How to make a successful acrylic painting

How to make a successful acrylic painting
by Jonty Hawkins

Before the Barbizon School and the Impressionists promoted the idea of painting on location or 'En plein air' most artists would work in the studio. While initial sketches and even some painting was done outside, the majority of the work was completed in-doors. Using acrylics in a hot climate necessitates a return to this method of working, and thanks to the technology that is now at our disposal contemporary artists can avoid prolonged spells in an inhospitable climate and work in the relative comfort of the studio. While some purists may argue that an artist should only work from their own sketches and drawings, those who are willing to embrace the digital camera will find that the opportunities to capture scenes and images are limitless. Spending seconds rather than long minutes making detailed sketches, a 21st century artist can capture the essence of the scene before them and return to the studio with an album of photographs upon which they can base their next painting. If necessary these photographs can be manipulated with appropriate software until exactly the right image is found, and at this point you are ready to make a painting.

1. Measure your stretched canvas and square it up. You will not want too many lines across your work so it is probably advisable to limit the squares to about 6cm (about 2.5 inches).

2. Re-size your image to match the proportions of the canvas, and either square it up on the screen or print it out and use a pencil to do the same.

3. Using charcoal or a soft pencil, sketch the image onto the canvas. The squares will help you to get the proportions right. It is the broad shapes that you want to capture so don't worry about the detail at this stage.

4. Give the whole canvas a quick spray of fixative (or perfume-free hairspray) to prevent image loss as you go into the next stage.

5. Study your image carefully and decide on the over-all colour (this will be provide the mid-tones in your painting).

6. Using plenty of water and your chosen colours make a wash. Apply to the whole canvas with a large brush. The wash needs to be thin enough to see your sketch showing through.

7. As soon as the wash has been applied you need to quickly work over the whole canvas with a damp cloth, removing the paint from all highlighted areas. Use your sketch and the photograph as guides, and ensure that this has been done within 5 to 10 minutes; otherwise the wash will have dried too much.

8. It is now time to apply the shadow to the canvas. Using a thinned mixture of ultramarine and burnt umber apply the paint with either a thick brush or, if you have the confidence, another rag. Again you need to work quickly and over the whole canvas. Don't be tempted to concentrate on details and don't worry if you make mistakes (quickly rub the paint away with a damp cloth). When you stand back from the canvas at this stage you will see an impressive image before you, even though you have only applied two colours with the crudest of brushes and rags.

9. Once the shadow has dried (a matter of minutes) you can start to consider the mid-tones. The wash will have provided this on the whole, but you now need to think about a bit more detail. Using a slightly thicker mix of the same colours (as the wash) apply some more detail with a mid to large brush. The size of brush is important as it prevents you from concerning yourself with too much detail.

10. At this point you will probably be able to see the squares still showing through so it is now time to think about the next layer of the painting. It is only now that you need to lay out your palette (acrylic paint dries so fast that it would be a wasteful mistake to put your colours out before this point). Your palette needs to be fairly limited as you will be concentrating on a few colours at a time.

11. Note all the places where you need to block in this colour and work over the whole canvas at once. This is important as it ensures that you keep the painting unified. Don't feel tempted to start working on the detail in one particular area at this stage. Your brush should still be mid-sized.

12. Repeat with new colours until you have covered the whole canvas with a new layer. Your wash will still show through in places but the overall impression will be getting closer to the final painting you may have imagined at the start.

13. Now you can start on the detail. With a finer brush work over the whole painting, sharpening edges and tightening the drawing. It is very much up to the individual as to how much detail they may want to include. For a more impressionist style you may consider the painting to be close to completion. Alternatively you might want to achieve a more 'super-realist' finish to the work, in which case you work over the painting several times, with ever increasing detail.

