Composition Skillbuilder for drawing a Landscape

This is a short post with a few ideas about composing a landscape. It is ideal for a young artist who wants to draw a picture of the countryside but doesn't know where to begin. 

Here is an opportunity to improve your abilities to sketch a landscape.

Choose your compositional form steel yard, "L," or Golden mean. Steelyard is a balance between a large object and a smaller object opposite. "L" is just as it sounds like, there are large objects forming a shaped like an "L." The Golden mean is a point of interest that is beside and lower than the center.

Decide on a horizon line, anywhere but the center. Choose a background like mountains, hills, or trees. Add clouds and trees bushes and details, you should come up with some ideas on your own; look through your photos, magazines, and calendars to get inspiration. Fill in the spaces with a texture like grass.

Thank you for visiting my blog.  I hope this project is fun and helpful for you. 

To find more like it see the labels at the right or choose one of the favorites in the left sidebar.  I am sure you will find one you like.

Adron

(C)Adron Dozat

Printable Painting Worksheet, How To Paint Two Flowers In A Vase.

This is a simple how-to print a picture lesson and worksheet, but when it is done, it will look nice in a frame or on a greeting card. 

The flowers are inspired by the red coneflowers in my wife's garden, but it could be adapted for white daisies or yellow ones very easily.  Parents and teachers will be able to use this printable worksheet in class or as a take-home project.

Remember learning to paint takes practice, so do one or two as practice first.

A WORD ABOUT PRINTING THE WORKSHEET

To print the free worksheet above just highlight it and send it to your printer.  If you have problems printing, CLICK HERE to visit the -how-to-print page for some suggestions. . Some printers work better with this type of image if you drag it to the desktop and print from there.

Printable How To Paint Flowers in a Vase Worksheet

My printables are free, so print as many as you like I only ask that you consider making a donation. Your gift of support will enable me to create more worksheets for you. 

Thank you for your support.

Below is a file that may print better on some printers.

CLICK HERE to go to an image file that may work better with newer printers.

PRINTABLE LESSON NOTES

COPY
Trace the outline of the project onto some 140 lb watercolor paper.  If the watercolor paper is too thick to see through then hold it against a window with daylight shining through then you should be able to trace it.

FIRST STEPS
Start with the background. Use a light blue with a large brush and try to keep it smooth.  Use a small brush to get around the flower and vase.

The table is brown so use a large brush to cover the area of the table.

ADD DEPTH TO THE BACKGROUND
In the lower area add a little darker blue or violet.

SHADOW ON THE TABLE.
Mix a little lavender with the light brown and put a little around the base of the vase on the shadow side.

FIRST STEP VASE
Use the same colors at the background and the table but use them lighter and watery to fill in the vase. Do not paint the entire vase leave some areas white

FIRST STEP FLOWERS
Coneflowers are a beautiful red/orange color. Start with light colors by using a lot of water.  Use a small brush and paint the flower petals red, and the center is orange.

Paint the stem a light green.

LET IT DRY

After this step dries add detail with a small brush.  Do not use too much water.  Mix lavender and red and with the small brush draw details by using the very tip of the brush.  Draw the shadows and lines in the petals, and where the petals connect to the flower.

Use brown to add a dark center to the center of the flower and add a dark side to the center.  Draw a green/brown line on the shadow side of the stems.

Use a watery black or dark blue and give the vase some shadows around the edge and on the shadow side

(c)Adron D. 7/16/15

Easy Lesson For Painting A Simple Still Life, Cup of Tea

I am delighted to share with you my how-to-paint a simple still life lesson and printable worksheet. 

This free worksheet is a simple lesson in the form of a printable worksheet that you can print and give to your kids.

This is a watercolor project with a cup of tea, creamer, sugar bowl, spoon, and napkin on a table. Most of the subjects are white, so we do minimal work on them- just a little wash-in to give shadows and roundness. The dark background is a contrast that brings the subjects forward. We keep things simple so everyone will have good results.

If you have problems printing, see the HOW TO PRINT tab for suggestions.

Easy Painting Lesson for Still Life With Tea Cup

I am happy to create these and share them with you for free. You are welcome to download and print as many as you like.

Thank You!

CLICK HERE to go to an image file that works better with newer printers.

LESSON NOTES

FIRST
Trace the outline of the still life onto 140 lb watercolor paper. If the paper is too thick to trace, try holding it against the window with the light shining through to trace it.

