How to Paint a Sphere in Acrylics Using Scumbling to Blend – Tutorial
Aug 11, 2011 Painting, Tutorials
Before attempting this tutorial, I would suggest you read both How to Shade Your Drawings and Blending Acrylic Paints. The first article will teach you what you need to know about the different values (areas of light and dark) on a sphere, and the second describes in more detail the scumbling technique.
So, it occurred to me that while I have done a lot of drawing tutorials, I haven’t done a huge amount of basic painting tutorials. This is back to the basic painting for those of you just starting out. This kind of exercise is good practice for painting any kind of three dimensional object with a rounded surface.
In this tutorial we will cover how to create depth through the use of shadows, mid tones and highlights, as well as how to blend the three basic values together. I am using the scumbling technique here because I think it’s probably the most basic and common technique used by people learning how to paint with acrylics. The technique lends itself well to the quick drying time of acrylics.
One disclaimer: This is not the only, the right, or even the best way to paint a sphere or anything else. This is one method using one technique, simplified for the sake of the tutorial. Once you gain some experience, you should experiment to find your preferred way to paint.
Okay.. let’s go!
For this tutorial, I will be using just two paints: raw umber and white. This way we can use value to create form without being distracted by colour. I like to use a raw or burnt umber to create shadows instead of black. I find that it gives shadows more depth, while black is very flat.
Before we actually start painting, let’s do a quick exercise to get some practice mixing different values. Paint a value scale that has pure raw umber on the left and pure white on the right. Try to create a scale that shows an even and gradual transition from one value to the next.
Start with a simple line drawing that shows the shape of your sphere as well as the values within it.
Starting with a value in the middle of your scale (3), fill in the mid-tones, or everything that isn’t a shadow or a highlight.
Next, fill in the shadow area with raw umber, leaving a slight buffer between it and the mid-tones.
Now it’s time for our scumbling. Mix a colour close to 2 on your value scale. dry brush this on the edge of the shadow area. Slowly add more white to your paint, bringing the value to a 3 as you work away from the shadow and blend into the mid-tone.
Let’s do the same with the highlight. Remember, that only the very, very centre of the highlight will actually be pure white. Fill this in, leaving a large buffer. You will need more room to get a gradual gradation here. Now we can very slowly add the umber to our paint, working our way backwards on the value scale. Scumble this in with a dry brush until you get to the mid-tones. Don’t be afraid to blend over top of the mid-tones to get a smooth gradation.
Tips to Remember
- Paint on canvas or a textured paper, you will need the tooth to be able to scumble effectively. Don’t use smooth paper (like I did, oops!).
- Make sure your brush is nice and dry for the scumbling; no water! Keep a paper towel handy.
- If you’re having trouble mixing the subtle values (as in, you add a tiny bit of umber to your white and already it’s too dark), try mixing your mid-tone value first, then add that a little at a time to your white to darken it.
- Don’t forget that acrylics dry slightly darker.
- Remember, this is not an exact science! It will take time and practice. If you find your shadow growing to take over the whole mid-tone area, mix up more of that middle value and scumble back on top. There will be a bit of back-and-forth. This is normal!
There you have it, a three-dimensional sphere done in acrylics with a scumbling technique. Once you’re comfortable with this, try your hand at some apples or oranges. Have fun practicing!
Tags: acrylic painting, blending, Tutorials
Painting Trees in Acrylics – Tutorial
Feb 16, 2011 Painting, Tutorials
A couple of weeks ago, I talked about two things to remember when painting trees. In a nutshell, you need to keep in mind the specificity of the tree’s species and form (make it believable) while simplifying the details. Click on the link for a more in depth discussion.
And now, as promised, here is a quick tutorial on how to paint trees in acrylics.
First, consider your colours. When painting trees, you want to choose, or mix, a green that is natural. A hooker’s green works well for foliage. A pthalo green, not so much. Pthalo green is very blue, so you would need to add a lot of yellow. Here you can see the difference between hookers (left) and pthalo (right) green.
Second, consider your brushes. We are going to be using a “dabbing” technique. You want a brush with thick, short bristles that will separate and clump.
How to Paint Trees
It helps if you can think in three dimensions here. I’m going to paint the leaves that are furthest away from me first, then the leaves in the middle, and then the leaves on the surface of the tree. These layers roughly correspond with my values: shadow, mid-tones, and highlights.
