Expressive Painting in Mixed Media E-Book

Deshpande Shirish

• Herausgeber: Shirish Deshpande
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Dive into a world of boundless artistic creativity with Expressive Painting in Mixed Media.
Unleash your inner artist and discover the secrets to crafting stunning, expressive masterpieces that combine the vibrancy of colors and textures. Whether you are a novice or an experienced artist, this book is for you.
Discover the power of various drawing and painting mediums to transform your canvas into a playground for your imagination. With expert tips, step-by-step techniques and inspiring projects, this book is your key to unlocking your inner artistic potential.

What will you learn in this book?

• What is expressive art and how is it different from fully realistic art and abstract art?
• Various mediums used for expressive mixed-media art
• Composition for expressive art
• Color theory
• Creating interesting and harmonious compositions
• Mixed-media art techniques

Which mediums are covered in this book?

• Watercolor and gouache
• Watercolor pencils
• Acrylics and oils
• Pen and ink, brush pens and markers (and coffee!)
• Soft (dry) pastels and charcoal
• Acrylic spray paints
• Colored pencils
• Digital tools
• Using stencils
• Various types of paper and canvas

The best way to learn any skill is to do it. And that’s what you will do with ten step-by-step exercises that will guide you to create your own masterpieces.

• Doodle your surroundings
• Painting on colored paper
• Painting with coffee
• Watercolor collage painting
• Painting with ink and alcohol markers
• Acrylic spray paints and acrylic paints (and stencils)
• Palette knife painting using oils/acrylics
• Painting a waterfall using acrylic spray paints (and newsprint paper)
• A Foggy Grassland – watercolor and colored pencils
• Expressive digital painting

Leseprobe

EXPRESSIVEPAINTINGINMIXED MEDIA

Learn to Paint Stunning Mixed-Media Paintings in 10 Step-by-Step Exercises

Shirish Deshpande

Copyright ©2023 by

HuesAndTones Media and Publishing

Author: Shirish Deshpande

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission of the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

All artwork presented in this book is the copyright of the artist, regardless of whether they bear the artist’s signature or not.

The Tree Reflection – soft pastels on grey pastel paper

Table of Contents

Title Page

­INTRODUCTION

A Case for Expressive Art

What is Abstraction?

What is Abstract Art?

What is Expressive Art?

A Pitfall to Avoid When Painting Expressive Art

MATERIALS

Watercolor and Gouache

Watercolor Pencils

Acrylics and Oils

Pen and Ink, Brush Pens, and Markers

Soft (Dry) Pastels and Charcoal

Acrylic Spray Paints

Colored Pencils

Digital Tools

Using Stencils

Paper and Canvas

COMPOSITION FOR EXPRESSIVE ART

Focusing on Values

Identifying and Simplifying Shapes

Eliminating Unwanted Elements and Being Selective About Details

Exaggerating Elements (Normal is Boring)

COLOR THEORY

Warm and Cool Colors

Analogous, Complementary and Neutral Colors

INTERESTING AND HARMONIOUS COMPOSITION

Dichotomy 1 – Unity and Contrast

Dichotomy 2 – Balance and Dominance

Dichotomy 3 – Repetition and Variety

An Example of All Three Dichotomies Working Together

TECHNIQUES

Using Interesting Framing

Using Colored Surfaces and Bright Colors

Using ‘Imperfect’ Tools

Negative Painting

Using Time Limits

Using ‘Real’ Objects

Causing ‘Happy Accidents’

SOME INTERESTING MIXED-MEDIA EXERCISES

Doodle Your Surroundings

Painting on Colored Paper

Painting with Coffee

Watercolor Collage Painting

Painting with Ink and Alcohol Markers

Acrylic Spray Paints and Acrylic Paints (and Stencils)

Palette Knife Painting Using Oils/Acrylics

Painting Using Acrylic Spray Paints (and Newsprint Paper)

Painting Using Watercolor and Colored Pencils

Expressive Digital Painting

PARTING WORDS FROM THE AUTHOR AND BONUS CONTENT

GRATITUDE AND REQUEST FOR REVIEW

Also by Shirish (Ebook, Paperback, Hardcover)

­INTRODUCTION

Jungle Stream – spray paints on poster board paper

An Important Note Before You Begin:

This book is meant for readers who want to learn to paint expressively without the stress of making a painting look photo-realistic or completely abstract. We will avoid both these extremes and focus on painting expressive yet realistic paintings.

Everyone interprets the phrase ‘mixed media’ differently. So here’s a clarification about what you can expect from this book.

