sculpture by Dena Obaza, titled Nobody Puts Tree Trunks in the Corner. The crowns were unrelated, but I like them there.
I’ve always had bad posture and used to have tension in my lower back pretty frequently, but this stool seems to help quite a bit. Also, it looks like something from Bag End.
Artists reveal the spaces where they create art
David Palumbo
The easel life The Philadelphia-based illustrator talks cats, camera gear and costumes as he opens his studio doors My studio setup occupies what would normally be the dining room portion of your typical South Philadelphia row home. It’s not a large space, though the high ceilings, massive mirror (came with the house, that’s how they do it in South Philly) and plenty of daylight make it feel expansive.
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My previous studio area was the size of the rug pictured here, so I’m happy to be able to stretch my arms out. Speaking of mirrors, the small one in that closet door (to the left of the tall bookcase) is very useful for quick mirror-checks on my paintings. Everything that I need for an average day’s work is here (aside from my computer,
which is in another room). Fresh brushes and tubes of paint are right next to my easel. Art books are all around, for inspiration and reference. Camera gear is sprawling out above the bookshelf and boxes of props and costumes are in the closet behind my painting station. I tend to listen to music and watch movies while working, so the stereo is just two paces to the right. I like to keep furniture simple. My easel is the same simple A-frame I’ve owned since college, slightly modified so it can travel in my car. My lights and work table are cheap hardware store purchases. I have a tripod for holding reference printouts.
Four years so far and we still haven’t gotten to updating a single thing in that kitchen. Does it show?
Artist’s Studio David Palumbo
I like to keep assorted skulls and bones nearby for reference. The beauty of the organic forms and seemingly fractal details are really inspiring. These are mostly from antique marts.
Though I stopped collecting some years ago, I still enjoy listening and owning some of my music on vinyl. The record shelf is something I built that somehow hasn’t fallen apart quite yet.
Of course, the studio’s best features are the cats, who keep me company. Roy is the tuxedo, posing with such dignity in front, while Bones (orange) and Manos (black) plot mischief in the kitchen. David is an award-winning illustrator and fine artist who works primarily in genre fiction and fantasy gaming and is probably best known for his book covers and gaming cards. See more of his work at www.dvpalumbo.com. I get anxiety when multiple jobs are due and I can‘t decide which has highest priority. So I stack open jobs as Post-it notes next to my easel and move them up and down by due date, to stay on top of my work.
I use a simple A-frame easel with six 100-watt daylight bulbs (three to a side). These are the same lights I use to photograph my work, so colour is consistent. I hang reference from a tripod next to my easel and keep fresh brushes in easy reach. A cheap rug keeps the floor clean. Here’s my paint setup. The brushes are all Loew Cornell Golden Taklon and the palette is glass. I bought this shelf from a Home Depot for a workshop that was short of equipment, then replaced my old thrift-store night stand with it.
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Drawing skills
Pencil
Depict muscle groups accurately Brynn Metheney explains how seemingly complex muscle groups can be simplified into large basic shapes, helping build up an animal’s form
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ertebrate anatomy is consistent, and you’ll notice that muscle groups between different animals are similar, if not the same. Just as with the skeletons in our previous lesson, it’s only shapes and sizes that vary – with a few differences, vertebrate bodies all share the same basic muscle systems. When drawing muscle studies of animals, start out with a wireframe and then basic skeleton gesture. Using a harder lead for this will help keep the
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drawing light and workable as you move forward with your muscle study. You’ll notice that my canid skeleton isn’t detailed, but the gesture and proportions are in place so that I can build on top of this with my red Col-Erase pencil. These pencils are great because you can easily range from dark to light – and they’re erasable, which is handy as you search around for shapes. They do wear down quickly, though. If you’re drawing from life, it’s a good idea to have a few ready to go with sharpened tips, just so you can
Create a wire frame
Wire frames are the easier way to jot down an animal’s pose. This technique is not only useful for foundation drawing like this, but also life drawing at the zoo.
Add a bit of detail
With my wireframe in place, I can introduce a few details. These details are what I call landmark bones, such as the scapula, the ribs and the great trochanter. These are bones where muscle groups attach.
Artist insight Draw through forms It’s important to not get caught up on the edge of the subject. Remember that what you’re drawing is a living, breathing animal and it exists in 3D space. Draw around and through those forms to add more weight and volume.
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n 2H and HB Caran d’Ache Grafwood pencils n Acid-free sketchbook paper n Red Col-Erase pencil n Kneaded eraser
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We need a skeleton to attach these muscles to, so I begin with my 2H pencil and lay out a quick gesture. This is of a canid (a dog) walking. I’m not worried about detail; I just want the shape, proportion and motion.
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Materials
I keep my touch light here still. I’m only looking for landmarks that’ll help inform where my muscles need to attach to the skeleton.
switch them out quickly and not waste time sharpening. You’ll notice that once I have my skeleton in place, I lay in basic muscle groups. As you study more animal and human anatomy, you’ll begin to look for these landmarks in your drawing. Brynn specialises in creature design, fantasy illustration and visual development for film, games and publishing. She lives and works in Oakland, California. www.brynnart.com
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Artist insight Muscle groups When I draw muscle groups, I’m thinking only about large shapes, not muscle detail. This keeps things simple and helps you see the entire shape of the animal in correct proportions.
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Pencil tip The animator’s go-to!
The Col-Erase pencil is perfect for studies because it’s waxy and allows for light and dark sketching. It comes in a range of colours.
Large groupings
This is probably the most valuable and important step. We know that there are complicated muscle systems in place, but we really just want to find the major shapes so we can begin to see the whole form of the animal. Using an HB pencil, I lay in those large groups over my skeleton.
I begin to find those smaller muscle systems inside of the larger muscle groups. I’m always looking to see where the muscle is attaching to the bone.
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Break into systems
Now that I’ve got my basic shape, I find those muscle systems around the body. This is where anatomy textbooks will inform you. Remember that muscles pull from bone. They’re directly attached, and push and pull the skeleton around.
Adding detail such as texture and value can help make your study more readable. The advantage of using different colours in pencil is that you can always reference both the skeleton and the muscles, to see where they’re attached.
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Finishing up
It’s time to find those muscle details. I add some detail and show the different ligaments and textures of muscle. This helps show the direction in which things move around. I’m careful to keep my pencil loose so as not to lose that “flow” as I draw.
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Techniques
Core skills
How to paint WITH acrylics Versatile, vibrant and affordable, acrylics can be painted on almost anything. BRYNN METHENEY explains how to get started with acrylic paints
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crylics are fast-drying paints that can be used straight from the tube, like oil paints, or can be thinned with water, like watercolour. They are extremely versatile and vibrant, offering the artist a wide range of textures, colours and consistencies to work with. Acrylics are also affordable, making them ideal for covering large areas with paint. Because these paints are opaque and fast-drying, they can be very forgiving, allowing you to cover up mistakes with more paint. Acrylics can be painted on almost anything and dry into a water-resistant surface. While you need to be aware of how quickly they dry, acrylics can be blended beautifully. The heavy body
colour of acrylics is buttery and smooth, blending on the canvas almost like oils. Because they basically dry into a plastic surface, they are ideal for using in multimedia painting as well. You can keep acrylics workable by spraying them lightly with water from an atomiser. Slow-drying acrylics, such as Atelier Interactive Acrylic Paints, have recently appeared on the market, which you can even reactivate using a special Unlocking Formula if needed. Here we’ll begin by introducing you to four brush shapes that will be useful in your journey into acrylic painting, and give you a quick guide to what each shape can be used for. We’ll also cover how to care for your brushes – which is an especially important factor in acrylic painting.
Opaque and fast drying, these paints can be very forgiving, letting you cover up mistakes
I’ll introduce the paints I use too. Every artist has a favourite brand and I encourage you to look into what you enjoy working with. Our tips can be put into practice with any heavy body acrylic paint, student or professional grade. Simple techniques such as mixing and misting are also introduced to help you get started with this wonderfully versatile and rewarding medium. Once you’re up to speed, turn the page to discover more advanced techniques using acrylic paints... Brynn specialises in creature design, fantasy illustration and visual development for film, games and publishing. After ten years in Oakland, she has recently relocated to Long Beach, California. See more of her work at www.brynnart.com
LEARN THE BASICS
Materials Paints n Golden Acrylic Paints n Golden Gesso & Ground n Golden Gel Medium (Gloss) n Golden C.T. Interference Green-Blue Medium n Golden Polymer Varnish
Get started with acrylics, from choosing your brushes to fundamental techniques
Surface n Canvas Panel n Mat Board Brushes n Nylon acrylic brushes, Art Store brand: Flat 16, Fan 4, Filbert 12, Round 6 Other n Palette knife n Blackwing Palomino pencil n Paper towels n Misting bottle
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Brushes
Acrylic brushes tend to be made from synthetic materials and can be used with a variety of mediums. Oil brushes and watercolour brushes should not be used. It’s important to have a good variety of brushes, from small to large. You’ll soon learn which you’re more comfortable with, but these four are some of the more common shapes you’ll encounter. The Filbert brush is a great all-purpose brush that can offer a straight or rounded shape.
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Paints
For this lesson, I’m using golden acrylics, which I like because of their buttery texture and ability to hold up to a lot of water. These are considered “Heavy Body Acrylics”. I’d encourage you to experiment with a variety of brands to see which one you enjoy working with the most. Acrylic paint is essentially plastic – more specifically, pigment suspended in a polymer emulsion. You can break that emulsion with too much water, so take care when thinning it out.
Artist insight Acrylics Artist insight
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Mixing
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Gesso
Mixing paints is a precise process. It’s good to know your colour wheel here because you’ll be mixing very specific colours as you work. Red and yellow can be combined to make a variety of oranges. Add in some green and you’ll get brown and burnt umbers. Using a palette knife, a plastic knife, or even an extra brush is ideal. Mix thoroughly and remember that some paints can dry a slight shade darker.
Gesso is a white paint mixture used as a ground for painting with both acrylics and oils. Linen is stretched for canvas and then painted with gesso to provide a smoother, more resistant surface for the paint to pushed around on. Acrylic gesso is a little different from traditional gesso in that it contains latex. You can also use gesso to create texture under the paint you’re going to apply.
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Misting
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Glazing
Acrylics dry quickly – sometimes too quickly. One way to keep them moist easily is to mist them with water as you work. You can buy gardening misters at hardware or gardening stores. Depending on the surface you’re painting on, you can water your acrylics down enough to almost resemble watercolour. This can be a valuable trick to quickly lay in an underpainting to get started.
OTHER MEDIUMS Acrylics offer a variety of mediums to manipulate the paint and surface you’re working on. Two mediums I happen to have on hand are Golden C.T. Interference Green Blue Medium and Golden Polymer Varnish. These two substances do very different things. The Varnish can be used as a protective sealant and colour enhancer. This particular varnish is high gloss, meaning it will remain shiny. The Interference Medium is essentially an iridescent medium, giving the surface below a glittery blue/green hue. This could be used for scales or even some sort of cosmic effect in a landscape. I encourage you to explore mediums online on manufacturers’ websites. They offer plenty of information on how to use them.
Glazing is a great way to seal pencil sketches to paint over. Using a gel medium is the best and most even way to achieve a glaze. I start by selecting the colour I’d like to glaze with, in this case green. I mix a bit of gel medium and paint together with just a little mist of water to loosen it all up. Once it’s an even mixture, I apply the glaze over these black strokes.
Artist insight
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Blending
Blending can be a tricky technique to master. First I lay in a layer of white, then, using a filbert brush, add in blue along the bottom of the area being blended. I stroke back and forth rapidly, up and down the area, until I get a nice gradient from darker blue to white. Working wet into wet is the best way to blend. You can also dry blend by laying in colour, letting it dry and then dry brushing colour over it.
