The Acrylics Book

The Acrylics BookIn order to fully develop your skills as an artist, your education must come from a variety of sources. Websites like this one are great resources, but the way I learn anything best is by reading from books. It’s something I can hold in my hands, flip back and re-read sections, and skip ahead to other sections in the book.

The Acrylics Book: Materials and Techniques for Today’s Artist is one of the best acrylics techniques books I’ve found anywhere. Unrivaled in scope, this encyclopedic reference on the most versatile of all painting mediums is an excellent tool to help both beginning and seasoned artists produce their best work in acrylics.

With its great flexibility, acrylic paint can mimic the appearance of oils, tempera, and watercolors in unique ways, each method pictured in a separate Continue reading

Posted in Art Books | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

A Different Approach to Learning to Draw

How to Draw Cars Fast and EasyAs a wildlife artist, it is very important to be able to draw images correctly. If I’m trying to draw ducks and they don’t look like they are supposed to, the duck enthusiasts out there will be very critical of my work and will not appreciate what I’m trying to portray.

Learning to draw comes in a variety of forms. I’ve found numerous books for sale that teach you how to draw different objects. Each has it’s merits and each has it’s drawbacks. I recently found a book that really has nothing to do with wildlife art but everything to do with drawing. This book is very detailed in describing how Continue reading

Posted in From the Easel | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

How to Paint a Mallard Drake’s Head

In today’s post, I’m going to discuss the steps I take to paint a mallard drake’s head in a waterfowl painting. The feathers of a mallard duck drake are an irridescent green color with hints of blue mixed in.

Mallard Drake Head Sketch

Mallard Drake Head Sketch

I start out with any duck by creating a detailed drawing of the bird on paper using several reference sources. I then transfer this sketch to the canvas in preparation for the application of the paints. When the sketch is in place on the canvas, I start out with the Continue reading

Posted in Acrylic Painting | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Website Hosting

Arvixe Web HostingI’m going to stray a little from my normal mode of posting today and talk a little about my hosting service. I started this blog back in September in an attempt to help promote my main website North Forty Wildlife Art, which displays the most recent paintings I have created since becoming a full-time wildlife artist.

I searched the web for several weeks searching for a web hosting company that could meet the needs of my website. I basically had two criteria at that point. The first was reliability. The hosting service had to be realiable enough to keep my site up 24 hours a day 7 days a week with few interruptions. The second requirement Continue reading

Posted in From the Easel | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Acrylic Painting Mediums

Gel MediumWhen painting with acrylic paint, I very seldom work with the paint straight from the tube. To me, and for my style of painting, straight tube paint is too thick and does not flow well. So I decided to describe some of the mediums commercially available for use with acrylic paints in today’s post.

Although you can simply thin acrylic tube color with water, most manufacturers produce liquid painting mediums for this purpose. Each of the different types of medium serve a different purpose, so you’ll have to try each one to see which fits your Continue reading

Posted in From the Easel | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Scumbling An Acrylic Painting Technique

Creating art with acrylic paint requires several specialized techniques for applying the paint in order to make the painting look realistic and believable. The technique that I want to talk about today is called scumbling.

Acrylic paint dries so quickly that it’s hard to blend one wet stroke smoothly into another. When using the scumbling technique, one stroke overlaps another and they seem to blend in the viewer’s eye. The lights and shadows of an object are rendered Continue reading

Posted in From the Easel | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

How to Create a Painting From a Photograph

In past articles, I’ve talked about preparing for a painting by using reference photographs. This process involves taking numerous photographs and selecting certain elements from each picture and creating a whole new painting from the mosaic of elements.

However, it is very good practice for the beginning artist to create a painting from a single photograph. As a student, you need to practice your skills Continue reading

Posted in Preparation | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

5 Ways to Improve Your Art

If you’re an aspiring artist with a strong desire to improve your abilities, here are 5 things that will help you to quickly and dramatically improve your paintings.

Become Intimately Familiar With Your Colors
The only way to know how your palette of colors will look is to use them. Only then will you see what colors can be produced when colors are mixed and how the colors react when placed next to each other. Typically when mixing paint colors, mixing Continue reading

Posted in From the Easel | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

What Do You Want to Know

So far all of my posts have been about what I wanted to say to you as readers. As my Christmas gift to all of you, I would like to know what you would like to see posted on my blog. If you have any questions that I can answer about wildlife art, painting techniques, or just about anything about art in general, now is the time to get them answered.

You can either post a comment or send me an email at randy@north40wildlifeart.com and I’ll put together the articles for you as soon as possible.

Until then, keep your brushes clean, your colors pure, and as always, thanks for stopping by. Merry Christmas.

Posted in From the Easel | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Editing Your Photographed Artwork in Photoshop

Yesterday, I talked about how to photograph your own artwork with a digital SLR camera. Today, I want to give you a quick run down on how I initially edit the photographs of my artwork after I get them on my computer’s hard drive.

The first thing I need to do is get the file open into photoshop for editing. You’ll notice the distracting background around the image that includes the studio Continue reading

Posted in From the Easel | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments