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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 ...

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: 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: 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: 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.

How To: Design and carve a Chinese name chop seal stamp

Any artist who excels enough in his profession will create some sort of signature on his painting to notify other it's his work. Some painters, like Jan van Eyck, are cryptic with their inscriptions, putting it in almost impossible to see areas in the painting, while others, like Chinese painters, put their literal stamp on paintings with a carved seal stamp.

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...

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: 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: 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.

How To: Paint Carnation flowers in the Chinese brush style

In a special Mother's Day installment of their weekly instructional series on Chinese painting, Blue Heron Art's Henry teaches us to paint Chinese Carnations in watercolor, with calligraphy highlights done in ink with a brush. His grace and accuracy with both the watercolor and the ink would be challenging for many of the less-artistically-inclined to emulate, but the finished product is beautiful and should impress all but the choosiest of moms if their child were to make / buy it for them.

How To: Color with oil pastels

If you want to color with oil pastels you should first make sure you have a sketch book, oil pastels, cotton swabs and an eraser. First, you should place a banana or your choice of object on the sketchbook paper and trace the outline. Next, you should color in the banana or object the color you want to. You should add in detail to your object, by first coloring along the bottom of the banana with yellow. Next, add in a little green to add detail to the banana. You can blend the two colors to ...

How To: Paint a easter bunny with ink and water

This video demonstrates how to paint a rabbit in leftover ground ink. The style used is called sumi-e. Using a the side of a thick brush, create a filled in circle in the center of your page. This will be the head. Below this circle, add an elongated abstract oval shape for the body. Add a small circle at the back bottom area of the body for the tail. From the top back of the head, add two long thick lines for the ears. Using the thin tip of a brush add the details of the face including the n...