Guest Articles

Unconventional Watercolor Techniques for Any Skill Level

By Alexis Bonari

Watercolor painting is both a relatively accessible art form and a difficult skill to master. Beginners enjoy the variety of effects that can be created by simply varying the proportions of water to paint, using different brushes, or using tape to isolate specific areas. Experts also appreciate the wide scope of watercolor techniques, but are more skilled and deliberate in their art. The following are some alternative ways to manipulate watercolors that can be both experimental and strategically perfected.

Drybrushing

Set up a blower or fan so that it can dry your paper as you work. With this technique, it’s important to keep your brush from being too wet, so shake off the excess water every time you wet or rinse the brush. Once the brush is damp, use it to pick up and spread a small amount of paint, allowing your blower to dry the paint as soon as it’s applied. This technique can lend a unique sense of intensity to your watercolor painting.

Making Object Impressions

This technique works best on smooth paper, but experimenting can enable you to find a trademark way of conveying your vision with watercolors. Choose some objects that might create interesting impressions, such as leaves, flowers, string or thread. Select a dark color, paint one side of the object, and press it against your paper. Some objects may require a coat of soap before they hold paint.

Lifting Wet Color

Once you have a wash of color on your paper, experiment with absorbent materials like paper towels to lift away surface paint. You can be gentle by simply laying the towel on the painted paper, or you can try blotting away paint until you have the texture and shade you need.

Applying Grainy or Powdery Materials

This technique also works well with a wash, so once you’ve chosen and applied your color, try sprinkling sand, salt or cornstarch onto your paper. This can change the consistency of your paint, the texture of your images, and even the shade of color on your paper.

Painting on Wet Paper

Use a large brush to cover your paper with a thin layer of clean water. Next, apply paint to the wet surface of the paper, observing the effect: the paint spreads out in seemingly unpredictable patterns, but an expert can use this technique to produce a very specific image. Experimenting with the amount of paint, brush size, and other factors can help you anticipate the reaction of paint to wet paper.

Using a Palette Knife

If you’ve never used a palette knife, you can buy one from your local art supply store. Apply a dark wash to your paper, then use your palette knife to gently scrape away some of the paint. You can use the edge of the knife to create lines that will remain when the paint has dried, allowing you to create textured backgrounds.

Bio: Alexis Bonari

Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She often can be found blogging about education and scholarships for college. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Guest Article written by Alexis Bonari.
Copyright remains with Alexis Bonari.
Not to be reproduced in anyway unless prior permission is sought.

Setting the Mood With Your Artwork

Collecting art can be a lifelong hobby and gives you a lot of room to flex your creative muscle. However, when you invest into a piece of art, be sure you have a vision of where and how you wish to display it. Too often, people snatch and grab everything that appeals to them, only to realize that their newly acquired painting is a stray cat when set amongst the rest of their collection. To avoid costly mistakes, that you will surely regret, just take a few moments to plan your work and work your plan.

Home Art

Decorating the home affords a lot of leeway to sample different textures, colors, styles, eras and images for paintings. Persons with an eclectic taste do well to mix and match within reason, or may opt to compartmentalize their art collection room by room. More than likely, there will be no art critics at your dinner table, so get out those picture hangers and feel free to explore your artistic vision to the max. However, to add a touch of class and some modicum of art appreciation, you may prefer to stick with a central color theme in morning cool, sunset warm or pop art colors.

To warm a room with rich earth tones, try a Native American theme with accents in gold, turquoise, silver and coral. If you prefer a light and breezy pastel contour to the living space, you may wish to keep your artwork in a similar tone, such as water color prints from Monet or something from Gauguin’s South Pacific collection.

Coffee Shop Art

If you own a coffee shop, it may feel like your home away from home, but remember it’s a business and you are vying for customers. The mood and atmosphere in a coffee shop is meant to be light and casual, so be sure you don’t overdo it on dramatic artwork and heavy color schemes. Your customers want a simple environment and may shoot a quick glance to your artistry on walls, but they do not want to see thought provoking paintings that require cranial activity.

If you prefer to stand out from the coffee shop down the block, try a collection of signed photographs of celebrities and athletes. The vicinity of the cash register makes a nice blank canvas for your photos, or if you are an avid collector, string them along for all your diners to see. Photos are available from online outlets, and some best bargain deals can be found on Ebay. The celebrity photo tour is something that your guests will make an effort to see and you can be sure that your coffee shop artwork budget was not spent in vain. In addition, the photos are timeless and will blend with every decor.

* This article is a guest contribution supplied to us and written by Emily Jacobson. Copyright ownership of this article remains with Emily Jacobson.

Kirsten Bailey Art: Brisbane, QLD (Australia)

I am a self-taught artist, working in Springfield – about half-way between Brisbane and Ipswich – Queensland, Australia.

I work mostly in acrylics and watercolours. I draw inspiration from the natural world and from science, and represent it in a figurative and sometimes abstract way.

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My Starlight Series of watercolours is a romantic, whimsical series of paintings featuring trees and flowers, with a swirling starry sky as a background. Another series of watercolours is called simply Love. Paintings in this series are figurative and romantic with lots of warm colour tones. I love to paint the natural world and therefore trees and flowers feature predominately in my work, particularly in my acrylics. I like to use bold colours and brush strokes, and to represent the subjects in a contemporary way.

My latest series of works is an exploration of science through art. From microscopic views all the way to outer space, there is a lot of beauty to be found in many scientific concepts, and my hope is to represent this through my art.

View heaps more at Kirsten Bailey’s website, where you can find out more about this wonderful artist. Visit www.klbaileyart.com/

5 Tips on Connecting With Art Galleries

By Kathleen Baker

Many artists have both the talent and the interest necessary to connect with galleries and get their work shown to a wider audience. Unfortunately, it’s not always cut and dry as to how this process works and many artists find it intimidating to approach galleries or convince themselves that galleries wouldn’t be interested in what they have to offer. Neither is necessarily a reality. Here are some tips that can help bring together artists looking to get recognition with galleries looking for great emerging art.

1.Find your niche. What do you have to offer a gallery that sets you apart and makes you a unique artists working today? Work on coming up with a way to quickly and accurate describe just what it is you do that would be compelling to someone else.
2. Network. Sometimes all it takes is knowing the right person to get you an inroad to a show in a gallery. Ask your artist friends and anyone else in the business if they know a gallery that might be interested in your work. It’s amazing how far dropping a name can go.
3. Be professional. You’re unlikely to get too far in marketing your work if you don’t have a neat portfolio, a website and some professional looking business cards. While it is an expense at the outset, it’s also a great investment in your career.
4. Research. Going into galleries blindly without knowing anything about the work they generally show or the gallery themselves is not a good move. If you wan to make a good impression, do your research and only approach those galleries for whom your work would be a good match. Better yet, be able to explain why you think this is the case.
5. Prepare your portfolio. Your portfolio is really what’s going to do the talking for you so make sure you’ve really pulled together your best work. You’ll also want to make sure that you have a good selection of images either in print or on the web so that interested parties can get a more comprehensive idea of your style and who you are as an artist.

Getting your work from the studio to the gallery is a big step, and sometimes a scary one. With a little preparation and a lot of confidence, you can make the leap and start reaping the rewards of letting the world see your work.

This post was contributed by Kathleen Baker, who writes about an accredited online degree. She welcomes your feedback at KathleenBaker3212 at gmail.com