Painting Part 2/Learn the Basics

So, after all the preparing we finally put the canvas on the easel, or a chair if you don't have an easel. Start making a simple outline of the shapes on the canvas, in pencil. Don't be too precise, and don't push the pencil too hard. If you can, draw from the wrist, hold the pencil very loosely. Now mix the back-ground color you
want. At this stage the actual background color is not too important. Keep this color neutral. Later on you might decide to experiment with bolder colors, depending on how your own personal style is going to develop. I would choose creme or beige or such color.(a lot of white and bit of brown). When you mix the colors, always make take 1 original color ( sometimes straight from the tube), take a bit and mix with a bit of white, and the lightest shadewith more white. So you mix from darkest to the highest. Do not put black in, to make it darker, it is not going to work. Take a large brush. The larger your canvas, the larger the brush. If it's very large, by all means put it flat on the table. Now start filling in the whole background. Don't be precise, slather it on. The quicker you get rid of the glaring canvas-white, the better! Go all over the canvas with the brush; keep the wrist flexible, from left to bottom, criss-cross, go for it. Once that is on, we'll start on the objects.

I hope you're having fun at this stage, I always do. Now we start at the objects. The object (whatever it is) consists of three parts, and it is best to paint them that way. There is a lightest, a middle, and a shade-part. The lightest part should be where the light-source is coming from, and the darkest the furthest removed from the light source. So fill in the first object, the one at the front. That one should catch the most light. The one at the back will catch the shadow from the first object. Now you'll see why I go on and on about these shadows. Of course I cannot see what you have in front of you, I can only imagine. I find that starting with the shadows and then the middle-color and the lightest last is the best way. In the end it will look better. So now hopefully you have the first stage of a real original painting, and you are the creator! Of course this is still the first layer and it looks like nothing. This is the stage where you have to stay away from the aforementioned "Critics". Do not show your painting to anyone now, or they will discourage you from making great art forever. Now it needs to dry for a couple of hours and you can have a well deserved rest from your artistic outburst.

When it is thoroughly dry, put on the second layer in exactly the same manner, but a bit more precise. Also, the background should have its shadows filled in. If you have chosen a color like beige, make these dark-brown. Now don't be afraid of this dark color. It will look wonderful when you are finished; I guarantee it. Keep looking at the actual objects too; a common mistake is that people paint what they think they see and not what is actually there. Many a time I thought a shadow should look a lot better if I only put it somewhere else. This is the brain so-called "making sense of something". It doesn't work that way. What you see is what you should paint. In the end it will look good. See Part 3 for more