Painting tips by John Lovett

John Lovett is a water colour and mixed media artist and I have been following his works for many many years. I was browsing through his site recently and found some interesting tips given by him which I am sharing through my blog.

Water colour paintings by

John Lovett

COURTESY : www.johnlovett.com

DRAWING TIPS

To produce successful paintings it is important to practice drawing

No matter what you are drawing it is important to first consider how your subject will be placed on the page. Small thumbnail sketches before you start your drawing are good way to work out the composition before you start your drawing.

Start your drawing by mentally reducing the subject to a few simple shapes. Sketch these in lightly and accurately, then proceed to break these up into smaller more detailed shapes. Don't start at one corner of the subject and work your way across to the other.

Your drawing will look better if the most interesting part ( called the centre of interest ) is not placed along either of the pages centre lines. The strongest tonal ( light / dark ) contrast should be placed at the centre of interest. Have some areas of the drawing less detailed than others. Try and keep most of the detail in the area of the centre of interest.

To gain confidence, practice drawing on large sheets of cheap paper with a soft (5B or 6B) pencil, charcoal, or pastel pencil. Stand up, work on a vertical surface (or surface at right angles to your line of vision) and move your arm from the shoulder. Work from large and bold to fine and detailed. Only the final finishing off needs to be done with small, tight hand movements.

Practice - It doesn't matter what you draw - you have to train your eye to accurately judge 

proportion and your hand to accurately convert these judgements to marks on paper. There are no shortcuts here, lots and lots of pencil shavings are the only answer.

ABOVE MATTER : courtesy: www.johnlovett.com

All the tips as given above by John Lovett are really informative and when I am not painting, I take out time to browse through the sites of some of my favourite artists. It encourages and motivates to continue painting with further zest. Hope all you too have enjoyed the content as given above.