Main points to remember:

1. At each stage work over the whole canvas at once.

2. Avoid starting in one corner and working across the space, as the painting will not have a unified feel.

3. Don't worry if you feel you've made a mistake - you can use a damp cloth to wipe wet acrylic paint away without removing the under-painting. Alternatively you can paint over it within minutes once it is dry.

4. You can use tape and masks to protect areas where you don't want paint to go (this will help with straight lines and sharp edges).

This article makes the assumption that you already have an eye for composition and some basic painting skills; if this isn't the case, I will be writing articles on these things in the near future.

Links to images to follow in the near future.

Investment in Art

Investment in Art
by Peter Jhons

We are quite familiar with the term 'investment'. We are also aware about different investment catalogs. But apart from USA, there are only a few nations where investment in art is a common practice. Time has really changed. In recent context, we have seen many an auction even where non Americans have shown immense interest in antique art pieces. Undoubtedly, it is perfect time for online platform like 'artpricechart' which will definitely leverage this trend and the whole world will recognize latent potential of art pieces. We are getting absolute signal which depicts that Investment trend in art will exponentially prevail.

It is quite soothing to hear the term like 'creative industries' for all art lovers and for the people who are interested in buying or selling art. As an artist, normally we think that our future will solely depend upon commercial galleries. Though, such practices have become inexact as well as self limiting. Well! Reasons are so obvious that such galleries can not be accessible by everyone. On the hand, we have mentioned the term 'self limiting' because such galleries can not be residence of all those artists who want to exhibit their art works. So, we have seen a new trend 'art online'.

Galleries on World Wide Web are also known as 'neo-galleries'. Irrespective geographical and political domain every art lover can find here specific place for every art work like Decorated Pottery, Photography, Sculpture, Drawing and so on. It is a burning question for every aspirant artist "how do i get into a gallery?" Though, exponentially prevailing cyber space may be an answer but opportunity may be anywhere so keep your options open all the time. Even in that context, 'artpricechart' be proved as the best helping hand. Here you will get information about events undoubtedly 'a door of opportunity'.

In experts' opinion, heterogeneity of artwork and infrequency of trading are two biggest hurdle of art commerce. But World Wide Web has realized this concern and offered few fabulous online platforms where one can experience a whole new world of art commerce. There is one more aspect of art commerce which draws a delicate line between bourgeois world of arts and popular world of electronic media (TV, Radio, etc.). World Wide Web has almost eliminated this line. Probably, this is the greatest achievement of cyber space. An Article by 'James E. Pesando' states-

'In a well-functioning capital market, the risk-adjusted rates of return on all assets will be forced to equality. The equilibrium return on art, net of insurance and storage costs and any flow of consumption services, will equal the equilibrium return on competing assets with identical risk. If this is not the case, then art is an investment which compares 'favorably or unfavorably' with traditional financial assets.'

Probably, these are amongst the most precise words which explores aesthetic limitation of art.

Canvas Art - How to print photos to Canvas?

Canvas Art - How to print photos to Canvas?
by Canvasdezign

Canvas art is nothing but the art of working with a canvas cloth. A canvas is a strong coarse piece of cloth used especially for painting and other art works. Canvas photo printing is a new technology in photography in which an image - a digital one or a photo is transferred onto a canvas by printing on them using latest and much specialised inkjet printers.

Photographs stand the testimonies of the wonderful moments one has lived in one's life with their loved and dear ones. It would represent the wonderful occasions of our life like the day we graduated, wedding, the entry of first child, its first toddling walk, speech, memorable trips holidayed, etc; These moments will never come back in one's life and hence treasured for the rest of our life. So, how can we let such a facet of our life to fade away or be stacked as one among the other papers? That's really unbearable. This is the reason why people consider transforming their photographs to canvas.

Digital photographs are the latest in the field of photography. They have high definition of the pictures captured and ensured long lasting life for the photo. Digital photographs too were professional in their quality. But all these features were made even more professional and interesting with the advent of combining canvas art with photo printing.

