Pixel Paint Scrapblog – Scrapbooking Tips and Ideas

Chilli hot red! Burnt orange! Aubergine! Pea green! Sky blue! Its time to put some colour back in our homes. Gone are the 1990s when interior design was all about neutrals and soothing pallets. Dreary safe schemes just don’t do it for us any more. So here’s a guide to putting some “va va voom” back in your room. For more information go to interior paints

First lets understand colour. Colours are primary, secondary and tertiary. The three primary colours are red, yellow and blue. Mix these in equal quantities and you get secondary colours – orange, green and purple. But mix the primaries in unequal quantities and you get a whole range of colours and different hues, for instance lighter or darker purple according to the mix of red and blue. And then tints are created by adding black or white.

A colour wheel is a useful tool that shows you the different colours in the visible spectrum. Colours that are next to each other are “family colours” and work well together (for instance blue is next to green). Colours that are opposite each other on the wheel are contrasting and can look very striking together, for example red and green.

When choosing colours for a room, whether you are going to use them in small or large quantities, you need to understand the mood and effect they will give.

Neutrals include off whites and pastels and can be useful, classic background colours. Although light and bright a completely neutral scheme can be bland and needs to be accented with contrasting or bright colours to give a room depth. Naturals are often stronger colours than neutrals, taken from nature, plant and earth colours and also natural materials such as wood and stone. These colours can be soothing and calming but should be used carefully; too much brown or olive green can look drab.

Red is an incredibly diverse colour. It can be deep and dark or bright and bold. Red is meant to be invigorating and many think it stimulates your appetite, so it is often used in dining rooms. It is a great accent colour to use on one wall or for accessories, surrounded by more cooling colours such as neutrals.

Blue is cool and calming and is a popular colour for bathrooms and bedrooms. Dark and light shades can be teamed together very effectively to create a harmonious effect. Go to paint for more information.

Yellow reminds us of sunshine and happiness. It ranges from acid, citrus tones through to deeper autumnal shades. Yellow can work well in darker, north facing rooms. It partners well with many colours, according to the shade, it can look great with browns, greys, greens and of course black and white.

Green is a very popular decorative colour. It is warmer than blue, and is associated with nature, having a calming effect. Some greens are very strong or acidic and should be used carefully, others are passive and relaxing and can easily be used on all walls in a room.

So how do you choose which of these colours will work for you? Finding the starting point can be the most difficult part when redecorating.

If a room is to have a dominant piece of furniture or painting then that can be a good place to start. Decide what will complement or highlight that item and go from there. Similarly if you travel you may have rugs, pottery or other items that you can use to set the tone. Alternatively you could use the style of your home as inspiration. Many paint manufacturers now offer traditional colours from the Victorian or Georgian eras that can help restore period homes.

If you need to touch and feel a scheme then furniture stores have room displays that can help you imagine what a scheme would look like in your own home. Similarly interiors magazines can be a great source of ideas, you can create a scrap book or mood board to capture ideas that appeal.

Just be wary of being too radical. If you enjoyed your holiday in Morroco, creating a “souk” in your living room may be tempting but its probably worth paring down, to suit the light and style of your home. Otherwise it could end up looking incongruous.

Colour allows you to stamp your individuality on your home and set it apart from the rest. So take time to work out a scheme that reflects the way you want to live and that works well in your home. Visit paint colors for more information.

When it comes time to decorate your babys first room, you probably already have a lot of ideas in your head. You may wish to paint the walls pink or blue as is traditionally done, or you may want to go another way completely. Some families choose yellow or light green because they are great for either gender, and others go a completely different way. If you really want something special, you might want to consider nursery wall murals as an alternative. These are usually more colorful than your average nursery, and they can be a lot of fun.

You can create nursery wall murals in almost any theme you want. You can use soothing colors at first, and that is probably the best idea. If the colors are too bright, you are going to stimulate your baby when they need to be resting. Go for soothing colors like pastels. Once your baby gets a little older, you can do nursery wall murals in almost any color you want. You may find that the bolder the colors, the more your child will love being in that room.

When it comes to choosing your nursery wall murals, the sky is the limit. Many parents like to go with their children’s favorite themes and shows. I have seen beautiful nursery wall murals done with the Wiggles, and I only wish I was talented enough to do something like that for my little Wiggles nut. I have also seen great ones that feature Winnie The Pooh and Thomas the Train. No matter what you choose, remember that as long as your baby likes it, you can’t go wrong, even if the mural is not perfect.

You can hire someone to do nursery wall murals for you, but it is also something you can do yourself. If you know anything about painting, this will be something you can do in a snap. If you don’t think you have an artist bone in your body, you can still do it. All you need to do is trace a scene out of a coloring book on clear paper and then use a projection machine to project the image on to the wall in the size you want. After that, you can trace the image onto the wall and fill in the color. It doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to be done in love. The rest is just details.

Materials are important to the artist and like most things in life, it is better to obtain the best that you can possibly afford. Painting isn´t always an easy craft – so your tools are clearly important to you.

For example, if you choose mediocre materials the final result arrived at will probably reflect this.

If you go for quality it should certainly obtain improved results.

As a contemporary artist I can tell you that you require a firm support to paint on, together with a mixed selection of colours and certainly good brushes. Brushes are important! You need one that is both clean, a naturally good shape, but that is also flexible. With a good brush you can draw freely and not just make a certain size brushmarks.

If you use short, bristled brushes they do not usually seem to give a particularly good finish.

If, for instance, you want to draw a persons head you require an amount of flexibility and a precise touch. To achieve this you need to be drawing with the paint continually and in small accurate strokes.

As brushes go I find that it is a fine idea to have a few sables that are pointed, as well as a few hog hair brushes. If you use a flat brush you can get delicacy by lying it on its side.

If you wish to draw well and put down patches of colour, you need brushes that have fairly long hair, filbert, round or flat, so they are flexible.

When you purchase good quality brushes then they should stay in shape well, but it is a must that they are washed at the end of each painting session. It is pretty obvious they will not be good for long unless you treat them well.

What will help you? Well, being a contemporary artist, I normally keep an old jam jar filled with turps substitute at my side. This you can use for cleaning out the brushes whilst you are painting and of course when you finish your work for the day. It is recommended that you should clean them thoroughly in this, preferably dry them on an old piece of rag and then finally it is usual to give them a wash with some soap and water.

It is easier to hold the soap in one hand and rub the brushes across it, then clean them gently in your hand with your fingers. Next rinse in water and then start to reshape the bristles with your fingers.

This sounds a lot to do, but normally should never take long to do, but it is important.

Occasionally if you are tired you may forget to do this and then find you will be mad with yourself the following day.

Actually most people seem to collect quite a varied collection of brushes but end up using only six or seven at a time. As with everything else you have your favourites and really you do not necessarily need a large stock. You find that you still use your very old ones. These are very good on wide areas of painting as they are well worn and this saves on your newer brushes as it tends to wear them down.

This article was written by Anna Meenaghan of http://annameenaghanart.com

The art of video gaming – buy PlayStation 3 blog tips.

Enter a few key search terms into Google, and you’ll find a wide selection at the touch of your fingerprints. There’s no need to have to scour every part of the city for that hard to get item. Everything that fits in a studio can easily be found through a search engine, with such a wide selection competing for your business that bottom dollar for top quality has become the company standard.

Chicago is a Mecca of art, and artists know how to take care of their own. Thanks to the versatility of the Internet, however, you no longer have to be within the city limits to take advantage of its art possibilities. The resources of Chicago are readily available on-line. A few seconds of research unbolts unlimited possibilities.

From easels to a mat cutter to printmaking supplies, Chicago artists have been finding the root ingredients for their work in an encompassing market that’s the pride of the industry. Thanks to the digital age, the art resources of Chicago are accessible to everyone, conveniently accessible.

Why pay retail for art supplies that are readily accessible at a third of the cost? The prices of elite brand name products vary according to supply and demand. As the web turns the marketplace for art supplies world wide, you can take the best opportunities to take advantage of competitive pricing. Buy more elite resources for less.

Artists have to be versatile, making the most of every penny. That makes discount bargain hunting imperative to survival. Affordable art supplies in Chicago react to the seller’s market. As the web makes first-rate use of supply, keeping you up on bargains even if they are on the other side of the world.