UNDER-WASH
The background is dark but does not use straight black.
1 Start by getting the background area around the subjects wet.
2 Drop-in watery blues and reds or blues and browns.
3. Clean your brush and swish the colors around a little to blend but have interesting clouds.
4 Drop-in some watery black but just a little where the background meets the foreground or around the shapes of the subjects. This way, the background looks interesting and not just flat. If it is splotchy, use a clean brush with some water and smooth things out a bit.

Use a very watery wash of red for the table cloth, add lavender and dark blue for the shadows.

Give the lids their first wash of pale blue and use a blue-gray mixture to shadow the white cup, creamer, and sugar bowl.

Drop a little darker blues, violets, and lavenders into the watery shadow areas on the cup, creamer, and sugar bowl to give it a more round look.

Drop a little darker blue into the shadow side of the blue lids on the creamer and sugar bowl.

Add a little of the darks around the handles of the cup and creamer.

Use a slight brown on the napkin and some gray on the spoon.

Add green in the cup for the tea and some green for the teabag tag.

ART SUPPLY LIST

You can use any watercolor paint. I prefer my small Windsor Newton paint set; it has a nice selection of colors. I also use Grumbacher Paints in the tubes.  You can easily find these at any craft store like Lobby Hobby or Michaels. (Look for coupons online.) You can collect lots of paintbrushes, but it is better at the start to keep it simple with a few small, medium, and medium-large brushes and a combination of flats as well as rounded paintbrushes. For these art lessons, I use Strathmore series 300 Watercolor paper. It is economical and available at Michaels and Hobby Lobby and online

(c) Adron D. 7/12/15

How To Paint Blossoms Easy Watercolor Worksheet For the Young Artist.

How to paint spring blossoms is a simple little watercolor project

This worksheet will give the young artist some ideas about how-to-paint a beautiful picture. 

👇👇👇 SCROLL DOWN TO ACCESS THE FREE PDF

This printable worksheet and lesson can be used in class or art camp or an activity for the homeschool art student.

How to paint Blossoms in Watercolor Worksheet

Below is a link to a file that may print better. 

CLICK HERE to go to an image file that may work better with newer printers.

A WORD ABOUT PRINTING

To print the worksheet, just highlight it and send it to your printer or save it to your device to print later. If you have problems printing, click here for helpful tips or try the updated link. 

PRINTABLE LESSON NOTES

FIRST
One of the most important things in any painting is the composition, take time to design your picture. Do some sketches and look at photos. Nothing fixes a bad composition no matter how good your technique or skill you must start with a good drawing.

HOW TO TRACE, My worksheet has an image that you can trace or copy. It is hard to trace through heavy watercolor paper so I tape the study sketch to a window with the sunlight coming through and then it is easier to trace.

BACKGROUND
Some may say do the background last others say first and you may approach different projects differently, but since the flower is white do the background first so you can see your progress.   Wet the background with clean clear water and then wash in the color so it is all smooth. If your paper is a good quality that will be easy since the water will sit and wait for the color. Try dropping a little darker blue into the sky blue near the top and let it blend a little.

LEAVES (Middle ground)
Paint the leaves in two distinct separate steps. First using a light green fill them in evenly and completely.

Second LET THAT DRY

Third, on your mixing tray add a little red into green and using a small brush draw the details of the leaves. Draw in the veins and the shadows. Where one leaf is behind another give the one behind a darker edge next to the one in front, and where the leaves are nearest the blossom use the red-green mixture to make them look like they are in the shadow of the blossom.

THE BLOSSOM (foreground)
The blossom is mostly white but has an edge of red and a hint of green in the center. Do each petal one by one. Take a small brush and pick up some watery red. On the outermost edge of the petal put a little red at the edge at the tip.  While it is wet take a clean medium brush with only water on it and starting at the center of the flower wet the petal and use the brush to push water to the red edge. The red should flow into the clear water and be paler as it nears the center. Keep some tissue nearby and use it to blot up if the red is too dark or goes too far. You only want a little red. Repeat for each of the five blossoms.

While it is still wet use a watery almost clear mix of green and dab a little in the center.

Last dot some yellow in the center and use some green-brown for the stem.

