Hot Painting Tips Posts
How To: Apply the concept of Dragon Vein when painting Chinese landscapes
The concept of the Dragon Vein - the ridge of a mountain range - is an important one for Chinese landscape painters. Using a brush made with chicken feathers, this tutorial shows you how to apply a dragon vein to your own landscape art.
How To: Paint texture wrinkles on a Chinese landscape
Start with a fresh piece of rice drawing paper, and then follow the steps shown in the video to make your own brush drawing of a Chinese landscape. This tutorial focuses on adding texture wrinkles to the sides of rocks or cliff faces.
How To: Paint orchid flowers with watercolor paints
In this video, we learn how to pain orchid flowers with watercolor paints. Start out by using a light lilac color on the petals. Use a thin brush to push the colors around on the picture so you have slight shading around the different petals. Use a darker purple color in the middle of the flower. Then, use a yellow color in the very middle. Add in a green leaf and stem on the bottom of the flower. Use a paper towel to smudge any excess moisture or water off of the flower to make it more prist...
News: Realist Painter of the Hollywood Stars (Yes, Those Are MJ's Spooky Eyes)
Sebastian Kruger is a German artist known for his "star caricaturist" paintings: stylistically exaggerated, realistically painted portraits of pop icons. My personal favorite depicts the classic Clint Eastwood stance (as Harry Callahan: Go ahead! Make my day!). Scroll below for the Stones, Tom Waits, Michael Jackson and more.
How To: Build a pochade box for outdoor painting
In this video, we learn how to build a pochade box for outdoor painting. This box will hold two wet panels in the back and help you hold other things you need to carry. You will need a medium sized box first, then you will need to cut the back and sides of the top to make slits where you can place in the panels. After this, you will create a barrier for the middle that has two slits in the bottom of it where you can slide it. On the bottom of the box you will have a hold where you can thread ...
News: Interactive Super Mario Street Art
Students of Columbus College of Art & Design have created an "interactive" 8-bit mural, with a Super Mario Bros. backdrop. Mario and Luigi have been omitted so passers-by can jump into level 1-1.
How To: Draw dragonflies in Chinese painting
In this video, we learn how to draw dragonflies in Chinese painting. Start out with rice paper, then soak your medium sized combination hair brush in water. Next, squeeze the moisture and then push the ink out. Now, position the brush so it's comfortable and touches the paper lightly. Draw the wings on the insect first, then draw the tail on the bottom. After this, paint a small circle shape for the head and continue to draw the other dragonflies. You can vary how these look by making the win...
How To: Fix mistakes while oil painting a colored portrait
Have you ever screwed up a painting before? Beyond repair? Well, it might be able to be saved after all, at least, thanks to these tips from Merrill Kazanjian.
How To: Make an easy $20 DIY art easel
In this video, we learn how to make an easy $20 DIY art easel with Patrick Lawrence. Each side should be about 6' tall, and make sure you screw it into the wall when you are finished. First, you will hold these together with a carriage bolt that slides up and down the two pieces of wood. At the top, screw the screws into the wall and at the bottom, bolt it up the same way as in the middle using a wing nut and a big washer. That's all there is to making an easel yourself, saving you tons of mo...
How To: Create a portrait of Nelson Mandela with a dry brush oil paint technique
Merrill is quite the artist, but he, like everyone else, must "draw" from inspiration. And he has discovered a new technique from Igor Kazarin's YouTube channel Portrait Drawing.
How To: Build a canvas frame stretcher
In this video, we learn how to build a canvas frame stretcher. First, you will need to choose lumber that is the size you want your stretcher to be. After you do this, use a hammer and nails to connect all of the pieces of wood together so you have a square shape. You will need to hammer in a lot of nails so the frame stays in place. Use a saw if you need to cut any points down or make it smaller than you have it. When you are done, screw any additional nails into the frame and make sure ever...
How To: Use different brush types and colors in watercoloring
In this video, we learn how to use different brush types and colors in water coloring. While you are creating a painting, you will notice that you need to use different types of brushes to create different effects on your canvas. There is nothing wrong with this! You can use many different strokes and brush sizes to achieve what you want on your painting. Pay attention to what stage of the painting you are in, as this will help you decide what types of brushes to use, depending on the style y...
How To: Paint a Hawaiian landscape with island inhabitants
Merrill Kazanjian has this painting tutorial which shows the process of his Hawaiian landscape mixed media painting. Follow along with the video and try to learn some of the painting techniques Merrill uses. He uses acrylic paint and at the end, puts his own twist on a boring landscape painting by using PaintShop Pro to add some island inhabitants.