Some books and training programs about mixed-media art focus entirely on making art using collage techniques which involve little or no drawing and painting. This book is the opposite. The main focus of this book is on drawing and painting techniques using various mediums individually and in combination. Other techniques such as collage are covered, but they accompany the drawing and painting techniques rather than replace them.

A Case for Expressive Art

Once upon a time, I used to work in the corporate sector. Once I happened to attend an office party with several of my colleagues. Yes, it was that kind of awkward party where one is expected to let their hair down and be well-behaved at the same time!

That evening, the discussion turned to the subject of art. Normally, art is the last thing on the minds of officer-goers at an office party. But some of them had a drink too many. Then someone mentioned abstract art, and all hell broke loose (figuratively, of course). Now, you may owe some of these emotional reactions to the copious amount of alcohol flowing that evening. But I have seen even more extreme reactions from sober people.

Memory of a Previous Party – digital drawing for illustrative purposes only

What were the reactions?

Well, some drunkards from the crowd completely trashed any art that is not hyper-realistic as pretentious and shallow. The other extreme insisted that abstract art is the only ‘real’ art, and everything else is just imitation.

I beg to differ with both views, though I have seen my share of trashy art sold as abstract art, sometimes for millions of dollars! In this book, we will bust some popular myths related to expressive painting. The ignorance about abstraction emanates from the (false) assumption that art should be either ultra-realistic or completely abstract, that is, they are an either/or proposition.

Expressive art falls on a spectrum of infinite shades of reality between a completely abstract and a completely realistic painting. We will strike a sweet spot between hyper-realism and abstraction to make expressive art. This means we will aim for a type of painting that is not too photorealistic and not too abstract.

These statements will become clearer once we delve into the concept of abstraction and understand how it is related to expressive art.

What is Abstraction?

To understand abstraction, let’s begin with a not-so-abstract piece of art. This is a portrait of a pilgrim (also called Warkari in the local language) in the western state of Maharashtra in Bharat (India).

A Warkari (Pilgrim) – fountain pen with black ink, white gel pen and soft pastel on brown paper

We can simplify this portrait by drawing minimal lines…

… or we can simplify everything except the most striking elements of the picture…

… or we can exclude the features from the whole face and keep only the turban as the signature piece.

The possibilities are endless.

As we keep on simplifying this picture, we keep diverging from reality, thus creating several levels of abstraction.

The most abstract level would be to remove all linework and write the word ‘PILGRIM’.

What is Abstract Art?

You may have noted that as we move from realism to abstraction, the viewer finds more options to interpret the imagery. For example, in the image below, the leftmost image is the most realistic. The viewer can clearly interpret what the picture contains.

The middle image is somewhat open to interpretation, while the rightmost ‘image’ is completely open to interpretation. The word ‘PILGRIM’ may conjure several images in the minds of people depending on whom you ask.

So, in essence, as we move from full realism to abstraction, the viewer has more options to interpret the artwork.

*A Dynamic Abstract – acrylics on canvas

In the case of a complete abstract artwork like the one above, the viewer has complete freedom of interpretation. The same viewer may interpret a piece of art differently each time they see it. Some viewers see this artwork as a huge spaceship traveling through space, while some see a bunch of skewed, close-knit skyscrapers. You may see something completely different in this image, and you would still be right.

What is Expressive Art?

Now that we have understood that the goal of an expressive artist is not to mimic reality but rather express their interpretation of reality via the artwork. Just like in real life, realism and abstraction are not either/or propositions. It means that an artwork can fall in between these two extremes. Let’s understand this with an example of this painting.

*The Twilight – Acrylic knife painting on beige-toned paper

When you view this painting, what do you see? A sunset with a bunch of cars traveling on a road lined by buildings on both sides.

But if you look closely, you can observe that there are no well-defined shapes in this painting. In fact, the long line of cars you see at a distance on the left-hand side are just some blobs of paint.

Similarly, the buildings on both sides of the road are nothing but a bunch of thick paint strokes.

The sky is another bunch of thick paint strokes.

The only objects that are somewhat recognizable are these three cars.

Because of these three cars, the viewer gets an idea of what this painting is about. The viewer’s mind then ‘sees’ the rest of the elements based on their understanding of the world, even if they are just blobs of paint on paper. In this way, the viewer gets to ‘participate’ in the painting process by completing the painting in their mind. This is hardly possible in an ultra-realistic painting.

This joy of ‘participating’ in the painting process is what makes expressive artworks so attractive.