It’s a small world after all. Affordable art supplies in Chicago in Chicago are accessible to all, no matter how far you live from the windy city. Make the most of the discounts accessible on the web. You’ll save money and headaches, knowing these supplies are accessible at the touch of your fingertips. Finding affordable supplies, no matter how long it’s been since you were in Chicago, is as simple as an Internet search.

Your Free Beginners Oil Painting Tips – Solvents Mediums and Varnishes

If you paint with oils you will need a solvent to clean your brushes and thin your paints. Of course, if you paint with water soluble oils then your solvent will be water.

Turpentine is a standard solvent used to thin ordinary oil paints. You can purchase turpentine in any art supply store or hardware store.

Some artists work with mineral spirits. These are also available in hardware stores. To save money, buy the largest available quantity and use a smaller container when you do your actual painting.

Tube oil paint can be difficult to manipulate. Some colors are stiffer than others and may be hard to evenly distribute over your canvas. To solve this problem, artists often need to mix their tube paints with a so-called painting medium.

A painting medium is a liquid solution that makes the oil paint smoother and easier to manipulate. Adding any one of a number of different painting mediums changes the consistency of the paint. Some mediums are meant to make the paint thinner for glazing and others are meant to make the paint thicker for impasto painting.

The most basic medium is regular turpentine. Adding a little turpentine thins oils paint. Another frequently used medium is linseed oil, which makes the paint more fluid but, over time, it also tends to yellow the paint. The most commonly used medium is a combination of turpentine and linseed oil, sometimes with the addition of a little damar varnish.

Begin by experimenting with a half-and-half mixture of turpentine and linseed oil. Because linseed oil slows down the drying process, you may want to increase the proportion of turpentine.

Once you find the medium you like, mix a batch and store it in a tightly sealed jar. As you paint, dip your brush into the medium, then add a little paint, then mix them together on your palette.

Preliminary compositions can be drawn on your canvas with a so-called thin turp wash, i.e., a little bit of paint with a lot of turpentine. A turp wash evaporates very quickly, so you can quickly paint over them.

In general, the more turpentine you use the matter the finish will be and the more linseed oil you use the glossier it will be. If you like robust, permanently visible brushstrokes, you may want to use less dry.

Special painting mediums are also available that change the oil paint in different ways. The most common are those that shorten or lengthen the drying time of the oil paint. Check your art supply store or the Internet to see the available types of mediums. All medium bottles will show instructions on how best to use the particular medium.

Oil paintings must be varnished to protect them from undesirable elements such as dirt and toxins. Varnish is a clear solution made from a resin and turpentine or some other solvent.

In art-supply stores you will see two major types, retouching varnish and picture varnish. Depending on the paint layer thickness, it can take six months or more for an oil painting to dry. In the meantime, the surface of the painting needs to be protected with a coat of retouching varnish. After the varnish is applied, the turpentine evaporates, and leaving a thin protective coat. You can apply retouching varnish as soon as the paint feels dry to the touch.

Picture varnish contains more resin than retouching varnish. It should be applied about six months after you complete a painting. If you paint with impasto-like brushstrokes, you may have to wait as long as a year before applying the final coat.

Both types of varnish are applied in the same manner. Using a broad, flat nylon brush, apply the varnish evenly using horizontal strokes. You can also use retouching varnish to brighten dry dull patches in your painting.

Learn also how to draw with pencil and read these upper back tattoos publications.

Free Beginners Oil Painting – Canvas Priming

When you refuse to buy any of the pre-fabricated canvases you can always buy a roll of primed or raw canvas cloth. The first step in the process towards constructing a finished canvas is the stretching of the canvas. Once the stretching is done it is time to prime the canvas cloth if you bought a roll of raw canvas.

The reason it is necessary to prime a raw canvas is that both linen and cotton cloth will eventually rot when saturated with oil paint.

Here are the steps to be executed in the priming process:

1) After stretching the raw canvas, evenly brush the weak glue or gelatin solution onto the raw canvas using a wide nylon or bristle brush. Note, do not stretch raw canvas too tight, because the priming will shrink the canvas cloth and therefore tighten it automatically.

