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Tag Archives: tutorial

Add a pinch of salt…

08 Sunday Jun 2014

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butterflies, colored pencil, creativity, drawing, fairies, illustration, tutorial, Val Webb, watercolor

watercolor fairy sketch copyIf you liked the atmospheric effect created by dripping alcohol into watercolor wash in the earlier mermaid post, here’s a very similar drawing with a slightly different background texture. Sprinkling ordinary table salt into your freshly painted watercolor wash makes a rich, grainy texture that looks a little like crystals, a little like foliage. It’s a fun and slightly unpredictable way to make interesting backgrounds. I salted only the top and bottom of this small (4×6) rectangle, so that the middle would be smooth enough to add a fairy and her friend. They were painted in watercolor, with finishing details drawn in Prismacolor (the color is Terra Cotta).

Any type of salt will work. Using coarse salt, such as rock salt, results in a larger pattern. Sprinkle it directly into the wet watercolor layer, then allow it to dry completely. Overnight is ideal. Then the grains of salt can be brushed gently away to reveal the textures beneath.

This simple “profile view while holding something up” is a pose that works well if you are not yet comfortable drawing hands. While it offers plenty of possibilities — she could be holding up a small bird, a flower, a soap bubble, a friendly insect — it’s still rewarding to be able to choose whether or not you wish to paint realistic hands. Click here to see my tutorial on drawing them.

New online course: Draw & Paint Six Culinary Herbs

03 Wednesday Oct 2012

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art classes, botanical art, colored pencil, drawing, gardening, how to draw, illustration, painting, tutorial, Val Webb, watercolor

It’s not your typical botanical drawing course. My new online class series, “Draw & Paint Six Culinary Herbs,” will incorporate all the things that make the humble kitchen garden a place of a thousand small delights. In addition to learning to create softly shaded pencil studies, spirited ink-and-wash sketches and richly layered color renderings that combine watercolor and colored pencil, we’ll also explore the history and folklore associated with our six herbs. Each lesson will include art demo videos, printable illustrated instruction pages and photo tutorials posted on our private class website — as well as illustrated tips on growing, harvesting and using our culinary collection. I’m also sharing my own stock of organic herb seed (from my garden, while supplies last) with anyone who asks when they sign up. Email me for a list of available varieties.

The course is designed so that you can work at your own pace, without ever feeling rushed. Lessons will appear weekly beginning January 7 on a private, password-protected website. All 10 lessons will remain there until May 6. During those four months, you have access to the lessons anytime you wish to work on them. Feel free to take a week off (or even a month) for other activities. You’ll still have plenty of time to complete the course. Each lesson will include:

  • My video demo with step-by-step guidance for each new technique
  • Printable color instruction pages
  • Examples for each lesson, created to guide and inspire you
  • Personal help when needed, and feedback when each lesson is completed
  • Access to our own private online group where you can share comments and images with others taking the course around the world. (Participation in the group is optional. No instruction will take place there.)

Art topics covered in the course include:

  • How to develop the habit of looking deeply at your subject, so that you clearly see and understand its structure
  • Three steps to creating a quick and accurate foundation sketch
  • How to draw leaves in perspective
  • My “gentle pencil” technique for softly shaded pencil studies
  • How to combine ink and wash for fast and elegant herb drawings
  • Traditional layering of watercolor and colored pencil to build a richly detailed rendering
  • Color matching and color mixing – including highlights and shadows
  • The structure of an herb plant, and some basic terminology

Absolutely no experience is necessary. The supply list is simple, and contains no exotic materials. (In fact, if you recently took my online watercolor lettering course, you already have the brushes you’ll need. You can check them off your list!)

What about technology? Well, you will need four basic tools to “attend” this online class:

  • A computer, or access to one
  • An email account to receive informative messages or send in your work for feedback
  • A way to print out your illustrated instruction pages
  • A way to send images of your completed projects to me for feedback. You can use either a scanner or a digital camera to create an image, then email it.

The cost of the entire course is $50, which is payable by personal check, money order or through PayPal. (To use PayPal, let me know you want to join the class and I will send you a secure PayPal invoice with an embedded “pay now” button.) Email me to sign up, or if you need additional information. See you soon!

How to draw hands

30 Friday Mar 2012

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art, drawing, hands, how to draw, tutorial, Val Webb

Hands have a reputation for being difficult to draw. Some portrait artists avoid them entirely, choosing instead to use folds of clothing (or flowers, or a even a strategically placed small pet) to block them from view. Yet, the hands are wonderfully expressive. With a bit of practice and an understanding of their basic structure, you may discover that they become one of your favorite drawing subjects. Here’s a quick tutorial, drawn in 2B pencil. I use a step-by-step approach, starting with the basic forms and then working outward, to get accurate proportions:

You can practice “fleshing out” your simple palm-fingers-thumb-wrist sketches by drawing from photographs of hands in action… or use your own non-drawing hand as your model.

Tutorial: Drawing Reflections on Glass

17 Monday Oct 2011

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drawing, how to draw, tutorial, Val Webb

A little trick: How to paint a tomato

21 Monday Feb 2011

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botanical art, how to draw, tutorial, Val Webb, watercolor

Try to be one of those people upon whom nothing is lost.  — Henry James

Look deeply: the skin of a ripe, red tomato is not an opaque layer of bright color. Just like our own skin, a tomato is covered in tissue that is slightly transparent. The colors that lie below the skin surface are just visible enough to have an influence on the more intense outer color. Even the ripest tomato will often have a little subcutaneous green or yellow blush around the stem end. If you have grown them, you know that each young tomato must ripen its way through phases of bright green and yellow, finally reaching the robust red of juicy maturity.