A Pitfall to Avoid When Painting Expressive Art

Streetlamp – a digital painting painted in Clip Studio Paint

Several people have asked me to give feedback about their paintings. But when I try to give them honest feedback, most come back with the same excuse:

“Oh, that thing (substitute skewed eyes in a portrait, the wrong perspective or any mistake pointed out) is deliberately done that way because I wanted it to be abstract/expressive.”

So, I will state this very clearly right now:

Painting expressive is not an excuse for painting sloppily. Do not try to hide your mistakes as abstract or expressive elements.

Now that we have learned the concept of abstraction, let’s delve into the practical aspects of making art. We will begin with a warm-up exercise to loosen up our drawing technique. After this exercise, we will learn about some material options to make expressive mixed-media art.

MATERIALS

*Apothecary – pen, ink and watercolor on toned paper

The list of art materials and their combinations to create expressive mixed-media artworks is virtually endless. However, as a starting point for your shopping list, I will give some pointers. We will learn about several additional materials as we go through the demonstrations.

I will discuss many types of materials and mediums below. I have tried all of them and experienced the strengths and limitations of each one. Some materials, in my opinion, are better suited for expressive painting than others. But that doesn’t mean the other materials are insufficient. Your ability to create expressive art is not limited by the materials at hand but by your imagination and willingness to experiment.

Remember, the main material for making expressive art is right there with you, propped up above your neck!

My suggestion to you would be to go through this list of materials with an open mind regardless of whichever materials you currently favor. It is okay if you want to use only a fraction of the materials mentioned below. If you are not comfortable with a set of materials I mention, still read through that section. There is a high chance that you will discover something new.

First, we will look at the various materials individually. Then we will look at some techniques to combine them.

Watercolor and Gouache

Watercolor is an extremely versatile medium. Watercolor can be used in both transparent and opaque fashion. Due to the flowing nature of watercolor paint, it can be used to create subtle and dreamy effects in paintings. If you are looking to emphasize shapes and values over details, watercolor is one of the go-to mediums (more about values in the ‘Focusing on Values’ chapter later in this book).

A Water Body During a Monsoon – watercolor on handmade paper

Another variation of watercolor is gouache paint. These are water-based opaque paints. They can be handy when painting over colored surfaces and can be used to create striking contrasts in the artwork. The following painting makes extensive use of gouache paints along with watercolor.

Castel del Monte, Italy – pen, ink, watercolor and gouache on beige-toned paper

Watercolor Pencils

Watercolor pencils are useful when one wants to add detailing to a watercolor painting. We normally use a watercolor brush to apply watercolor onto the paper. A watercolor pencil is used in a different way. The tip of the pencil is made wet and applied to the paper. Needless to say, watercolor pencils are seldom used for broad, sweeping paint strokes and are mostly used for precision work.

Watercolor pencils complement watercolor rather than replace it.

I use watercolor pencils in my sketches for different purposes.

If I want to keep most of my sketch monochrome but want to add a splash of color, I sometimes make use of watercolor pencils. These pencils are especially useful when painting outdoors. If you are going to make use of limited colors in your sketch, why carry a range of watercolor paints? Watercolor pencils are easier to carry and access on the go.

I have added a splash of color to the following painting using watercolor pencils.

A Hot Quiet Summer Afternoon in Kasaba Peth, in Old Pune – pen, ink and watercolor pencils on paper

Acrylics and Oils

Acrylic paint can be used in a thin, transparent manner like watercolor. However, the main strength of acrylic paint is its ability to be used in a thick, opaque manner (a technique also called impasto) like oil paint. Yet, acrylic paint dries much faster than oil paint, making it an ideal choice for artists who want to paint quickly. Since expressive painting requires much intuitive thinking, acrylic paints can feel quite natural for this kind of painting.

Observe the following painting:

*A Street in Maheshwar, India – acrylic knife painting on toned paper

In this part of the painting, you can see the application of acrylic paint in a thick, impasto manner.

Acrylic paints are ideal for mixed-media work since they can be combined with almost any medium. One can paint with oil paints, or use various mediums like pens, watercolors, inks and dry (soft) pastels and oil pastels (wax crayons) over a base of acrylic paint. Acrylic paints stick to most surfaces, like paper, canvas, and wood. Acrylic paints also dry fast, making them the medium of choice for creating a base layer for mixed-media painting. In the image above, I drew the black outlines for the doorway using a black brush pen over the acrylic paint layer (after the acrylic paint layer had completely dried).

I normally prime my canvases with acrylic paints before painting over them with oils. Sometimes I paint the base layer of paint using acrylics and paint over it with oil paint. Since the acrylic paints dry quickly, this saves me some time when painting with oils.