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Wet in wet and over dry to build texture
It’s best to use this technique when the colour or surface underneath is dry. I start by loading up my brush with a deep purple and paint a shape into the dry orange paint. From here I can drag out the other side of the stroke to feather it into the canvas and orange paint below. You can see that acrylics have an incredible amount of control and will stay put pretty much wherever you put them.
GESSO CANVAS You can gesso newsprint for a quick and cheap canvas in a pinch. Just lay out newsprint and cover with acrylic gesso using a wide, large brush. Allow it to dry for about an hour or so depending on the size. Now use it to practise and paint studies.
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Techniques
Core skills
How to apply your oil paints Howard Lyon explains the many ways you can apply oils to the canvas to achieve different and unique creative effects
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il paint is wonderfully versatile. It can be applied in thick expressive impastos, or thinned down and used almost like watercolours. It can be brushed or scrubbed, knifed on or scratched out, applied in washes or painted in patches. There are what seems like an endless variety of mediums and additives you can work with to create different effects.
Paint applied thickly with a bristle brush – a ‘short’ paint stroke. Note its specularity.
Paint applied thickly with a synthetic brush.
as long. It won’t retain the peaks of the brush strokes, but will level out. Paintings are generally more interesting when you use a variety of techniques when applying paint. It’s another form of contrast that provides variety and complexity.
However, you can use oils without adding a medium. Most of my work is done with paint direct from the tube. Some mediums are added to shorten or lengthen drying times; others change the characteristics of the paint. Paint out of the tube is often called stiff or short, and will retain your brush stroke – especially with coarser brushes. If you add fluid medium, such as linseed oil or turpentine, it becomes what’s known
Paint that’s thinned with Gamsol and then applied with a synthetic brush.
Paint thinned with Gamsol, dabbed on with a bristle brush. Feel of watercolour.
Paint applied thickly and then mopped on with a bristle brush.
Howard has worked as an illustrator and art director, as well as a fine artist for galleries and collectors. You can see his art at www.howardlyon.com.
A generous amount of paint applied delicately with a knife.
Thick paint applied with a knife by pressing straight down and lifting straight up.
Paint scraped across the canvas. Notice how it describes the texture underneath.
Note the variety of paint strokes and paint surfaces in paintings by Herbert James Draper (left) and Jules Bastien-Lepage (right).
In this detail from a Bouguereau painting, you can see how he created a rocky dirt effect by knifing on paint.
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Different brush effects
Depending on what type of brush you use and how hard you press, oil paint can look very different from one stroke to the next. In addition, adding thinner or medium to the paint, as well as changing the angle of the brush, will alter the texture and impact of the mark.
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Using palette knives
Palette knives aren’t just for mixing paint. In fact, you’ll see some knives marketed as ‘painting knives’. Really, just use whatever gets the job done. I’ve used large, plastic putty trowels for creating rocky textures in some larger paintings.
Artist insight Oils My favourite medium is five parts turps, one part Damar varnish and one part stand oil, by weight.
I’ve used a rubbertipped colour shaper tool to add a scaly pattern to this paint swatch.
Apply paint and then subsequently scrape it off with a palette knife.
Wipe paint off using a paper towel and with varying pressure.
Notice on the wall how Bouguereau scraped paint thinly over the underlying layer to create a stony texture.
Painting tip Work without fear
Take the time to see what your paint can do without having any expectations in mind.
Scraping the paint
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Removing paint can sometimes be as effective as adding paint. I’ve used cotton swabs, old brushes with dry paint in them, rags, knives and toothpicks to remove paint for effect. There are also rubber-tipped scrapers sold in art stores that work well to this end.
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Different mediums
Don’t become overwhelmed by the variety of mediums out there. Here’s a photo of some of the painting mediums that I’ve tried. Enjoy the different effects you can achieve, but don’t be afraid to keep things simple or simply to experiment.
