Hot Painting Tips How-Tos
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...
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.
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...
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!
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.
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 breezy sky in watercolors
This video illustrate how to paint a breezy sky in watercolors.Here are the following steps: Step 1: First of all take sheet of paper,pencil and watercolors.
How To: Paint simple trees
Trees are beautiful and they are essential to any landscape. In this tutorial, learn to paint simple trees.
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...
How To: Paint a quick watercolor
This is a video about how to create a simple water color painting. First we have to select the seen that we are going to paint on the paper. Next give a rough sketch on the paper about the scene that you have imagine or select to paint with a pencil. Next take the water proof marker give the outlines to that paint. Then you have to give two washes to your paint. First one is warm wash. For that you have to take yellow, orange, and red colors. First wet the paper with the water. Next splash on...
How To: Set up your table for watercolor painting
In this how-to video, you will learn how use set up a studio table for watercolor. First, make a water blotter out of toilet paper and tissue folded in half. Fold the towel into the paper. The gator board and paper should be in front of you, with the sketch at the left side. If you are right handed, everything should be on the right side. This allows for ease of painting. The kleenex and trash can should be on the right as well. If you are left handed, everything should be on the left. This p...
How To: Paint a Fender Telecaster electric guitar
This video will show you the steps to wire in a humbucker and coil into a Fender Telecaster electric guitar. And you'll get to learn how to paint it as well! What's humbucker? Well, it's a type of electric guitar pickup, that'll help you improve your rocking out. What are you waiting for? Get some sandpaper, paint, wires, and get started!
How To: Paint the body of a guitar
In this tutorial, we learn how to paint a guitar! Before you begin, you will want to take your guitar apart. Once you've done that, go outside and clean your guitar removing any dust on it. Your next step is to smooth the whole body of the guitar with 100 grit followed by 150 grit. After this, hang your guitar up somewhere and apply 4 layers of sanding sealer (which should equal one can). Make sure to sand down the 150 grit between each layer once it's dry, so the next layer has a grip to sti...
How To: Paint Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars
This artist shows how to quick paint/draw Obi-Wan Kenobi utilizing his mouse and pc. He starts out with a rough sketch of his character, making a black outline of his figure. He then goes back over his initial sketch with blue lines, cleaning up the lines, making them smoother. Once the blue lines are completed, the first black line sketch is erased and the blue lines smoothed out even more! Piece by piece, color is applied to each part of the character. It is placed roughly at first but smoo...
How To: Paint a guitar body using spray paint
In this video Teddy Zane shows you how to paint a guitar with spray paint. It begins by painting the whole guitar with one color of flat paint, and then creating a panel where you want the picture, out of tape. Next lay your picture on top of the tape and use a scalpel or razor to cut out the design as a template carefully ensuring you do not cut the guitar, only the image and the tape. Once the entire image is cut, pull off the tape to expose the guitar beneath. Cover the rest of the guitar ...
How To: Paint on ceramic dinner plates
In this how-to video, you will learn how to paint on your ceramic dinner plates. You will need a ceramic paint kit, a soft pencil, masking tape, a porcelain painter pen, scrap paper, scissors, scrap paper, tracing paper, Celtic patterns, and a jar of water. Place the tracing paper over the copy of the Celtic patterns. Tape both down to the surface with the tape. Trace the pattern onto the tracing paper using the pencil. Clean the plate and stick tracing paper over the plate. Trace over the pa...