How To: Stretch a perfect canvas
In this tutorial, we learn how to stretch the perfect canvas. First, measure the canvas. After this, center the canvas and make sure there are no wrinkles. Then cut the canvas and staple it to the frame. This will take several minutes, and you will work your way from the inside to the outer corners. After you are finished stapling hide the folds on all of the corners with the stapler gun. When you are finished with this step, you will be done and ready to paint on your new canvas! These steps...
How To: Paint a leaf tree with oil paints
In this tutorial, we learn how to paint a leaf tree with oil paints. First, paint light green on the leaves using a blank canvas. After this, add in a dark green color to make the stems and the middle of the leaf. Use different greens to draw the leaf out towards where the tree would be. You can blend in darker parts to make highlights, then use white to make a shine on the leaf. If you make a mistake, don't worry. Just use paints to make something change on the leaf and make it unique and al...
News: It's a Swan. Wait, No...It's a What?
Italian artist Guido Daniele is a master of illusion. Hired by an advertising agency to create body paintings of animals, Guido more than surpassed the concept with several different campaigns. Check out these insanely well crafted hand paintings, and if you're really digging it, try these temporary tattoo animal hand puppets. Doesn't quite compare to Guido, but fun, nonetheless.
How To: Embellish a painted sky
In this video, we learn how to embellish a painted sky. To do this, use white paint and gray paint. Add some clouds with your paint brush and make them loose and puffy in the sky of a painting. Be very loose and let the blue shine through the white like a regular sky. Paint the tops of the clouds more white than the other parts and paint this throughout the entire picture. If you want to take off some of the embellishment, use blue paint to cover up some of the white you have painted on. This...
How To: Draw with colored pencils
In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to draw with colored pencils. Begin by sketching out the shape to now how it will fit. Then sketch in the placement and angle of the main features. Now add more loose detail to the main features. Use an eraser to gently remove the heavy pencil marks, leaving out the faint outline. Using a brown pencil, begin lightly sketching the form. This video will benefit those viewers who are interested in art and drawing, and would like to learn how to draw with...
How To: Understand artist tools for painting
In this tutorial, we learn how to understand artist tools for painting. The first tool is plastic, which can be use for great textures on the painting. Cheap brushes are great for painting in big spaces and fan brushes are great for painting wider widths. A badger hair brush will be best for painting tails on canvas and different types of papers. A synthetic brush is very easy to clean and perfect for oil or acrylic paint. A hair dryer is a tool that is great to speed up the drying time of pa...
How To: Paint believable rocks
Wilson Bickford teaches us how to paint believable rocks in this tutorial. To begin, you will first start with an easel and several paints. Wet your small paint brush with a mixture of brown and black and paint a rock shape on the paper. You will do this by drawing many lumps and bumps to make it look like a natural rock. Use white paint on the side of the rock to give it a light glare where the sun would naturally hit it. To finish the rock, paint on browns to it, to add a dirt color and mak...
How To: Paint a glow in the dark portrait with acrylic paint
When Halloween comes around it's easy to give in to the rampant orange and black decor paraded at every drugstore and mass retailer. But if you truly want a unique decoration for the spooky holiday, consider watching this tutorial to learn how to make a glow-in-the-dark portrait.
How To: Stretch a canvas
It's no secret, artists are broke. That's why they're referred to as "starving artists". One day these artists will achieve unimaginable success, but for most of their lives, they'll be struggling to survive… struggling to keep their vision alive. That's why they need to work cheap. And that's why they stretch their own canvases, not buy pre-made ones or have the hobby shop do it. If you’re a starving artist, save a few bucks, hone your carpentry skills, and stretch your own canvas.
News: Artist Kills Himself (No Big Surprise... Once You See His Paintings)
At age 32, Tetsuya Ishida apparently threw himself in front of a speeding train. No huge surprise given his exceedingly twisted paintings. To us, he seems to possess a certain internet sensibility. Precisely executed, bizarre, and dark in theme. We dig him.
How To: Paint Chinese watercolor tree ripened loquats
In Chinese watercolor paiting, static subjects like cherry blossoms and peach trees never go out of fashion because they represent the teeming life and beauty of nature that most Chinese watercolor artists enjoy representing.
How To: Practice elegant Chinese standing script calligraphy
Chinese calligraphy is amongst the most beautiful but also most difficult word art forms in the world, and practitioners spend years honing their skills, even devoting their entire lives to daily practice.
How To: Use opaque watercolors in Chinese watercolor painting
The esteemed tradition of Chinese watercolor goes back thousands of years and hasn't changed much in terms of composition, subject matter, and materials used. So back then as much as today sky dieties and kings would sip green tea outside pagodas perched high above the clouds, surrounded by monumental mountains and far removed from mortal space.