I mix my paint the same way I am going to apply it, which helps spread the bristles out. You want a fairly generous amount of paint on the brush, but you want it dispersed throughout the bristles.
The first layer is made with a combination of hookers green and cadmium red (to make it dark). Now I can dab the paint onto the page, building the structure of the tree. Make sure you twist the brush every now and then to vary the pattern of the bristles. Don’t over-work this: you want to be able to see the texture as well as some of the background.
The next layer is made with the hooker’s green and a small amount of white. Make sure to thoroughly wash your brush between layers and let each layer dry, otherwise you will make mud. Here I have applied the mid-tone green on top of the shadow, letting the dark value show through. I’m still not covering up all of the page.
You can also see here that I have added the trunk and some branches. Paint these using a fine-tip brush and place them throughout the tree. Remember that you aren’t going to see the entire trunk, or the entirety of anyone branch. You just want a few peeks here and there. Try to use a contrasting value. If your background is very dark, make your trunk a bit lighter.
The last layer is the highlights. Here I have mixed hookers green with white and a touch of yellow to brighten it up. Again, don’t over-work it. A few dabs here and there are all you need. If you’re having trouble seeing past the individual dabs of the brush, squint your eyes to see the overall effect.
A few things to remember:
- You can go back and add more shadows and mid-tones as needed.
- Don’t make your tree too symmetrical.
- Paint your background first and then paint the tree on top of it.
- Have fun!
Tags: acrylic painting, paint trees, Tutorials
How to Draw African American Hair – Tutorial
Oct 10, 2010 Drawing, Tutorials
One of my readers, Dee, brought it to my attention that there are no good online tutorials on drawing African American hair. Hopefully, this post will help answer some questions!
The biggest difference between African American hair and hair of other ethnicities is the texture. It is often more coarse and can range from tight, corkscrew curls to a softer, almost fuzzy texture. It can also be straightened, in which case you would draw it like any other hair.
African American hair is also very dark. I would use a combination of 2B and 4B pencils, possibly even a 6B. Because of the coarser texture and darker colour, this type of hair doesn’t reflect light as much. This means that your highlights will be only slightly lighter than the rest of the hair. Let’s look at an example:
Here we have an example of a very curly style of African American hair. Take a look at the values. Notice how the darkest value is nearly black, and the lightest value is still a very dark gray. When working with dark hair like this, you are working at the darker end of the value scale, even when drawing the highlights.
These are the values I pulled out of the above picture. The left-most gray is the highlight, the lightest part of the hair. The middle gray is the midtones and the black is the shadows. As you can see, there is no bright white highlight in this hair!
Tutorial
Using the above image as a reference, I’m going to show you how I would go about drawing curly, African American hair.
Here, I have used a 2H pencil to draw the outlines of the basic shapes I’m working with. For the purpose of this tutorial, I’m going to ignore the faces and focus on only hair.
Next, I use my 2B and create a layer of very tight, spirals. I’m avoiding the edges of the hair and where it falls on the forehead because I will add that in at the end. This creates a base layer that reflects the texture of the hair. Then I used a large tortillon in a spiral motion to blend out my pencil lines.
Take your 4B pencil and start to lay in the shadows. Use the spiral motion again, and pay close attention to the reference. This is where we can start to highlight some of the individual curls in the hair by defining the dark shadows around them. Remember that you don’t have to draw every little detail, just look for the patterns of light and dark created by the hair. Create darker shadows by layering more graphite, then blend it out using the large tortillon.
Next, I used my 6B pencil to create even darker shadows, again avoiding the lighter areas that are the curls. Then I used the tortillon to blend out the entire area of hair. This tones down the highlights a little, but that’s okay.
Now for the finishing touches. Create a fine point with your kneaded eraser and pick out a few highlights along each curl of hair. Use short, curved lines to mimic the direction of the hair. Then, using your 3B, add some details around the edges of the hair and onto the forehead. These fly-aways are what make the hair look realistic. I used more of a zig-zag line than a spiral pattern to re-create the look of the ends of each curl. You can also use the tortillon to soften these lines slightly.
Do you have a burning question or a great idea for a tutorial? Let me know!
Tags: drawing tips, hair, Tutorials
How to Draw Curly Hair – Tutorial
Aug 27, 2010 Drawing, Tutorials
Hair on its own can be enough to send the beginning portrait artist into fits of anxiety.
Make it curly hair and the anxiety only increases!
Curly hair presents its own set of unique challenges, but at the end of the day, drawing it is no different from drawing straight hair.