2) When the fabric dries, coat it with a mixture of white lead in oil and turpentine, again using a wide brush.

3) Once the canvas is dry, sand it lightly.

4) Then, apply a second coat of the white lead in oil and turpentine solution, and sand the canvas again.

All these materials and the accompanying instructions can be bought in a serious art supply store or on the Internet.

Many artists also enjoy working on wood panels, which is a proving support for oil painting. The old masters worked on oak, poplar, and mahogany, but today “wood panel” can mean anything from a piece of poplar to plywood to Masonite.

Wood panels are perfect for rendering intricate, detailed subjects where the weave of the canvas might be too uneven. You can buy prepared boards or you can make your own. You must prime the panel with gesso before you begin painting. Dilute the gesso with water; apply it with a wide housepainter’s brush, let it dry, and then sand it smooth.

You can also oil paint on watercolor paper or vellum. You can size the paper with an acrylic medium first so that the oil paint does not eventually rot the paper. If you want to make your painting last longer (permanence) you need to choose heavy paper of at least 200 lbs.

This is the end of short primer on priming different grounds for the purpose of oil painting. There is much more to learn but this will give you enough information to go to a reputable art supply store and be able to converse intelligently on the subject of priming and priming methods.

Learn how to draw with pencil on this web site.

For the upper back tattoos info read this blog.

Beginners Oil Painting Tips and Advice – Canvas Stretching

If you find that commercial pre-stretched canvas is too expensive or if you are just interested, you can make your own canvases. You can buy rolls of primed or raw canvas in various sizes and qualities. Once bought, the first thing to do is to stretch a canvas of a desired size using stretcher bars.

The stretching process is fairly straightforward. You will need to buy stretcher bars. You can find them in any serious art supply store or on the Internet. Stretcher bars have tongue-and-groove corners and are usually 1.25 or 2.5 inches wide. You can order them in various lengths up to 72 inches.

To make one canvas you will need 2 sets of 2 equal bars. All four bars should fit together tightly and no nails are used. After you have assembled the stretcher, use a T-square to check if the four corners are square.

Now, stretching a piece of canvas involves the following steps:

1) Center the stretcher on top of a piece of canvas that is 1.5 inches larger that the stretcher on all sides.

2) Fold the canvas around a set of two opposing bars. Using a tack (usually included with each set of bars) fasten one side of the canvas to the center of the bar.

Then stretch the canvas by hand or with canvas pliers and tack the other side in the middle of the other bar. A straight line in the form of a crease running from one tack to the other should now be visible.

3) Next, repeat the procedure of 2) with the two other opposing sides of the canvas. A diamond shaped pattern should now be visible.

4) From here on, you continue from the middle of one of the bars and add a tack every 3 inches or so until you reach the corners. At the corners, nicely fold one end of the canvas under the other end and fasten this corner piece onto the bar with another tack.

Do not trim excess canvas. Instead, fold it over the back of the stretcher and tack it down just in case you need to re-stretch the canvas in the future.

5) If you notice any wrinkles in the canvas, you can remove one or two tacks in the right places, pull the canvas taut, and replace the tacks.

6) Usually the stretcher bars come with a set of so-called keys, i.e., small wooden wedges. These keys fit into slots at the inner corners of the stretchers and if necessary will further tighten the canvas. However, it is best to wait and see if the canvas actually slackens over time. If so you can pound the keys into slots at that time.

Note that nowadays, most artists use staples and a staple gun to fix the canvas to the stretcher. This approach is quicker and more convenient. However, for the sake of permanence and stability, it is still a good idea to use a regular tack in the middle of each of the bars.

Finally, when a painting is finished you may want to loosely place a sheet of cardboard inside the back of the stretcher. This will protect the back of your canvas.

Once you are used to the procedure, stretching a canvas goes fairly quickly. It is quite a bit cheaper than buying pre-stretched canvas. However, there still remains the task of priming the canvas in case you bought a roll of raw canvas. But, as far as stretching a canvas in concerned, this is all there is to it.

Read more about how to draw with pencil.

For the tattoo tips info – check this post.

