Colour has always been a rudimentary aspect of painting, it’s story in art is long and very fertile, from the early cave paintings to today’s advanced laser lights. Understanding colour, and how colours interrelate with each other, is an crucial part of painting. Pet portraits for example, will necessitate the use of harmonious colours to produce the sort of result the customer will be looking for. (more…)
Artists working in pet portraits have many painting surfaces to choose from, but if you’re using water colour the best choice has to be water colour paper. The making of high quality paper for artists has become an art form in itself and undertaken by skilled craftsmen. The highest quality ones are hand made, and provide the artist with a surface that is ideal for water colour painting techniques. (more…)
There is a certain skill in capturing the sense of movement in a motionless image like a painting. It is a problem that, artists who specialise in pet portraits, are only too familiar with. Furthermore, if done properly, it will greatly add to the potency of the image being created. (more…)
Easels should help make the life of the pet portrait artist much more comfortable, by offering a secure support for their canvas, at just the right height and angle. Still, there are a number of varieties to go for, each one designed to meet the particular needs of the artist whether they’re in a studio or outside.
The most versatile is the sketching easel. (more…)
Stretched canvas is a very popular option for pet portrait artists as a support for their paintings. Nonetheless, there are substitute supports that can be just as worthy when you don’t have any canvases to hand. Wood has traditionally be used as a support for oils and indeed, is one of the earliest forms of support for painting. (more…)
With a few painting techniques, similar to those used by many pet portrait artists, detail is an important part of the completed picture. In light of this, it is always recommended that you create preliminary drawings, but what’s the easiest way to transfer the finished drawing to the canvas? In past times, artists have used 3 methods to do this, the following explanations describe the principle behind them. (more…)
A crucial part of any painting, whether a pet portrait or abstract picture, is the relationship in colour and tone. Tone is the amount of light and shade in the picture, it exists independently of colour and can be calculated on a scale which goes from white through greys to black. The sensation of colour is created by the eye’s response to light of certain wavelengths; pure colour exists only as light, and as far as painters are concerned, all colours are also modified by tonal value. (more…)
The oils used by pet portrait artists and others are called drying oils. These are vegetable based oils that, when combine with oxygen, produce a solid film which is resistant to the atmosphere and many solvents. Oils dry very slowly and although the paint film is touch dry within a few days, it in fact takes a few years for the paint to become fully dry. (more…)
Even with an ostensibly simple picture such as a pet portrait, an effective composition is crucial for the completed painting to work. As with so many aspects of the painting process, the way it is approached is what singles out the great painters. Often, good composition is the result of a natural process: when the painter creates a picture that is pleasing to the eye is is most probably down to the fact that the artist has ended up with a composition that conforms to traditional rules. (more…)
When starting a painting artists, including pet portrait painters, will employ an array of different techniques to achieve various visual effects on the canvas. These techniques have been known to artists since the Renaissance and have terms that identify them. Underneath is a brief list that mentions these terms and the principles upon which they’re based. (more…)