Fundamentals of painting: color science, composition, perspective

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

A good drawing that delights the masses is almost impossible to create without knowing the basics of painting. Of course, modern art proves otherwise: works made by an elephant are sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars, or two brush strokes that resemble a starry sky to some. But is this art eternal? Probably not. But "Mona Lisa" or "Madonna and Child" - these paintings were created a very long time ago, but still delight the viewer. What needs to be done to learn the basics of painting?

Where to start

Before you sit down to create a masterpiece, you need to study some theory. It is also very important to catch your muse or think in advance what will be depicted on the canvas. But first of all, every artist should take care of his workplace.

Of course, in the modern world there is a huge amount of materials on which you can create- starting with a regular sheet of paper and ending with a graphics tablet. And each person should choose for himself 1-2 ways to create paintings that he likes the most. If this is an easel, then there should be enough space in the room for the canvas itself and its attachment.

Tip: Don't draw on a horizontal surface. Vertical will be much he althier, and an angle of at least 30-40 degrees will help paint better.

Art utensils

In addition to sufficient space and an easel, a person will need a variety of paints, pencils, pastels, brushes and water. In general, everything that can be useful to create a picture. All this should be located at hand, but not so close that you can easily touch your elbow.

At the initial stage of creating an image, you can only keep pencils of different softness nearby. Even if you manage to create sketches in one day, it will be useful to walk a bit for materials and tools for painting. This will clear your head and perhaps a person will look at their work from a different angle, which will allow you to see some of the flaws even before applying the paint.

Lighting in the workshop

Studying the basics of painting, you can understand that sometimes the color of just a couple of shades can differ from the ideal and look completely ridiculous. That is why it is necessary to work on the picture only under natural light. It's best if it's in the sun. But if there is no way to create during the day, then you canput powerful lamps that imitate sunlight.

Although these fixtures have virtually no color distortion, their maintenance is very, very expensive. Therefore, it will be more budgetary to work in the daytime near the window. This is one of the first lessons in the basics of painting.

Practice and imagination

In addition to gaining knowledge, it is necessary to develop creative qualities in oneself. Studying the basics of painting does not guarantee the future creation of masterpieces. Very often in this creative profession there is a crisis for the artist due to the fact that he simply does not know what to draw.

One way to develop the imagination is to attend classes taught by famous artists. For example, you can sign up for the most popular oil painting master class, which takes place in Moscow. There are also remote webinars. But it's still better to attend events live, this will allow you to communicate with other artists.

And it is also worth noting that a lot of practice improves the imagination. If a person does not know what to draw, you can draw everything that catches your eye. Or even try to reproduce world masterpieces. As appetite comes during dinner, so the muse to the artist appears during the creative process.

Tip: not everyone wants to rewrite other people's paintings, in this case, you can try to recreate the same plot, but in a different genre.

Theoretical foundations of painting

Despite the fact that practice is very important, yet without theory a person canspend decades to come to perfection. But why make such sacrifices, if in the modern world there are many free sources with the basics of painting and drawing. To begin with, it is worth studying the graphic points.

Straight lines, circles, smooth ovals of the face - all this the artist must be able to draw without improvised means. Of course, you can use a compass to depict a plate, but then it will not have individuality and realism. Perhaps Malevich would not have become so famous if he had not drawn his famous squares by hand.

It takes practice to learn how to create geometric shapes. It is best to take an easel every day and draw lines and circles. If an artist cannot bring himself to study, then it is best to go to any drawing school.

Black and white drawing

After the student masters the geometric shapes, you can proceed to more complex basics. Almost every future artist plans to create his masterpieces not in a flat space. And this will require learning to see light and shadow.

Of course, even a child knows that any object is perceived differently, depending on how far it is located and how much light hits it. To convey volume on the canvas during the sketch, it is necessary to use techniques such as shading and grouting. By the way, this is also taught in any art school.

Don't spend too much time on the draft. The most important thing is to schematically depict objects and catchblack and white drawing of the whole picture.

What is composition in painting?

The next portion of knowledge for the artist should be questions about perspective. First of all, you need to learn how to create a so-called well. With the help of different pencil pressure, draw intertwining circles of arbitrary diameters. The whole structure should resemble a well, top view. That is, the largest and largest bright circles are located at the top, and the deeper the pattern, the weaker the pressure and the smaller the circle. With this simple exercise, the artist will learn to draw perspective.