(c) Adron 6/28/15

My worksheets are free but they take a lot of my time to create. Please, if you are able, make a small contribution through the Paypal button or the DONATE tab so that I can create more for you. Thank y ou. 

Home School Art Lesson

Spectrum Homeschool Art Lesson.

One of the problems in teaching young people to draw is the skill of looking. We glance at a thing and recognize what it is and then draw the subject but it is not the one we looked at it is that one and the inventory of all the others we have seen stored in our memory. The details of the one that we are drawing are lost because we are not drawing it we are drawing on of it.

In class we remind ourselves to "Look at the thing you are drawing as much as you look at the drawing of the thing."

We use our own non dominate hand as our subject with the emphasis of observing the uniqueness of that hand. In a sense the students have seen that hand every day of their lives but now they are to really look at it, and try to recreate as many details of that one hand as possible.

Before we draw the hand we have a general review of the hand and it's shapes, and form.


(c)Adron Dozat

Thank you for visiting my blog.  I hope this project is fun and helpful for you. 

To find more like it see the labels at the right, use the search-box above, or choose one of the favorites in the left sidebar.  I am sure you will find one you like.

Adron

These are free to print but your small gift will help me keep this blog going, Choose your gift amount.

Option 1 $2.00 USD Option 2 $4.00 USD Option 3 $10.00 USD

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Drawing Lesson On Using Line To Create Texture In A Drawing.

Texture can add a lot of interest to a picture as well as depth and value. This lesson deals specifically with a pen drawing but the concepts will translate in other mediums such as pencil, and pastel.

A rural cottage was used in the illustration but still-life or other theme works as well. The advantage of the landscape is the variety of textures such as rock, tree bark, grass leaves, etc. It helps to work off of a photo or to go outside where there is a lot of natural texture to discover.

There are different catalogs of lines but each artist must find his own preference and master the ones that work best for them.

Illustration for using line for texture in a drawing.Art lesson

Your gift of support will enable me to create more worksheets for you. 

Thank you for your support.

WARM-UP
On a practice paper experiment with different lines such as small scribbles, rolling lines, wavy lines, straight dashes, curved dashes, and dashes where the pressure goes from firm to light.

BEGINNING OF PROJECT
This is not going to be a masterpiece, the goal is to learn how lines can create texture.
Quickly layout the picture, in the illustration a rural cottage was drawn lightly with minimal detail so that the texture can be used to fill in the body of the drawing.

TAKE YOUR TIME!!!!

FACING WALL ON RIGHT: The lines used for the wall facing the viewer appears to be constructed with flat flagstones. So the texture is mostly short horizontal lines. These lines are also thinner and lighter so use less pressure.

WALL ON THE LEFT: Looks to be another flagstone wall but different. Use horizontal dashes.

BUSH IN FOREGROUND: The texture is like a wiggly line that is wider at the base and narrower to a point at the end.

FOREGROUND WALLS: These look like larger stones, the texture is made of squares or rectangles.

DISTANT WALLS. Distance reduces detail, the wall has a texture of dashes.

FOREGROUND BUSH: The lines go in swirly patterns. The line goes around and over itself.

DISTANT BUSH AND TREES. The lines are open scribbles with as little pattern as possible.

ROOF: Light lines, shaped like the letter L or number 7.

Dashes and dots were used in various places in the illustration as well.

(c) Adron Dozat
1/11/15

Representational Drawing of an Odd Shaped Object.

I admit that I borrowed this idea from a class my daughter took.

The purpose is to develop observation skills.

It is a good practice to draw something that is not part of your mental inventory- you have to look at it.

We took a soda can and partially crumpled it. This reduced the cylinder shape by giving it wrinkles and folds. The crumpled can will have many angles with light reflecting that require observation.

This illustration was done in a sketchbook with an hb pencil.

Illustration of drawing by observation.

One of my many rules is to look at the thing you are drawing as much as you are looking at the drawing you are making of the thing.

Thank you for visiting my blog.  I hope this project is fun and helpful for you. 

To find more like it see the labels at the right, use the search-box above, or choose one of the favorites in the left sidebar.  I am sure you will find one you like.

Adron

These are free to print but your small gift will help me keep this blog going, Choose your gift amount.

Option 1 $2.00 USD Option 2 $4.00 USD Option 3 $10.00 USD

Use the share buttons below to share this, Thank you.

(C) Adron 11/1/14 ©