The key to drawing realistic, curly hair is paying close attention to the interlocking shapes, building layers of texture with your pencil strokes, and simplify, simplify, simplify!
If this is your first time here, make sure you check out my tips for drawing hair and my tutorial for straight hair. I’ve also written about how to draw different hair colours.
This tutorial features a slightly different technique than my tutorial for straight hair. Instead of shading in the values, I am using only pencil strokes to create volume. Both techniques are good and valid and produce similar effects; it’s just a matter of preference!
Our reference image again comes from the Wetcanvas Image Library, which is a great place to go for royalty free images to practice your drawing skills.
First, we’re going to use an Hb or 2H pencil to draw our gridlines. Then we can start to map out the basic shapes created by the hair. To help you identify these shapes, it can be useful to squint at the reference. This is where it’s important to simplify. You can’t draw every single hair, instead focus on the “chunks” of hair and the major shadows and highlights. Follow the grid to help you get an accurate line drawing. Carefully erase the gridlines.
Next, using a B pencil,we will lay in the pencil strokes in the direction of the hair growth. The important part here is that you treat each chunk as separate. Use a wrist-flicking motion to create each pencil stroke, going from the darkest part of each chunk and pulling towards the highlight. Build up layers in the darkest areas, letting the pencil lines taper off. Pull a few strokes all the way through the highlight as well. It’s also essential to make sure that each pencil stroke curves in the direction of the curl.
Now we’ll use a 2B to darken the shadows and add another dimension to the hair. Again, pull some lines all the way through the highlight, but focus on building layers in the darkest areas. You want to make sure that your pencil is nice and sharp!
All we have left are a few finishing touches. Use a kneaded eraser to clean up the highlights. You can also use a 4B or 3B to make the shadows even darker. The last thing we need to do is add some fly-away hairs. No hair sits flat and perfect, so adding some fly-aways will make your drawing look that much more realistic.
Did you like this? Let me know what other tutorials you’d like to see!
Tags: curly hair, drawing tips, hair, Tutorials
How to Draw a Rose – Tutorial
May 9, 2010 Drawing, Tutorials
A little while ago, Shannon asked me to do a tutorial on how to draw a rose. Well, here it is!
All the principles are the same as drawing a portrait, you’re just working with different shapes.
The first thing I did was head over to the Wetcanvas Reference Image Library to study what a rose actually looks like and to find a good reference. As I browsed through the photos, I began to get a feel for the patterns of light and dark within a rose’s petals. They are deeply shadowed near the base and get lighter as you reach the edges. Here are a few possible references; I put them in grayscale to better see the values.
I will be drawing from the photo on the left, which has the best range of lights and darks. For this tutorial, I won’t be using a grid. When drawing a rose, unlike a portrait, it’s not absolutely necessary that everything be accurate down to the last millimeter. Here it will be enough to use the shapes the petals make in relation to each other to get an accurate rendition of the rose.
As always, start with a line drawing. Use a hard graphite, like a 2H pencil, and press just hard enough to leave a mark. Don’t press so hard that you indent the paper, otherwise you will never get rid of that line.
At this point, don’t focus on drawing a “rose.” Instead, draw the shapes that the petals make as they overlap one another. Pay close attention to the contours of each petal. It’s the little notches and irregularities you see that will help make your rose look as realistic as possible.
Next, still using your 2H, begin to shade in the values. Don’t press hard, but work up the graphite in layers to create some shadows. Shade in everything but the very lightest areas; keep those free of graphite completely.
Be very careful with your edges. You’ll notice in the reference image that some of the shadows have very hard edges and some are very soft and gradual. Try to render these exactly as you see them. This will give the petals volume and show that they are curled and three-dimensional. Don’t bother trying to understand what is happening in the center. Focus on the values and the shapes, and draw those. Blend with a tortillon.
Now take your B pencil and shade in the midtones. Here you’re adding depth and value. Again, pay close attention to the hard and soft edges. Blend.
Next, use your 2B to darken the deepest shadows. This is where you can sharpen some of those edges. Blend it out into the rest of your shading.
The last step in our rose drawing tutorial is to use a kneaded eraser to pull out the highlights and again, to sharpen some of the edges.
And there’s your rose finished! I hope this helps, Shannon, and if anyone else has a request for a tutorial, just get in touch!
PS: Stay tuned for a giveaway announcement in about a week!!
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Subscribe by Email