An equally important basis in the composition is the "Rule of Thirds". Conventionally, the image is divided into three parts of the same size vertically and horizontally. In the first times of creating a picture, such a grid can be drawn with light pressure. Those points that were obtained due to the intersection are ideal for the location of the object.

The meaning of this rule is that it is in these places that a person involuntarily looks first of all.

Creating a painting from nature

Before you start creating a full-fledged work, you should decide on the genre of the picture. For your first masterpieces, it is best to use fruits, vegetables, flowers and other improvised means.

After the artist has decided on the genre, you can start staging. It is immediately necessary to arrange the inventory nicely and neatly, as this will greatly simplify the work. Here it is worth noting that it is desirable to place objects taking into account the existing lighting. Althoughyou can use additional sources, for example, to create soft or, conversely, contrasting shadows.

Tip: for better assimilation of the material, it would be good to go to open lectures, where famous artists clearly show how to arrange and draw from nature. An excellent option to visit would be a master class in oil painting, which takes place annually in Moscow. By the way, you can visit it online.

Spatial color properties

After the sketch has been drawn, you can proceed directly to the creation of the picture itself. Before coloring the drawing, it is worth carefully presenting the final result and choosing the necessary range. In the future, it will be much easier if all the necessary shades are created in advance.

Every artist should be able to combine colors, but such a skill is developed only after several years of constant work. In order to avoid the most common mistakes, such as combining acid green with pearl brown, you can use color wheels. To create the best collaborations, two opposite shades are taken. But if it is necessary to combine three or four colors, then the required number of shades is selected, which are located next to each other, on the same strip.

While mixing colors in painting is a rather individual topic, it is still worth approaching the selection of shades with all responsibility.

Types of perspectives

Despite the fact that the position of the object affects its black and white pattern and size,the hue of the object also changes. Everyone distinguishes two main types of perspective. After creating the sketches, the artist will already understand which way to create a picture to choose.

Straight linear. This type of perspective is designed to fix vision at one point. An example would be an alley along a road. Trees that are closest to the artist will appear taller and more powerful than those that are located somewhere far away. Perspective works the same way on paper. But besides this, it is necessary to depict the vagueness of objects. That is, the farther the tree, the lighter / darker it will be. And also it is necessary to change the contrast, muting distant objects.

Tonal perspective. In this version of creating a picture, a circle is taken as the basis. Having depicted the main object, you need to mentally imagine a circle around it, behind which changes will occur. The further away the details are, the less contrast they will be. This type of perspective resembles the same well that was described above.

Color science in painting

After the artist understands all the basics, you can proceed to a more in-depth study. At the same time, it is worth remembering that every theory is fixed by practice. And the more a person draws, the faster he will reach perfection.

Color science in painting is, first of all, the circle that was discussed above. It includes the spectra of shades, in which the transitions of the entire rainbow are recorded. Any color wheel contains gray in the middle. This is because it is this shadeconsidered neutral in painting.

There are three primary colors - red, yellow and blue, of course. They are necessary in order to create any shade. But this is only in theory, in practice it is quite difficult to find the necessary proportions of each for an ideal combination. But still, three new colors, using only the base, can be created easily - these are orange, purple and green. Thus, a novice artist does not have to spend a lot of money to buy all kinds of shades.

Cool and warm colors

Also, for a successful combination of colors and their use in painting, it is necessary to distinguish them by temperature. This is done very easily. To begin with, an already familiar circle is taken so that the brightest yellow tint is located at the top. Now in front of the artist on the right side there will be only warm colors, and on the left - cold ones. Moreover, all shades from these spectra are well combined with each other.

To choose the most harmonious two shades, you can conduct a little experiment. Having chosen opposite colors, it is necessary to recreate them as accurately as possible in reality. After that, a small amount of paint from each shade is mixed with each other. If the color turned out to be gray, then the artist picked up the palette perfectly.

Of course, in practice it is almost impossible to achieve such an effect, but if the result is an approximate shade, then this can already be considered a success.

To draw a masterpiece, most likely, you have to spend many years. But that doesn't mean you have to give up and give up. Maybe,the pictures that will be painted during the studies will already delight the public. In any case, you should focus on your heart, and not on the opinion of the crowd.