How To: Do Photoshop painting basics for beginners
This series is the basic training you need to get up and running with Photoshop, so that you can be a better digital painter. Knowing how to use all the tools and options that pertain to digital painting, photomanipulation, and photo editing will save you lots of time, so it's worth learning the basics first.
How To: Paint sand in your composition
In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to paint sand. Users will need a palette knife and paint brush. The colors needed for the sand are: iron oxide, pure white, burnt umber and burnt salmon. Collect all 4 colors on the palette knife and apply it lightly onto the canvas. If it is too dark, add some more white paint. Then use a paint brush to smooth out the edges and blend the sand together. This video will benefit those viewers who are interested in art and painting, and would like to lea...
How To: Paint an ocean in your composition
In this Fine Art video tutorial you will learn how to paint an ocean in your composition from Angeline-Marie Martinez, a professional artist. She shows one of the ways of painting an ocean in this clip. Her canvas is already painted with a back ground of the sky on top and water at the bottom. Her palette has a lot of colors like light and dark shades of blue, green and white. Take some white paint on the brush and pick up some of the other colors as well and paint on the canvas. The waves of...
News: 32 Amazing Murals Depicting Each & Every World Cup Team
In honor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, ESPN commissioned the Wieden+Kennedy ad agency (the same group that did the amazing aquarium Nikes) and the AM I Collective (a group of artists based in Cape Town, South Africa) to create 32 murals, depicting each and every team. Very nice work, beautifully done.
How To: Make your own water color paints at home
Teaching your kids to paint with watercolors is a great way to help them learn their colors. Watercolor paints are fantastic because they are less messy and last a long time. In this clip, learn how to save some money and make your very own watercolors at home with common household items. Have fun!
News: Kim Joon's Naked Body Art (Possibly NSFW)
Wow, naked + batman + tattoo/body painting = some pretty "out-there" art... Korean artist Kim Joon has been fascinated with tattoo culture ever since his days in the military as a young man. Since, he has taken his obsession into the fine arts realm, treating the human body like a blank canvas. Interestingly, his images are not created as one might expect. No physical painting of the models is actually involved.
How To: Combine different media in the same painting
Many artists are loyal to one particular medium, even within the general artistic field of painting. Some prefer oil paints, some oil pastels, some illustration markers, some color pencils. This video demonstrates how to combine these four popular media in one work to create a wonderfully detailed, colorful portrait. Broaden your horizons and use all of the tools available to improve your art.
How To: Use a Buddha Board and waterbrush pens for calligraphy
Whether you are just starting out doing Chinese calligraphy and painting or a have been doing it your whole life, practice is crucial. Rather than wasting ink, paint, and paper on practice pieces that you are going to discard or throw away afterwards, now you can use a Buddha Board! These devices allow you to use a waterbrush pen and water, no paper, ink, or paint, to create images that will disappear after the water dries! No mess, no waste, just an effective way to practice your art and sav...
How To: Use knives for Chinese seal engraving or chop carving
Chinese seals are some of the oldest and most refined sorts of seals in the world. This video shows you some types of knives that you can use to make them and then demonstrates their use in making some seals out of wooden blocks. Add a new skill to your Chinese art skillset by watching this video.
How To: Draw a panda bear with a Chinese painting brush
This video demonstration feature a young girl painting one of China's national icons: the Panda Bear. The paper she uses is covered in silver flakes, which give the piece a shiny, cartoonish quality. That is one happy looking little bear.
How To: Paint a Blue Butterfly and Iris using a Hake brush
The Hake brush is a type of flat brush used in Chinese painting along with the more typical trimmed brush. In this video the artist demonstrates the use of such a brush to create painting of an Iris with a blue butterfly and some calligraphy to finish it off. If you don't already have a Hake brush as part of your Chinese art toolkit, this video should convince you to invest in one.
How To: Write calligraphy phrases for you Chinese paintings
This video features an old Chinese woman demonstrating how to write some Chinese calligraphy phrases. These phrases can be used to adorn paintings of some traditional Chinese painting subjects, which often feature such calligraphy. We are left to wonder how the host feels about deferring the teaching to his mother-in-law.
How To: Trim an old Chinese painting brush into a sharp liner
This video will be very handy to all the Chinese painting enthusiasts out there. It demonstrates how to trim an old split brush in to a sharp liner by trimming it with scissors. This allows you to do multiple kinds of brushstrokes without changing brushes, saving time and allowing you to purchase fewer brushes.
How To: Paint a Daylily in the traditional Chinese style
This video demonstration will teach you how to draw a Daylily in the Han Chinese painting style. It is very detailed, and should be easy to follow even for novice painters looking to improve their painting skills. The painter in the video talk you through not only what colors to use and the techniques he uses, but also the significance of the Daylily and the legends surrounding it.