Perhaps you are one of the lucky ones who has found a particular style you admire, emulate, and have mastered. If not, don’t worry you aren’t alone.

More often an artist goes through a period of experimentation, and even those who have found their signature painting style must make an effort to step outside of their comfort zone and grow their skills as an artist.

For those of us that struggle to find their signature style, there is hope…

Today I’m sharing the struggles you encounter along the way, and the journey to finding yourself as an artist.

Do I Really Need a Signature Style?

Moving from the animation industry into fine arts has had its challenges. In animation you are commissioned to execute a specific style, a scene, and a mood. You don’t get to choose what that is, your job is to be so fluid you could execute any style your client/company requires.

In the world of fine arts it is opposite.  Even if it is a commissioned piece you are required to have one signature style that brands you in the eye of the public. When a client buys one of your pieces, they are a fan because they love your style and execution in the piece. They commission you because they see a consistent style they gravitate toward, so they want a unique original piece that follows your signature style.

Observe some of the most successful artists…those who no longer struggle for every sale. They typically have something, or a set of somethings that are similar throughout their entire collection. Whether that is a subject matter, a color palette, or a style of painting.

This is called branding. You don’t find successful artists painting abstract art one day and renaissance another. Instead of broadening your audience by carrying a variety of styles, you make it harder to market yourself to the right niche of people. Even galleries know to niche their market.

Would you follow someone on social media who only produced things in the style or philosophy you enjoy once in a blue moon? Or do you follow people who more consistently speak to your taste?

As frustrating as it might be for some of us to limit ourselves to a particular style. Finding your look as an artist will help your client niche find you. It is pivotal to the success of your business.

The Effects of Marketing & Trends On Your Style

In my attempts to discover myself as an artist, I realize I naturally fall into a certain look. My painting style tends to lean tighter, more representational and less impressionistic.

But what happens when the market is trending opposite of where you lean as an artist? Do we need to adjust to meet the current trend in the market? And where does your signature style fall into this?

Whether you have already discovered your signature style, or you are in the process of discovering it, this can be a frustrating paradox for the artist. While there are trends that will be here today and gone tomorrow, there are also overarching trends that can last for decades. Most of us would rather not be successful after our deaths in the future but be able to keep a roof over our heads today.

The question of will our artwork sell if our signature style isn’t trending, can motivate us to pivot into whatever IS trending. The real question is whether we are being true to who we are as an artist while pivoting. This is a question we can only answer individually…

So my question to you as you consider your signature style is this:

1. Is there room for small changes you can embrace as an artist, and a certain amount of wiggle room to incorporate more popular elements out there without sacrificing your signature style?
2. Is the current overarching market trend affecting your taste and things you gravitate towards when seeking your signature style?
3. Can you leverage your own uniqueness to become a trend within a smaller niche?

Learning What You Like Vs. Who You Are

I have met artists who have a strong sense of what they like and who they desire to emulate. One talented artist I met at Masters of American West art exhibition was thrilled when I said his artwork reminded me of the work of Dean Cornwell.

It turns out this was his favorite artist, one he desired to emulate…and yet while accomplishing that goal he managed to maintain his own distinct look. He had a strong sense of the style he wanted to capture in all of his artwork.

I’m not one of those people. I can look at one artist within a niche and love it, then another in an opposite niche and love their work too. Sometimes the biggest battle in finding your signature style as an artist is having broad and inclusive taste. Other times, it is the struggle not to be swayed by another artists work at the abandonment of our own distinct look. We want to emulate, not be an exact replica.

Designers have a fantastic little trick to help clients hone in on what their style should be. They create a set of boards on Pinterest and ask clients to pin several images they love. Then they have to choose only the top 10 pins they love most from among all of their pins. They have to select the images they want to describe who they are as a person. That becomes the board they are to reference for inspiration when they feel distracted by other styles.