Beginners Oil Painting Info – Oil Painting Supports

A ground or support is any kind of surface you can paint on. The choice of ground is in quite important because it determines in part how your painting will be perceived by the viewer.

Your support must satisfy a minimum of conditions. It must accept the paint well without absorbing too much of the pigment.

The least expensive oil painting ground is treated paper. It is very useful for practice and even for doing certain commercial work. You can also buy canvas pads. These pads usually contain 10 sheets of medium tooth 5-oz cotton canvas that has been triple-primed with acrylic gesso. The tooth of paper or canvas is the degree of roughness or smoothness of the canvas. You can tape the oil paper or canvas pad paper to a drawing board. Make sure it is secure and does not shift when applying brushstrokes.

Next in line are the popular canvas boards or panels which are sheets of cardboard covered with inex-pensive white painted cloth. These panels are very popularity because they are inexpensive (particularly when bought in bulk), easy to store, and easy to carry outdoors. They are however not permanent, i.e., they will deteriorate over time.

Good results can also be obtained from un-tempered Masonite or 3-ply chipboard prepared with three coats of gesso on the front and one coat on the back to prevent warping.

You can also use so-called museum board which is on the order of good-quality mat board. This board is quit absorbent but is inexpensive to practice on.

The ultimate ground for oil painting is canvas stretched over a wooden frame. It has wonderful elasticity and resilience, and history has shown that it has very good permanence. Canvas is of course more expensive but when you’re ready this will be your ground of choice and you’ll never want to go back to anything else.

You can buy commercially pre-stretched canvas. In fact, there are plenty of brands, sizes, weights, and qualities to choose from. Only experience will teach you which type of canvas is best suited to your style and subject matter.

Canvas cloth is either cotton or linen. The finest canvas and most expensive is made of linen, which stretches better and has a better tooth. Cotton can be a bit difficult to prime.

Look for cloth with an even weave. The canvas tex-ture can be tightly woven and smooth to fairly coarse with an open weave. That means the tooth of the canvas can be fine or coarse and anything in-between.

If you paint a lot, even commercially pre-stretched canvas can become expensive. If so, you can buy rolls of primed or unprimed (raw) canvas. Then with stretcher bars you can create a support of a certain size. If you bought unprimed canvas, you still have to prime the canvas with an oil-based primer.

To save money you may be tempted to work on small canvases. This is not recommended. Unless you are an experienced artist, working on a small ground can easily result in tight, overly controlled paintings.

Read also about how to draw with pencil and tattoo tips.

Beginners Oil Painting Info and Tips – Painting Values

It may come as a surprise to most people when I say that the colors in a painting are not the first thing the viewer’s brain takes in. In fact, the viewer’s brain will subconsciously go for the values first.

The eye is very sensitive to variations in darks and lights. The colors themselves have each their own value. It is therefore just as important to reproduce the values in a painting as it is in a drawing. We must understand that if the value of the color is wrong then the actual color is wrong.

Every color has three facets to it: hue (red, yellow, etc.), value (dark, light, etc.), and intensity (bright, dull, etc.). And, in fact, boring as it may sound, value is the most important of the three. It is through value that we can reproduce the correct lighting of a scene. Hue by itself cannot do this.

In order to understand value better it is a good exercise to now and then paint a complete scene in black and white. This is far from a waste of time. Aside from being quite nice a black and white painting gives you the training in seeing values which you cannot do without if you are going to become a good painter.

The setup of a still-life, for example, proceeds as follows:

Objects – Choose a number of objects of varying values, i.e., from white all the way to black. Arrange these objects in a pleasing composition. You may actually make a few small sketches so you can see how your composition will look on a flat surface. Remember, the main purpose of this exercise is to learn how to visually separate the value from the hue. This does not come naturally and is a skill to be learned.

Lighting – Use a bulb of at least 150 watt to light up your composition. Place the light slightly higher than the composition off to the right or left and at a 45 degree angle. You can move the light around a bit to see which situation gives you the most interesting lights and darks. Make sure there are also a few shadows present.

When painting you should stand as far away from your easel as is comfortably possible. For one, make sure to hold your long-handled brushes towards the end of the handles. The idea is to see the overall canvas so you can easily judge if a particular part of your painting fits correctly in the overall scene. Also adjust the easel so you can paint at about eye-level.