Get yourself a ripe tomato — even a cherry tomato will work fine for this experiment. Paint your way through the ripening process, using thin layers and waiting for each color to dry before adding the subsequent one. Don’t have watercolors handy? It also works with colored pencil, but you’ll need to use a very thin layer of each color to keep the transparent effect. Here’s a colored pencil page full of ripening roma tomatoes from our garden of several years ago. Enjoy!

…And now for the nose and mouth

19 Wednesday Jan 2011

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drawing, how to draw, tutorial, Val Webb

How to draw a human face (yes, you can)

17 Monday Jan 2011

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how to draw, tutorial, Val Webb

In response to many email requests, here is a simple step-by-step method for drawing a face. Part 2 will be posted tomorrow morning. Enjoy!

Sharpen your pencil and grab a chair…

15 Saturday Jan 2011

Posted by valwebb in Uncategorized

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botanical art, flowers, how to draw, tutorial, Val Webb

Longing for springtime flowers? If it’s too early to plant them in your climate zone, at least you can pass the time by drawing them:

I’ll be posting more drawing videos in coming days. Enjoy!

Tutorial: Tips on drawing animal eyes

18 Thursday Jun 2009

Posted by valwebb in art, drawing, nature, sketch

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

tutorial

tutorialeyes

Tutorial: Make your own image transfers

24 Friday Aug 2007

Posted by valwebb in art, botanical art, crafts, creativity, gardening, journaling

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

art, journal, tutorial

gdncuketransfer.jpg  I love the way image transfers look in a garden journal! They remind me of vintage seed packages, all color and promise with a hint of mystery thrown in. Here are some recent garden photos, reproduced using a very simple homegrown transfer technique:

gdnlilytransfer.jpg

daisytransfer.jpg

These transfers are fun and very simple. Best of all, they use no toxic (or smelly) transfer agents and you can get truly lovely results regardless of your drawing ability. Test-drive this technique on some loose paper before using it directly in your journal, to get a feel for the materials.

All you need to begin is some cardstock or watercolor paper, a jar of acrylic gel medium (available for around $8 at any art supply or hobby store) and some deli parchment (often used to wrap sandwiches in, available at $14 per thousand sheets at restaurant supply stores). Here are the supplies:

gdntransferequipment.jpg

1. Take a photo with your digital camera and upload it into your computer. Open the image in whatever photo editing software you have, convert it to black and white, and push the “Contrast” scale up as far as it will go. This will ensure brilliant whites and rich darks. This might also be a good time to point out that your final result will be a mirror image of your original photo, and if that poses a problem you’ll want to flip it before printing.

2. Deli parchment is usually 12 by 12 inches. Trim it down to 8.5 by 11 inches and put it in your printer. Now print your image on the parchment, on the more textured side. (It’s hard to get the ink to dry on the slick side.) Cut out the image to make it easier to handle during the transfer process. Here’s an image printed on parchment, all cut out and ready to transfer:

gdnmaterinprogress.jpg

3.  After dipping your index finger into the jar of acrylic medium, spread a thin layer on your journal page. This needs to be very, very thin. It should feel as if you are applying hand lotion to the paper. Then lay your image, ink side down, on the fresh acrylic medium.

4.  I simply use the pad of my index finger or thumb and tap firmly all over the back of the parchment to transfer the image to the paper surface. Experiments with a roller or with rubbing motion resulted in blurred images, so I tap! You’ll feel the parchment gently adhere to the gel medium as you go. Once you’ve thoroughly worked over all the areas of your image, lift one corner of the parchment and slowly pull it away from the paper. Voila! Your image now appears on your journal page.(Note: Don’t wait too long to lift it away, however, since gel medium also happens to be an excellent glue.)

5.  As soon as your gel medium is dry to the touch — probably five minutes or so — you can tint your transfer with colored pencils, watercolor, brush markers… whatever you can think of. Go light on the wet media, since your printer ink may be water soluble.  Here is the final result from the tomato transfer in the photo above:

gdntomatotransfer.jpg

Of course, you don’t need to limit your image transfer adventures to images from the garden. They make terrific Christmas cards and, in my opinion, are lovely enough to be framed — the “old-fashioned” feel of the final result works especially well with old family photos. I made this one from a photo of my grandparents:

transferblog4image

 

I snapped a photo of a stone angel in a New Orleans cemetery, and it made a dramatic transfer image. A Christmas card, perhaps? Your only limit is imagination…

transferblog3image

 

If you liked making image transfers, you might also enjoy my posts on carving your own rubber stamps, painting an endangered butterfly or step-by-step botanical drawing in pencil and watercolor. Now, go have some fun!

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Pages

  • 4 different lesson collections
  • A cozy art course inspired by Beatrix Potter
  • A gift for you
  • Birds in Colored Pencil
  • Botanical Sketchbook Painting
  • Draw and Paint Six Culinary Herbs
  • Draw Dogs and Cats
  • Eight Flowers Eight Ways
  • Fairies II: Enchanted World
  • Gentle Garden: Draw in Carbon Pencil
  • Heirloom Garden in Colored Pencil
  • New online course!
  • NEW! Vintage Postcard Birds & Butterflies Mini-Course
  • Online Courses – Complete List
  • Paint a Little Black Hen
  • Supply List for Gentle Garden
  • Using Watercolor Pencil (squeak!)
  • Welcome! Here is your course link:
  • Your site links & passwords
  • Hello
  • My sketchbooks

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