In the journey to discover what we like versus who we are as artists we can carefully consider the artwork of those we admire, but ask ourselves these questions along the way as we hone in on what we love , why we love it, and whether it can be part of what makes our own signature style:

1. What draws you about this artist or particular piece of artwork? Is it the style, the mood, the color palette? Is it possible to include some of those elements into your own signature look or does it define your signature look?
2. Is it their style you love, or their craftsmanship in a particular technique you admire? Perhaps you can incorporate that technique and skill set but within your own style of choice. Or is this someone whose overall look you can actually emulate?
3. Do you love this artists entire collection, and would you want it in your home on all your walls long term? Sometimes we like a piece in the gallery, but realize it’s not for us when it doesn’t fit into the style of our home. The same principles apply when considering an artist to emulate.
4. Does this person have similar painting style/traits to your own? If someone is dramatically different from the way or what you already paint, they may not be someone to emulate. Perhaps borrow the subject matter or painting techniques you admire.

Is Your Signature Style Already There, In Plain Sight?

Sometimes others around us already have a sense of our signature style while we think we are floundering to find it. Consider leveraging your audience, friends and family. Ask them what they think your signature style is, and how they would describe you as an artist. If you start to see a trend, they might be on to something.

Sometimes we have a sense of our own signature style without even realizing it. Is there a look you naturally gravitate toward in your painting?

I have experimented with a wide variety of painting styles. I like to challenge myself as an artist and push the limits of what I can do. However, every time I try to step out of my box, I feel like I find myself right back within that very box. No matter how hard I try to accomplish a particular look or feel in a painting, my best work always seems to gravitate back to a particular look. At the end of the day, each painting is just what it becomes.

Here the question is; is this a lack of skill, or is this my unique area of strength? This might be my signature style. Obviously skill must be honed over time, but there is a difference between skill in technique and painting style.

You Won’t Always Get It Just Right, And That’s Okay

Don’t mistake the difference between execution of technique and style of painting.

My good friend Thomas is an incredibly talented and skillful artist. He has found wonderful success as a fine artist. Even he has struggled with the execution of a painting from time-to-time. He once told me about a painting he struggled to get right. He put it aside, and didn’t pull it out for 30 years. Looking at it, most of us wouldn’t see a single flaw in that painting…we would have thought it was great. However there was something about it that bothered him personally.

This is what becomes the distinction of what makes you who you are as an artist. That inner struggle, that particular thing you were going for in that painting that causes you to put it aside for a few years.

Whether you get it 100% right or not, just by seeking to execute that particular ‘thing’ is you infusing your painting with that signature style.

Embracing The Battle, It’s A Process…

It’s okay, struggling is not a negative, it’s just a process. Everybody is trying to find where they belong. To discover how to express yourself in a world with so many people doing the same thing you are doing.

The battle to discover yourself and what makes you special as an individual, as an artist. No one has my exact story, my exact strengths and weaknesses, and all of it contributes to what makes us unique.

Animation may have given me my greatest strengths, but learning how to pivot and grow my business has given me a whole new set of challenges. Ultimately it will become a whole new set of strengths.

What about you? Have you begun to discover what distinguishes you as an artist? What are some of your struggles?

Many artists are learning digital painting for a variety of reasons, knowing how to do both is vital for artists in today’s world.

How To Paint Digital Art Using Adobe Photoshop

Hello fellow artists! Someone asked me how to paint on computer so I thought I’d do a video demonstrating how I approach painting with Photoshop (be sure to check out the video along with this post!). Come along and see what we can learn from this approach.

Painting Digitally In Today’s World

Artists are finding in this digital age that having a working knowledge of how to use photoshop to paint the same quality of physical artwork digitally is invaluable. Working in the animation industry we soon transitioned entirely to digital for ease of use, so I quickly learned to hone those skills to create artwork you would never know started and was painted entirely on Photoshop.

Whether you are a professional artist, hobby artist, or enthusiast, using photoshop to paint can expand the realm of what you can do with your art!

Let’s get started with our tutorial:

I’m going to show you how I paint with Photoshop using a simple ball. You’ll get the overall concept. I’m going to start out with the circular shape brush (tool bar on upper lift).

I’ll just punch in the color (color palette on upper right). This is a quicker way than just laying in the paint.

I pick out my magic wand tool (tool bar on upper left) to isolate the color.

That puts a protective edge around the color. It’ll prevent anything from going outside that protective line.

You don’t actually need to do this, you can paint it free handed. We are going to keep it within the marquee circle for this demo.

I will pick a blue color for my shadow side.

Then use less opacity, about 34% (top bar toward left). This allows me to see through the color as I’m laying it in.

I’ll pick a paint brush that will make it easier for you to see my brush strokes working (upper left corner).

I prefer to stroke in the color because that gives me a sense that I’m actually painting with a real paintbrush. Using a color picker (option on Mac, Alt on PC), I’m going to select this portion of blue as a transition color that I’m painting in. Little by little, stroke the color in to get the painted look that we hope for.It’s building strokes on top of each other. I also like the random tones that happen as I’m painting, trying to slowly bring those tones together to create my dimensional effect; my “tone of values”–that’s a better way of putting it.

It’s more involving with this process, but I prefer the results. Now I’ll lessen the opacity to 9% to smooth out my brush strokes so they are not too strong. I just work the strokes, thinking of it as paint until I get the subtleties of blend that I would like to see or that I feel is working well.

Of course, you can achieve this using an airbrush effect also, which will soften some of the brush stroke effect. But I don’t want this to feel air brushed; that’s why I use this method. I like the irregularities of what I have here. I’ll give a little more to this area, going around to the right side of the ball.

I can actually blur it a little bit with a blur filter and that will give me even less stroke detailing, if I chose.

Now I’m going to lighten it up a little right in here: darker opacity to 45%, little more yellow, lighten up a slight bit. That’s my hot spot.

I use my picker, right here, to touch the color close by to allow for some of the transitional elements to happen easier.

I don’t always have to go to my color palette to pick colors. It can be right from my work in progress. Now I go slightly whitish. Give my final highlight. There’s my Photoshop painted ball.

Let’s say if I did choose an airbrush (or an “assimilated soft round brush” is more accurate). So I would take that color, go a little darker with it.

I would sweep across with it.

Then I would like to do a little reflective color. Let’s say there’s some red off somewhere. I could do it as a quick airbrush stroke and I could be done.

Or I could stroke it with my hard brush if I want to maintain that textured feeling, working it stroke by stroke. I want it to be consistent here. I’ll add a little more light to the reflective color and stroke that in.The idea is to get you to see how to apply the painting process.

I can, for better transition, use a little less opacity and make the reflection a little lighter with more saturation. Now that’s how I would paint a simple ball.

In the future, I will show you how to do other objects on Photoshop.

So there you have it, painting with Photoshop on computer. A totally different tool to utilize.

Keep an eye out for the “Painting On Computer” series. Give me a like if you learned something. See you next time!

NEXT: Continue this lesson by painting a bear with photoshop in part 2

I use a badger brush and water from an airbrush, spraying lightly to help blend the strokes better.

Then I put in the back foliage. Think of the process as one, two, three steps: a dark value, middle value and a light value. My back foliage is the dark value that goes in first.

Then my tree trunk and branches over that. I paint the tree trunk in a wet-into-wet method which allows me to blend my colors as I lay on paint. In this situation, paint from the dark, shady areas to the lighter areas.

I’m not dealing with grass or ground in this demo as I’ve shown those techniques in other videos. My focus is strictly on the tree. Once I have the basic shapes, then I build in more details: Adding in darker tones on the tree trunk to give it more form; making lines to depict bark and groves in the trunk. I put lights into random areas of the shadows.

Next, I put in the middle values of the foliage over top of the trunk and branches. It’s helpful to angle the paintbrush in a way that allows you to quickly lay in paint for a leafy appearance without stroking every single leaf shape. We want to simulate a look of lots of foliage. Notice the shape of my paintbrush in the photo below on the right.

We may need to put extra line detailing in the trunk to give more form where needed. As more detail is added and more form appears, we may need to refine those details. In the same manner as the foliage, we want to simulate bark detail without putting too much information.

Now keep in mind that I’m giving you the simple method of approaching this. You can added as much detail as you like or make it as simple as you like.

I then add some reflective or bounce light in the back shadow side of the tree trunk to aid with more volume or roundness. This will give extra color interest to the tree, as well.

To accentuate the foliage, I add the light value leafiness in random spots. Not all over – just a few hotter areas to catch the eye and give dimension and form to the foliage, too.

Now you could add a few twigs or small branches, some in a middle tone, others in lighter tones, to make it look as if these branches are coming forward out of the shadow area of the foliage.

At this point (if you used Gouache or water pliable paint), I go back and spray water from an airbrush and use a badger brush  to soften areas that were too crisp or sharp. We’re creating variables of soft and sharp focus which allows rest points for the eye.

Here’s the finished look. Again, this is the quick, animation method of doing a tree. You can make it as cartoony or as realistic as you like.Next time I’ll do a close up on the bark for a more detailed approach.
I hope that was useful for you! Check out my other Artist Technique series to depict Ground, Grass, or Wall Texture. The technique I share when beginning these paintings are the same:

Depicting Grass in a Painting
Technique for Wall Texture
Technique to Depict Ground Texture

With each simple tutorial, you’ll learn industry tips and techniques to create your own, complete painting. Thank for your interest! Try it out and let me know what you think by leaving a comment below or on my Facebook Page. Be sure to follow along for more and subscribe on YouTube. Until my next video and blog, Happy painting!

Hello art lovers out there! Today we are going to show you a technique on how to depict grass in a painting. There are two methods that I use: one in the studio using an airbrush to soften, the other when painting Plein Air (Painting outdoors in natural light). Hopefully it’s an approach you find useful in your painting as well.

As we have talked about in past blogs and videos, “Artist Technique Depicting Ground Texture” and “Technique for Wall Texture” (check those out if you haven’t already), I like to wet the board first, which allows the paint to go down smooth and even. But it can’t be too wet.

To the left is too wet. Let it dry to a low sheen or dull look which is not reflective as we see here.

This enables us to lay in colors, both light, dark, and medium values, all in one swoop as much as possible.

Why do we want all of the values in at the start? The advantage of doing it this way when painting grass is that it allows you to stroke the dark areas into the light areas to simulate grass blades. So where it’s dark, you stroke up into the light areas; and where it’s light you stroke it up into dark areas. This gives us the sense of grass blades showing up without having to paint every single detail of grass blades.

I’m utilizing an airbrush to keep the surface damp which allows it to be a little softer and not so crisp in the edge. It gives a mood to the overall grass look. Try to mix some of the subtle values that you see and pull blades of grass out of those subtle values into values just above it. You want your color mixing to be as close to the tones of each area as you possibly can. Think of it as shapes of silhouetted grass, light values over a dark value pulling those strokes of one silhouette out on top of another, on top of another and so on. Then put only a few blades of grass inside the silhouette itself.

That builds a look of  a grassy field without overworking it with every single blade being painted.

Now on the right side, I approach it slightly different as if I was doing a Plein air painting. No airbrushing involved here. (Seeing the video will give you a better concept of my stroking action).

I like using older, worn out brushes where the bristles are uneven.

I push against the brush or I’ll use it sideways and push it up. It gives me loose, irregular strokes and broken up areas. You can see where it leaves rough areas of paint that looks like irregular grass in the distance.

That’s the best way to ruin a brush quickly. It’s the reason for using older, worn brushes.

The principles remain the same regarding pushing dark shapes into light shapes and pushing light strokes into darker strokes above it. You can pull a few blades of grass within that shape or silhouette, but not too many because you want it to feel (look) simple and not overworked. That’s the overall concept to get a feel for grass without having to do every single blade. Here’s what the final results look like. A field of grass that’s not overly painted or overly stroked:

Hope you get a sense of how to approach grass in a more simplified fashion. So which method do you like the most? Is it the technique using the airbrush or the straight painting technique of just the brush alone? Whichever…

Hopefully it’ll be a lot of fun when you paint. Try it out and let me know what you think. See you next time!

Remember the last time we used acetate to make wall texture? This time we are going to use it to create ground texture. Please come along with me as I show you how to make ground texture using acetate.

You may recall in my last video/blog “Technique for Wall Texture” that we must wet our board first before beginning to paint. We wait until it dries to a low sheen, not a high gloss.

To the left is the high gloss look we do not want.

We lay in the paint starting from the lighter colors to our darker color areas. Make sure there is a lot of pigment because the wet board will disperse or thin out the paint. Once we get the lights to the darks completed, then we can start manipulating the paint. In this case we are using the acetate to create ground texture. I will put some paint (slightly darker pigment than my shadow area) on the acetate and drag it in the direction that I want the ground to flow. I drag some of the dark areas into the light areas and the light areas into the dark area. This is what creates a natural ground texture that’s not so contrive, but has a loose and natural feel to it.

I’m painting in brush strokes that have the appearance of tire or directional treads, as if a wagon is constantly using a road in a certain direction. It leaves those little ruts in the ground. So we’re creating that look of ruts in a road. I’m giving in a few more dark areas with my brush. Next, I’m going to do some cross shadows as if the shadows are crossing the road from the right side of the painting. Then I’ll go back in to add more directional tire threads or ruts because I lost some of that with my shadow strokes. Now I have the basic overall texture.

My board has dried now, which requires me to airbrush water onto it and re-wet it again. Wetting the surface allows me to drag my acetate over it. I will put some more paint back on the acetate and then drag it in the same direction of my ruts on the ground. It’s going to be a little darker pigment to define the ruts more.

I’m keeping it wet by utilizing my airbrush to do that. This gives you a quick method of getting all of those textures into the ground without overpainting them. Just to break up the ground a bit, I’m putting some grassy spots onto it. I’m not necessarily focusing on the grass because I’m going to do another video showing you a technique to do grass in the future.

My next focus is to put lighter spots on the ground as if the sun is coming from the left hand side and hitting some of the ruts on the ground. This gives more dimensionally to the ruts. I’m picking out spots to help accent that the most.

Once I have done that I’m using a toothbrush to give myself tiny, little pebbles. I rub the tips of the toothbrush in the paint (darker pigment for the light area & lighter pigment for the darker area) and scrape my fingers over the toothbrush to cause the paint to splatter onto the board.

Then I’ll paint in some larger pebbles, little rocks, into the ground as well. I will give them some shadows so it feels like they’re attached to the ground and this will basically complete the look of a finished ground. I focusing on getting that natural texture look into the ground by using a piece of acetate. Here you can see the finished painting.

That’s my method for doing ground texture. It’s amazing what you can do with a piece of acetate. Give it a try. If you find this interesting, please subscribe. Hope you are enjoying the blog or videos demonstrations! See you next time.

In this tutorial I am going to utilize acetate to create wall texture for a sample painting. I hope you’ll find it an interesting technique to add to your painting skills. In each series we are going to do something very simple, like a wall or ground or grass. Then by the end of the series, you’ll be prepared to do a full painting!

This technique for creating wall texture applies when using gouache, which is an opaque water color paint. Gouache is very water soluble, which means it can be easily damaged if you drop water on it, so you want to be careful.  You can use acrylics with this same technique. We start by wetting our board, making sure to get it as evenly wet as possible. When the board is first wet it has a highly glossy appearance.

You can see it’s shiny and bit reflective on the surface. Do not put paint on at this stage! Wait for it to dry to a low sheen, where you can tell it’s damp, but not sopping wet. While that is drying, you can start mixing the paint colors you want.  Make sure you have enough pigment because it’s going to be dispersed when you lay the paint onto the board.

Once you begin to lay in the color, try to be as even as you can and work fast – you don’t want your board to dry before you finish laying on paint. I’m putting in my lightest shade first, then I work towards darker shades to maintain the richness of color and the cleanest color early on. You don’t want to dirty your nice, clean, lighter areas right? Paint should be thin enough to allow light to hit the white board and let color bounce back up. If it gets too thick than you loose the vibrancy of your color because light can’t pass through well.

My board is beginning to dry so I’ll use an airbrush, which gives an even amount of water across the surface. This way I can continue working on a moist surface. I can lay in additional colors and a variety of information into that board and it still represents my first pass, or lay-in of paint. The airbrush will prevent paint from building up too heavily and still keep that bounce light coming through. Try to keep a balance between not getting too opaque nor too transparent with the paint. This is called a translucent effect: that’s what we want to achieve with the amount of paint we lay on the surface. Now we are going to use a badger brush.

A badger brush helps blend colors together, soften brush strokes, and smooth out some of the rough lay-in areas.

Every once in a while, hairs may come out of the badger brush and you have to pick them up by pushing the brush forward. This takes a little practice but you can get used to it. If it drys into the paint it will leave a line there. So if you can pick it up while it’s still damp, you’re better off.  Now I’m checking to make sure that the paint is dry.

You want it to be completely dry before the next stage. We can begin using a piece of acetate to give texture to our wall. We have established the light and shadows.

As you give texture you are going to loose some of the lightness and cleanness of your surface. Add another layer of paint that’s fairly thin–it’s a more transparent lay-in of pigment. We are just rubbing onto the acetate the colors that we want. You can vary how light or dark it becomes based on the amount of water to pigment. If you want it to be less apparent, than use more water; if you want it to show up stronger, than use more pigment.

What I’m doing is dabbing it down and letting it have random “accidents” as I lay it onto the surface. This will become wall texture that I’ll work with when I structure the wall. Creating random texture with this method is better than painting it in, which can look too contrived. It’s purposefully accidental! Now we can begin painting the stone work.

I’m painting my lines just a bit darker so it can show up in the shadow areas. The paint is more like watercolor in transparency. Since it dries lighter, I can go a little darker with my line work. I’ve built the basic structure of my stone wall, and can move on to the details. I want to put some shadows in as if light from above has cast shadows on the stone wall. To do so, I’ll take slightly darker paint (not quite as dark as my lines), add a little color to it, then build the shadowing using a thicker brush.

Keep it transparent to allow texture and color to come through. Where the light is, some of the yellow will show through; where the shadow is, some of the violet shows through. You can also add warmth to the color, as if there’s  warmer light reflecting below. That creates contrast with the cooler areas in the painting. Here’s what it looks like so far:

To give it dimension, I want to add more shadowing to this. Afterward I’ll use dark paint to define the cracks in the wall more. It helps clarify stone separation. Now the definition between the stones is more apparent. Since gouache drys lighter there still room to go darker without becoming totally black. I try not to make every line equally dark.

Pick out little spots where you accentuate the darkness. You don’t want it everywhere. Some things should only be suggested. I’m going to start painting in light as if it’s coming from above. I’ll define where light hits the top of the stone. The fun part is, as you do that, you can pick little areas to make crevices within the stone that catches the light as well. This will give us even more dimensionality.

I like to play up warm, reflective lights in my shadow area, which brings some interesting color to the piece. I’ll add a few more highlights from the top in the light area. Then put some cool light in my shadow areas. Keep highlights in the shady area dimmer than the light area. This will help define the stonework in the shadows.

My last few touches are redoing shadows in the crevices. I’ll get my darkest possible color, almost black, and give those final accents where the crevices are extra deep. This will bring out the final details that we would need for the piece to come together. It’ll look complete. So these are subtle steps to take when painting a stone wall, a brick wall, stone work on the ground, the side of buildings with texture, or anything like that. You can use the acetate to make the texture. It’s just a matter of pulling out the light and dark from the texture to get the overall structure of what you’re drawing or painting.

The next time we will use the acetate to make ground texture. Keep an eye out for it and happy painting!

Check out our newest art series just released into the shop titled Taking Flight.

The concept of doing a series of paintings called Taking Flight first occurred to me after looking at photographs my son and I had taken while visiting the Fourth of July Hot Air Balloon event in Bear Valley Springs in Tehachapi, California. Realizing the intricacies of the subject matter, I was reluctant to begin painting immediately. Each time I went back over my photo reference library the photos captivated me, so I decided to choose five representative pictures of the group and create paintings from them. This one below is called Gathering Flight.

I love the design elements in the pictures and the vibrant colors of the hot air balloons. The simple aerodynamics of hot air balloons used to defy gravity seems to me the most natural way for mankind to take flight without the aid of some sort of wings. It also brings to my mind the Bible teaching that one day we too will get to take flight, defying gravity. One day we will be raised up in the air without any mechanical devices. This hot air balloon series takes me to think of that day.

My first two paintings of this series were similar in color and done in my usual approach to painting, which is to paint large areas first and small details last. This one is called Flighting the Brush.

I did not apply any undertones but painted directly on the white canvas. I kept true to the time of day and terrain. However, I did combine two pictures to create the scene in this painting called Reflective Flight.

Completing these two first gave me the courage to press forward with a more bolder approach to the other three. I began these with the small details upfront.

I began by applying “Raw Siena” to my canvas. This undertone will create a warm tone that will shine through the paintings. It can also be used as negative element in the painting. You can see the negatives showing up, especially in Flight Design.

Look closely for the Raw Siena color left in the shadow of the lighter areas. It really helped me as I was able to paint the large/medium areas while allowing the tiny details to show up as negatives. By nature, I am a tight painter, so this approach forces me to loosen up with my painting technique.

As I approached The Big Blowup, you can imagine the dilemma I had when looking at all the folds of the balloon fabric.  I asked myself, “How can I paint this and capture the intricacies of this scene?” Beginning with the drawing helped me to work out areas of the shadow from the light side. This kept down some of the complexities of the folds. I intentionally used the undertones as the lit area and painted in the shadow areas to help alleviate the confusion.  Now it was easier to give more dimensional form by bringing my hottest lights to the folds.

My main concern was being careful that the painting doesn’t become too busy as it came to completion. The balloon folds’ themselves have a lot going on, not to mention the basket details, the folds and color in the figure, then adding the ropes and strings. But I made the decision to meet all of these head on. Here’s the result on The Big Blowup.

The challenge it gave me was a learning experience. I think each painting that I do should raise my artistic abilities to a higher level, add interest to the subject matter, refine my approach and understanding, and cause me to search for better painting techniques. I hope you will enjoy these paintings as much as I enjoyed creating them. And someday, we too can “take flight.”

View all the Taking Flight series in the Shop.

Hi Fellow Artist! Every so often while I’m painting, I look at it and I say to myself, “Wow, this feels very flat. What can I do to help that?” Then that light bulb comes on in my head: “Oh, I’ve forgotten my core shadows!” Let’s talk about how we can have our subject matter feel a bit more rounded by creating dimension.

So how do I help things look rounder? Take notice of the light shining on this cup. See the gradation? There’s a very strong highlight, then a mid tone, and next to that there’s a half tone, then finally the darkest part where the light doesn’t reach, called the Core Shadow. Then from the core shadow it goes over to the very edge where it catches the reflective light. Sometimes it’s a little hard to see reflective light depending on how strong or how subtle the light may be. I’ll use my hand to create more reflective color which makes it easier to see the core shadow. That core shadow helps things to feel more rounded. So when you’re painting, remember to make that darker, core shadow section.

To help you get a better example of what I’m talking about, let’s look at the artwork of a close friend of mine. Thomas Blackshear is an excellent artist who does incredible work. I’ve always been amazed at his skill set. He’s more gifted than most people I know personally. We are going to look at a close up of this particular painting called “Crow” to help us understand more about core shadows in various areas.

Notice the darker edge on the folds of the sleeve: that would represent the core shadow. And it moves from there into the reflective light. Again, on the arm ring we’re seeing the core shadow and the reflective light (remembering the layout on the cup?).

You see the core shadow again, here on the chin, going into that lighter reflective area just underneath it.

Thomas gives us a really good example of keeping things dimensional. Check out his work. I think you will truly love what you see. (By the way, Thomas was a big part of my journey to become an artist! If you don’t know that story yet, you can read about it here).

Now here’s how to help bring dimension to something that is flat sided. On this flat object we have the strongest light (right side), the shadow side (left), and of course, the high contrast area where they meet (the corner). As the shadow side falls away, it’s catching some of the reflective light (closer toward the back left).

I prefer to paint flat sided objects as a gradient from dark to light rather than one flat color (the shadow side). The same goes for the light side. I paint the lightest area next to the darkest (at the corner) and gradually get a little darker (toward the outer edge). You can also do it the opposite way on the light side. Just think gradation rather than flat. That tends to give more dimensionality.

So which box appears to protrude more at the corners? I hope you’re seeing that the box on the right is the one that visually seems to protrude. And what have I done to create that effect? I added a bit more light up and down in the areas where the arrows point.

By keeping this in mind, and putting it into action, you can bring more dimension to your artwork.

There are times when you may want to portray a more reflective surface. This can be tricky because there’s more bounce light or reflections catching the surface from different angles, rather than a one point light source.  However, maintain the basic principles: find where you can put your core shadows and then allow for those reflective lights to come in. It still works to create dimensionality. So know the principles (remember the cup layout), apply the principles, and then allow light to bounce wherever it is. Even if it’s a very reflective surface or object, the principle remains the same. Continue painting and get those objects nice and round! They’ll look much more realistic once you’ve created dimension.

Hope you enjoy the tips! If you find this helpful, give me a like on Facebook or YouTube, subscribe, and check out our other blog posts.

For Further Inspiration. . .

In my painting “Gleaming Flight” the reflective light and core shadows bring dimension to the rounded trunks and curved branches of the trees, and help convey the form and fullness of the hedges. But only exploration can reveal what is around the bend. Visit my Shop page for available prints of this painting, and to view the full collection.

Hey art lovers! My tip today is all about creating visual interest by adding unexpected touches of color. Check this out: which of these balls capture your visual interest the most? Of course, I would hope you say the one on the right.

Why would that be? The ball on the left side is a straight red ball with white and black touches.

The ball on the right has oranges, yellow and purples involved in it – but still reads as a red ball. On the light side of the ball, where the brighter colors are, I use analogous colors ranging from the reds, oranges, and yellows. If you’re wondering what Analogous colors are, check out my art tip post here. The same applies for the shadow side of the ball, using the violets, blues, and blue-green. Just remember that on the shadow side of the ball, colors are toned down, so be careful not to use too many colors because then it will look busy. The colors in the shadow must not compete with the intensity of the bright side.

We can bring visual interest to our work by adding additional variations of color rather than just using a straight black or white.

No matter what the color is, by broadening our color palette, we can make it visually interesting. You can do this with green by adding a dab of blue or maybe little touches of red, for example. This green ball has a range of colors from greens, yellows, and oranges on the light side; then to blues, violets, and reds on the shadow side of the ball. Think of them as reflective colors in the shadows and highlights that bring extra interest.

To see how I apply this concept, check out this piece titled “Jerusalem Arches.” I could have used all brown or tan to create the walls and architecture. Instead, I infused it with bold touches of color to build layers of depth and vitality. My painting “Jerusalem Arches“ is an example of how adding unexpected touches of color can heighten visual interest.

As you go around the color wheel, look for more interesting ways to pull in other colors, while still conveying the main color that you’re painting. These principles are used in every aspect of design where color is applicable. So give that a try and let me know how it works for you! You can share your experience on my YouTube channel or Facebook Page.

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