Artist insight
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A. Paint applied with a palette knife. B. Paint applied with turpentine and a brush.
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Let paint be paint Oils are at their best when they’re allowed to be paint. Don’t work too hard to remove brush strokes and texture. Let the paint be a record of your actions.
C. Gamsol flicked into a thin film of paint, creating texture. D. Paint applied to tinfoil and then pressed on to the canvas.
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E. Paint applied with a soft paper towel.
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F. Paint allowed to drip with turpentine. G. Thin paint wiped on with a cloth.
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H. Paint applied to a piece of plastic wrap and then pressed to the canvas
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Getting creative
Don’t feel limited to just the tools you find in the art store. In the past I’ve used tinfoil, plastic wrap, toothbrushes, my breath to blow paint around, fingers and other miscellaneous tools. Norman Rockwell used anything around at the time, including sand, fur and straw to add texture.
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Workshops
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Rapid-fire thumbnails generate ideas
Every painting begins with thumbnail sketches, where I jot down my ideas and explore compositions quickly on a small scale. I’ll usually generate many thumbnails before choosing one to develop as a larger drawing. This concept is a simple portrait, so I skip the drawing stage and go straight to my first colour study.
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Create a digital colour study
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Digital experimentation
With my drawing complete, or in this case, my thumbnail, I gather references and use them to work out the forms and colours of my image. Photoshop enables me to experiment with colour and make changes quickly. I decide that a blue cast will give this painting the mysterious and other-worldly feeling that I’m looking for.
Materials Surface n Quarter-inch MDF board, 16x20 inches Utrecht Gesso, toned Oil Colours n Titanium white n Quinacridone magenta n Dioxazine purple n Phthalo blue n Phthalo green n Phthalo green (Yellow-shade) n Ivory Black Solvent n Gamsol Medium n Refined linseed oil Tool n Utrecht Natural Bristle long flat size 10 n Rosemary Series 279 long flat sizes 5, 3 and 1 n Q-tips n Crow Quill dip pen n Small Bridge (four inch), made of MDF and mat board n Richeson palette knife 897
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Create a sketch in oil
Using my digital colour study as a guide, I paint a small oil sketch. This determines my choice of pigments, stroke direction, texture, colour complexity (jitter), as well as where I want thin washes or thick impasto. The sketch affords me one more level of refinement.
Sometimes, after seeing the oil sketch as a physical object, I decide more experimentation is in order. Here, I feel my original colour plan needs to be livened up a bit. I photograph the oil sketch and, in Photoshop, use masks and Selective Color to alter the colours.
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In depth Get planning for alla prima oils artist insight
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Freezing Brushes To avoid having to thoroughly clean my brushes at the end of every day, I seal them in a ziplock bag and put them in the freezer overnight. The low temperature and lack of oxygen will keep them from drying out (oxidising) much at all.
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Painting tip don’t hold back
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Transfer the study
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Laying in the starfield darks
I choose one of my studies to print out at the full size of my final painting. I then use transfer paper to lay out some rough lines on my final, toned surface. With this guide in place, I use untoned gesso to lighten any areas that will underlay the final painting’s highlights.
I tend to work from dark to light. The subtlety of the shadow side of the face as it recedes into darkness means I need to pay attention to slight variations in value as I lay in the dark colours of the starfield. It can’t all just be black; the form of the face needs to be present and accurate, but subtle, in a low-key value range.
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Plan out the painting sequence
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Blend in the dust clouds
Using paint more freely will help you discover the many things that paint – especially oils – can do.
I establish the sequence of the areas that I’m going to work on to maximise my wet-into-wet painting time and make a seamless whole. This often means working from background to foreground, or one adjacent area to the next. This image will be painted in three sections: starfield, background and portrait. The stars and background textures will be a second layer.
Working in the lights of the starfield, these gas clouds require smooth transitions. Small steps in value, blending strokes, and sometimes even fan brushing help these areas look as soft and ethereal as they should. Blocky strokes can be beautiful, but they risk breaking the illusion of the depth of outer space.
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