From here on we go through the four phases of the painting process:

(1) Drawing the scene – In this exercise I would suggest drawing directly on the canvas with a brush, say, a no. 4 filbert. You do this with a neutral mixture of black and white. The important thing in this phase is to get the geometry of the entire scene correct.

(2) Blocking in – In this phase we paint the large areas without paying attention to the details. Just make sure you keep the correct geometry and the correct value. Judging the values of the colored objects is the point of the exercise. So spend some quality time on this. Squinting may be helpful for most people. Start with the darkest values and then the lightest.

(3) Shaping – Then you look at every large shape you just filled in and refine the values within that shape. This will force you to look a little closer and harder to see these variations. At the same time you try to model all the shapes as best as you can. The purpose is to (1) create the correct geometry and (2) the correct value distribution. We are still not paying attention to the actual details. To add the illusion of three-dimensionality, blend the edges where dark and light areas meet. The small area in-between will then be the average of the two values. Also make ost edges soft but leave in a few hard ones. And also make use of the concept of lost edges.

(4) Details – Now is the time to put in the details. This includes the highlights. It is a good idea to reserve the whitest white for your highlights. For example, if your scene includes a white bowl, do not use your whitest paint but something a little darker.

But remember, learning to see the values on colored objects is the main point of the exercise. So spend a significant amount of time on observing, mixing, comparing, and finally applying these different values.

Read more about how to draw with pencil and tattoo tips.

Beginners Oil Painting Tips – Know Your Oil Painting Brush Hairs

Today, oil painting brushes are made from many different types of materials. Each material has of course advantages and disadvantages. Beginning as well as advanced painters should have some familiarity with the properties of these hair-making materials. Here I present the most used and widely available of these brush hair materials together with some of their properties:

Badger Hair – Badger hair brushes are used for blending and have a long tradition. The hair can be found in many parts of the world but varies greatly in quality. It is thickest at the point and quite thin at the root and has therefore a distinctive “bushy” appearance.

Synthetic Hair – Synthetic hair is of course man-made from nylon or polyester. The hairs can be tipped, tapered, flagged, abraded or etched to increase its paint carrying ability. The filaments are often dyed and baked to make them softer and more absorbent.

Some of the advantages of synthetic brushes are: 1) They are durable in the face of paints and solvents; 2) They are easier to clean than animal hair brushes because they are less likely to trap paint.

Raphael Kevrin Mongoose Hair – Raphael Kevrin Mongoose hair is strong and resilient. It combines the strength of a bristle with the control of sableand makes a long-wearing, medium-to-high quality brush.

Kolinsky Sable Hair – Kolinsky sable does not come from a sable but from the tail of a mink species found in Siberia and North-East China. In these regions, hair from the winter tails of males grows long and strong because of the extreme weather conditions. It is the best material for oil brushes because of its unusual strength, spring and snap (i.e., its ability to retain its shape). A Kolinsky sable brush can hold a very fine point or edge and a professional grade of hair.

Hog Bristle Hair – Hog bristle hair comes from hogs with the most sought after coming from China. Bristle hair forms a unique V-shaped split or flag at the tip and tends to have a natural curve. A brush with “interlocked” bristles, with the curves formed inward to the ferrule, has a natural resistance to fraying and spreads medium to thick paints smoothly and evenly.

Red Sable Hair – Red sable hair is obtained from a red haired weasel and not from sable. Quality and characteristics can vary greatly. A good quality pure red sable brush is a good alternative to the more expensive Kolinsky sable brush, with similar performance and durability. Note that weasel hair is often blended with ox hair to make a more economical brush, but, in the process, the fine point is sacrificed.

Ox Hair – The best quality ox hair comes from the ears of oxen or cattle. It has a very strong body with silken texture. It is also very resilient and has good snap. However, it does lack a fine tip. The hair is most useful in flat shaped or medium-grade wash brushes. Ox hair is often blended with different natural hair to increase its resiliency.

For the extra tips in the neighbor niche of pencil drawings, please read how to draw with pencil.

For the extra info in upper back tattoos niche read the post.