Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Acrylic Painting

The first acrylic paint was magna paint which was generated by Leonard Bocour and Sam Golden in the year 1947. This paint was ultimately reformulated in 1960 and is the basis of all the acrylic paints and acrylic painting techniques. Acrylic paints are fast drying paints, that are primarily made up of acrylic polymer emulsion and have pigments suspended within the emulsion. The specialty of these paints is that they get reduced with the help of water, but once they dry they turn waterproof. This characteristic of the paint has been significantly used in many different abstract acrylic painting techniques. Another well-known feature of these paints is that they dry up very quickly.

Acrylic Painting Tips and Techniques

Painters and artisans are almost never out of ideas, when it appears to acrylic painting techniques.

Preventing the Paint from drying

The quick drying of the acrylic paint is often believed to be a drawback of these paints. These paints also dry faster than the normal oil paints, when utilized on a canvas surface. The technique to prevent the acrylic paint from drying at a quicker rate is spraying it lightly with water. This keeps the upper surface of the paint moist and you can easily alter parts of this surface. Some artisans also use pallets that preserve moisture. In cases where such pallets are not available, sheets of grease-proof paper or wet color paper can also be applied.

Creation of Fluid Paints

Diluted types of acrylic paints can be easily used for glazing and washes, which have a more fluid texture. Water and paint can be used in proportion to create suitable fluid textures. The mixture of paint and water is generally known as a 'glaze'. The proportion of water and acrylic paint can be changed to create different textures. Some of the prominent textures are opaque glaze and the translucent glaze.

Depth

Painting glazes are other very generally used acrylic painting techniques, where the glaze is made by diluting acrylic paint with the help of water. This mixture of water and paint is used to add a depth to the painting. The 'debt' is achieved in the painting by making a translucent glaze that can be painted over the main subject of the painting, which gives a 3 dimensional form to the painting.

Pour Painting

Pour painting is one of the most creative of all the acyclic painting techniques. The paint is initially diluted with water. The mixture of paint and water is then artistically discharged over the canvas. In some paintings this method is used to give passive finishing touches to the painting, where the subject of the painting has already been finished. Some very skilled painters have used pour painting as a medium of painting, instead of using pour paint to provide the finishing touches.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Islamic art

The term Islamic art not only explains the art created specifically in the service of the Muslim faith (for example, a mosque and its furnishings) but also characterizes the art and architecture historically produced in the lands ruled by Muslims, produced for Muslim patrons, or created by Muslim artists. As it is not only a religion but a way of life, Islam fostered the development of a distinctive culture with its own unique artistic language that is replicated in art and architecture throughout the Muslim world.

The lands newly occupied by the Muslims had their own preexisting artistic traditions and, initially at least, those artists who had worked under Byzantine or Sasanian patronage continued to work in their own indigenous styles but for Muslim patrons. The first examples of Islamic art therefore rely on earlier techniques, styles, and forms reflecting this combining of classical and Iranian decorative themes and motifs. Even religious monuments raised under Umayyad patronage that have a clearly Islamic function and meaning, such as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, demonstrate this amalgam of Greco-Roman, Byzantine, and Sasanian elements.

Only steadily, under the impact of the Muslim faith and nascent Islamic state, did a uniquely Islamic art emerge. The rule of the Umayyad caliphate (661–750) is frequently considered to be the formative period in Islamic art. One method of classifying Islamic art, used in the Islamic galleries at the Metropolitan Museum, is according to the dynasty reigning when the work of art was formed. This type of periodization follows the general precepts of Islamic history, which is separated into and punctuated by the rule of various dynasties, beginning with the Umayyad and cAbbasid dynasties that governed a vast and unified Islamic state, and concluding with the more regional, though powerful, dynasties such as the Safavids, Ottomans, and Mughals.

With its geographic spread and long history, Islamic art was inevitably focus to a wide range of regional and even national styles and influences as well as changes within the various periods of its development. It is all the more remarkable then that, even under these circumstances, Islamic art has always maintained its intrinsic quality and unique identity. Just as the religion of Islam embodies a way of life and provides as a cohesive force among ethnically and culturally diverse peoples, the art produced by and for Muslim societies has basic identifying and unifying characteristics. Perhaps the most significant of these is the predilection for all-over surface decoration. The four basic elements of Islamic ornament are calligraphy, vegetal patterns, geometric patterns, and figural representation.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Oil Painting

Oil paints are extremely adaptable. They can be used densely in impasto or extremely thinly in glazes; they can be opaque or transparent. Here are a few tips to help you obtain the most from your oils.

Tip 1:

Always put your oil paints out on your palette in the same categorize so that, with time, you'll be able to pick up a bit of a color instinctively.

Tip 2:
The proportion of oil (medium) should be increased for each succeeding layer in an oil painting – known as painting 'fat over lean' – because the lower layers absorb oil from the layers on top of them. If the upper layers dry quicker than the lower ones, they can crack.

Tip 3:
Avoid using Ivory Black for an under painting or sketching as it dries a lot slower than other oil paints.

Tip 4:
Pigments including lead, cobalt, and manganese accelerate drying। They can be mixed with other colours to speed up drying and are ideal for under layers. (Student-quality paints usually contain cheaper alternatives to these pigments, generally labeled hues.

Tip 5:
Use linseed oil for an under painting or in the bottom layers of any oil painting done wet-on-dry as it dries the most methodically of all the oils used as mediums.

Tip 6:
Avoid using linseed oil as a medium in whites and blues as it has a noticeable tendency to yellow, which is most notable with light colours. Poppy oil is recommended for light colours as it has the slightest tendency to yellow (although it does dry slower).

Tip 7:
Don't dry the oil paintings in the dark। This may cause a thin film of oil to increase to the surface, yellowing it. (This can be removed by exposure to bright daylight.

Tip 8:
If, the same as the paint on your palette dries it forms a lot of wrinkles, too much oil (medium) has been added.

Tip 9:
If you're not sure whether a bottle of mineral or white spirits is suitable for oil painting, put a small quantity on a piece of paper and let it evaporate. If it evaporates without leaving any residue, stain, or smell, it should be well.

Tip 10:
If you want to clean away a layer of oil paint or oil varnish, use alcohol, which is a great solvent.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

How to Fix Mistakes and Remove Errors in a Watercolor Painting

  1. Make a decision whether it really is a mistake or whether it adds an unexpected quality to the painting. Consider letting the painting go in its own direction rather than forcing your preconceived thoughts on it.
  2. If you do want to get rid of something, and you've only just put down the paint, try stimulating it out with a piece of paper towel, absorbent cloth or sponge. Don't rub or press tough as you'll push the paint into the paper. Rather, strike very gently, using the paper towel's ability to absorb liquid (paint). A dry brush will also work -- clean it on a cloth to remove the moisture in it, then put the very tip onto the wet paint; the brush hairs will absorb the paint.
  3. If the paint has begun to dry, leave it to dry completely. This may appear a counter-intuitive, but by leaving it to dry the paint will be on the surface of the paper and painting. Then take a clean, slightly damp brush (not one that's very wet) and gently brush on the area you want to remove, functioning into an adjacent bit of the painting, then use paper towel to lift the paint.
  4. If the paint doesn't come off in one go, don't scrub with the brush on the paper as you're possible to damage it. Quite, leave the watercolor to dry and then repeat the process.
  5. If you believe the whole painting is a disaster but don't want to waste the sheet of paper, submerge it in a bowl of clean water to soak out as much paint as possible. Enlarge the piece of paper again. It'll probably keep a shadow of your previous painting, so it'll be better suited to a dark or colorful scene than a light, bright one.