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
2 Things to Remember When Painting Trees
Jan 15, 2011 Painting
First of all, let’s look at what trees are not. Trees are not green lollipops, they’re not solid, and they’re not all the same!
When painting trees, it’s important to keep two things in mind: simplification and specification.
Okay, they sound like complete opposites, and in some ways they are, but they are both essential when it comes to painting trees!
Specification
Imagine a pine tree…
What picture appeared in your head? The standard image of a symmetric cone with pointy branches? Is that really what a pine tree looks like?
Each species of tree is different. The size and shape of the trunk, the direction of the branches, the leaves, the overall shape. These details are what will make your tree look believable. Whether you’re going for a realistic style or a more expressive or impressionistic style, you want your tree to look distinct.
When painting a tree, find a reference image to work from. Let this image be your inspiration for the tree’s essence. Remember that you don’t need to copy, you just need to pick out the little things that make that tree an individual.
Another thing to remember that even within a species, each tree is different. Maybe one branches sticks out at a funny angle, maybe the tree is fuller on one side or maybe it has a crooked trunk. It’s all in the details!
And speaking of details…
Simplification
You don’t need to paint every little leaf or twig. This is where your editing skills come into play. Mother nature is incredibly complex and it can be overwhelming to try and capture everything you see. The good news is that you don’t have to!
When we look at a tree to paint it, suddenly we notice all the little details that we’ve never seen before. When we look at a tree casually, we take all this in without focusing on it. This is what you need to accomplish in your painting. Capture the suggestion of the fullness of the tree without painting every single branch.
Squinting slightly at your reference can help eliminate some of the details and let you focus on pattern, texture and values, as well as the overall shape and movement of the tree.
As you can see, it’s a bit of a balance between capturing the details that define the tree while simplifying it enough to paint it. The best way to learn this technique is practice. Make sure you check out my tutorial on how to paint trees in acrylics!
Bonus Tip
Trees are not solid! Your tree should look like a bird could fly through it. Make sure some of the background can be seen through the leaves.
Good luck!
Tags: acrylic painting, oil painting, paint trees, painting tips
Identifying Lights and Darks in your Paintings
Oct 27, 2010 Drawing, Painting
In response to a question from Delhi, here is a break down on how to identify the shadows and highlights in your paintings (or drawings).
Using the reference from my underpainting tutorial, I will demonstrate where the light and dark areas are. Here, I have blurred the picture slightly to simulate squinting your eyes. Squinting your eyes is a great way to eliminate a lot of distracting details and really focus on the large shapes.
When I look for lights and darks, I’m not looking at the objects in my composition. I’m looking for the values. Here you can see that I’ve outlined all of the shadow shapes in blue. I’ve outlined the shadows area of the cup as part of the background, because they are the same value. Value, lightness or darkness, has nothing to do with hue or colour.
By squinting my eyes, these are the areas that stand out as being the darkest.
Here I have outlined the highlights in orange. The highlights are any area of the composition that are pure white. This is where the light hits the objects directly. When I squint, the highlights are the areas that are much lighter than the rest of the picture.
You will also notice that I’ve circled the folds in the fabric. Although my reference doesn’t show this as a highlight, when I paint, I will include it as one. This is an example of the kind of artistic licence that lets you make changes to what you are painting. The fabric just happens to be a type that doesn’t reflect light, but it would benefit the overall composition to have some highlights in the bottom portion of the frame. If the fabric was shinier, this is where the highlights would occur.
Everything between the highlights and shadows are varying shades. The keyword there is varying. It’s not enough to have highlights, shadows, and one value in the middle. You need to create light mid tones and dark mid tones and provide a transition from the lights to the darks.
To further simplify things, you can convert your reference to grayscale. This eliminates the colour factor, which can be misleading when trying to identify shadows and highlights. Obviously this isn’t always an option, so don’t rely on it too much, but it’s a great way to begin to understand values.
As a bit of an aside, this is also a good test for your paintings. To figure out if your paintings have enough contrast (range of values), convert it to grayscale and compare with a gray scale image of your reference. You will quickly be able to see where you painting needs to be darker or lighter.
Tags: acrylic painting, drawing tips, highlights, oil painting, shadows
How to Start a Painting
Oct 20, 2010 Creativity, Painting
I recently began teaching a beginner’s painting class. I started with the intention of teaching the very basics, colour theory, colour mixing, etc. After demonstrating some techniques, I had my students get started on a painting to practice their new skills.
I soon realized my mistake! Most people didn’t know where to start.
Starting a painting is a lot less daunting than it looks. The most important thing to remember is to start general and get more specific; don’t rush into the details!
To start a painting, I use a monochromatic under painting. This is a thin wash that blocks out the major shapes and values. I would recommend using a neutral colour like sienna or umber.
Here I am working with a simple still life composition with a single light source. This gives me a good range of values to paint.
Using a pencil, I draw the simplest and most basic shapes that I see in my reference.
Next, I use a wide, flat brush to apply paint to only the darkest areas. I’m looking for the parts of my image that are in dark shadow. I am using burnt sienna, slightly watered to create a bit of a wash. At this point, I’m not paying too much attention to the particulars of the fabric or the squash. You might find it helpful to squint at your reference to identify the large areas of shadow.
Now I’ve added some more water to my wash to thin it out even more and make it lighter. Still using a wide, flat brush, I can start to block in the midtones. Here I am looking for everything that isn’t a highlight. At this point, you are ready to apply colour.
This is my basic under painting. It identifies the shapes in my composition and provides me a map of the shadows, midtones and highlights. It provides the foundation for your painting, onto which you can apply colour. It is also intentionally simple. One of the biggest mistakes a new painter can make is trying to get too detailed too quickly.
Always start a painting with a large brush, which will help curb any temptation to do detailed work. A rule of thumb is to use one size bigger a brush than you think you need. As you progress through the painting, you can switch to smaller brushes.
Starting with a monochromatic underpainting is a great way to get past that first step of getting paint on the canvas. Often, the first brushstroke is the hardest.
In Summary:
- use a large, flat brush
- do an under painting
- use a neutral wash
- block in the basic shapes
- look for shadows, midtones and highlights
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