Photos onto canvas were made with high quality printer inks and it improved the look and feel of the photographs printed. These photos onto canvas were more professional in their appearance and appealing too. Photos onto Canvas have a long life when compared to other ones. They can last for a century. They can stand against the weather changes too. A shielding agent coated on these photos enable then to withstand sunlight, heat and moisture and even resistant to water. Modern photos onto canvas can even be safe from the UV rays of sun. Thus, it makes it very common and most appealing in wall hangings and especially that of a banners or hoardings posted in the public.

To print them

The canvas which is used in printing photos is made of pure cotton A photo that needs to be printed on a canvas is first converted into a digital image by scanning the photo, if it is in non-digital form. Before saving this image and submitting it for printing, work on the image for its resolution and image quality. Preview the final print several times and ensure that the photo is properly aligned and other printing requirements are met. Customization of the image is possible at this stage and should be best used for flawless print of the photo to canvas. The photo chosen for canvas printing should be chosen carefully as the quality of it will be reflected in the photo on canvas.

Tanjore Paintings

Tanjore Paintings
by Amit Beriwal

Tanjore has been the hub of all sort of cultural activities. The most noted affair being the Tanjore Paintings. This art developed at the time of Nayaks of Tanjore, is a renowned art now.

The style of these paintings, the decoration done by Jaipur stones, and the Gold Foil, makes these paintings unmatchable and very precious. A gallery of these paintings can be viewed at Tanjore Paintings Gallery 1 and the second gallery can be viewed at Gallery of Lord Krishna Tanjore paintings.

These paintings are made with great hardwork, and the lusture of these paintings make them ideal to be placed at puja ghar's. The theme for most of these paintings are Gods and Goddesses. Lord Krishna is a prominent figure amoung these paintings. The material required for Tanjore Paintings are easily available, but the hard work is the thing that makes these paintings invaluable.

Tanjore Paintings has seen a long tradition of several dynasties, and so is a clear indication of the Indian Culture. This part is what which makes the Tanjore Paintings a must for each household.

They add glory and lusture to the place they are attached to. That probably is the reason that these paintings could be seen at reception halls, marriage halls, bedrooms, puja ghars, etc.

Check out Tanjore Paintings for more information about this art.

History of vases. From ancient pots of Greece and Egypt, until Murano vases.

History of vases. From ancient pots of Greece and Egypt, until Murano vases.
by mauro


Vases are one of the most ancient kind of art. The vases are usual composed by the same parts: foot, the lower part, body, the central, and most important part of the vase, the neck, where the vase is more squeezed, the shoulder where body meet neck, and in finally the lips, the higher part. We can divide the vases in two different types: the first one are the pots that have specific usefulness, and the second one are the vases that not have a specific role, but are created only for decorating the environment. In the first one category we can talk about pots like Alabastron, used in the ancient World, especially in Greece and Egypt, for holding perfume or oil. Another kind of vase is called Amphora, a ceramic or terracotta pot with two handles, used to transport wine, oil, fish sauce, jam, honey, and more. The first Amphora is appeared in 15th century Before Christ on Syrian coast. Another kind of pot is Situla, iron vase that have the shape of a bucket. The Situla was diffused in Iron Age populations, like Etruscan, Celts, and Germanic cultures. In modern age we have a differents kinds of vases, but the most spread are the ornamental pots. In this category are very spread the glass pots. The most famous are probably the decorated vases of Murano, created with technique of blowing glass. This kind of pots does not have a specific role, but they are really beautiful. For this reason are used to decorate the environment and especially the important rooms. Glass is product created from silicon mixtures (quartz, sand, sodium, iron, calcium, and more). To create coloured glass, the artisan add some metallic oxides for different colors.Cobalt for blue, Copper for red, and so on. Glass and vases production of Murano has not changed during the centuries. Nowadays there aren't new techniques to make the special glass of Murano: the result depends most of all on the expertise and the artistic skills of the glass artisan.