Water and Nupastel? Who knew?!

In a previous blog post I talked about nupastels, what I left out was there is another technique when dealing with media.

If you add water to the chalky media it smoothes it out and makes it look as though it was paint. It's an actually really fun way to work the nupastels.

What you will need for this project is either illustration board preferably cold press or water color paper. The only down fall with watercolor paper is that it tends to ripple and bubble the paper from the amount of water that's usually used when using this technique.

Nupastel's of course are need, as I said in my previous post prismacolor nupastels are my favorite. A set of 24-48 works fine. It's nice to have some variety with this media.

Watercolor brushes, I personally prefer round tip brushes but if your piece is a landscape or architectural element flat headed brushes work really well.

A watercolor palette with recessed areas where you can mix water with the nupastel.

A container that holds water and like all other wet medias, try to keep the water clean while painting.

Starting off, I start with a white nupastel and create a basic outline of whatever it is I am drawing. After that begin to make the marks on the piece. You don't have to get to detailed just yet because once you add water with a brush it blends the colors.

Different from my last technique this should have a smooth finished look. The great thing with working with nupastels this way is that you can work on the piece while it is wet or dry. The marks will be different though. With wet the marks seem to bleed a bit.

No different from drawing chalk on a wet drive way.

Once you are finished with your wet nupastel piece, spray your choice of workable fixatif over it to protect it from harm. I use krylon workable fixatif.

The piece I have for an example is actually part of the series of the other nupastel portrait I posted previously in the "collect your patience for nupastel" blog post.

Take off your 3D glasses: Dimensional Illustration

When I finally decided on what I wanted to be in life and chose a major after a long battle with three different prior majors, I came back to what I wanted to be when I was a kid, an Illustrator. The thing I didn't know about illustration is that there are so many different careers and paths you can take with an illustration background.

I always thought of illustration as being 2-dimensional, but I was wrong. When starting at R.I.T. and looking at my planner for the years I would be attending here, a sheet filled with all the courses I had to take, one stuck out to me. Dimensional Illustration?

I was bit a weary on it but jumped into with open arms, which is something I have learned to do as an artist, and well I didn't really have a choice so I'd rather be open then closed to it.

Dimensional illustration could be cut paper, clay and any object or media that you could make a form out of.

For our first assignment in the class we had to do a cut paper assignment, where we had to symbolically represent ourselves while including the first initial of our name. Only using white paper, but it could be different textures.

Having a Polish background I chose to incorporate the Polish crowned eagle in my design with an old english font for C that I incorporated on the crown, as an eye and on the border as well.

With dimensional illustration there are two key words you need to know... Craftsmanship and Lighting!

It's a long process from sketches, too color comps (if you are doing a multi colored piece) and cutting or molding. With cut paper you need to be well rested with a steady hand and a sharp exacto-knife.

The material I used for my piece is bristol board, water color paper (for texture) tracing paper, foam core board, glue, clear scotch tape.

It's smart to purchase a cutting pad for the project so you don't destroy the table you're working on.

Before you start your piece draw out a full size rendering of your piece. Once that is finished use tracing paper to figure out what pieces you will need to create your dimensional illustration.

Once you have all the pieces traced on the tracing paper, transfer them onto the desired paper.
Here's a video to use if you've never used this technique before. Feel free to mute it...

Once you have all everything transferred bust out the exacto knife and carefully cut out the pieces.

While assembling I use scotch tape then glue just to make sure the pieces are in the exact place that I want them to be in.

Pieces of foam core stacked are good for podiums that lay behind the pieces, giving the piece a sense of depth.

Always keep in my mind the lighting that will be used when photographing your piece, it could make it or break it!

Collect your patience for Nupastel

Nupastel is a very chalky media, the first time I worked with it I questioned to myself, what the hell was I going to do with chalk?!

Like so many other mediums that I have worked with this one surprised just as much as the others. Though a warning with this media, it can be time consuming if you want the piece to look finished and detailed. Also, extra care when not working on it or storing it are essential!

To start off lets go over what you will need to successfully create a nupastel piece!

My favorite brand is Prismacolor Nupastel, prismascolor seems to have some of the best quality materials, pricy yes, but worth it! I've used a set of 24 before but now I have the 48 set and I am very pleased with the variety it gives me. The great thing about nupastel is the blending of the media.

Mi tientes Canson paper makes for a great surface for nupastel. Try and pick a color paper that will benefit your piece and perhaps even make it easier.

Painters tape works really well, if you want a clean border around the art. Warning about the tape on canson paper, the longer you leave it on the more likely it won't want to come off easily. I have ripped a few pieces, so if you do this try to time manage appropriately when drawing with nupastel.

You will also need workable fixatif ready for when you finish the piece. This prevents the media from smudging or coming off the paper. I use krylon workable fixatif. 

So once you have all your materials ready start with an outline of the piece. I use white because it is easy to cover up as you build up the piece.

Once the basic outline is finished I cover the paper with small dash marks. Some artists prefer the blending method but me personally really enjoy the final look with the method I use. You're hand may get tired and eyes a little crossed, but I promise the outcome is worth it.

If you are drawing from observation it helps to be able to have the option to zoom in on whatever it is that you are trying to replicate through nupastel. The less pixelated the better!

My first example is one of my first pieces, please try and not to fall out of your chair, it's not a portrait!

The assignment was last year in my drawing class where we had to draw a fruit or vegetable, but very upclose! I chose a pineapple, it was tedious but I was pleasantly happy with the outcome.

And here's a portrait in nupastel that i did last year... I didn't feel right not posting one

Cross-Hatching

Before I did my first cross hatching piece, I was very skeptical of the technique and how to approach it. The whole process seemed too tedious for my liking, but once I laid down my first few criss crosses on the paper, I really enjoyed it.

It's good to step out of the box as an artist, try new mediums, dabble in this and that. I was that guy a few years ago where I thought I knew what I liked and that's all I would do because that's all I was comfortable with, but I'm glad in the last two years I grew some gonads and tried new things in the art world.

Cross hatching is most commonly used with ink, some artists have been known to use graphite.

So what you need for this project is a graphite pencil, I like using an HB, you'll be using this to draw the sketch of your piece. I know I know, no color pencils for this project.

Also you'll need pens, my favorite type of pens not just for cross hatching but in general are micron pens. They're high quality fine tip pens that come in a variety of line sizes and colors and don't smudge once they are dry. For this cross hatching assignment I chose to go for black. I most regularly use 05, 03, 01 and 005 for the tiny details.

A nice clean piece of paper of some sort is obviously needed for this assignment as well, illustration board works well but you could even go for canson paper. And a CLEAN kneaded eraser works best for the clean up.

I did, yes you guessed it, a portrait for the cross hatching assignment that was assigned back in fall in one of my illustration classes. I wanted it to be comical so I went with the reality star Big Ang from the vh1 series.

Okay, so when you start off with your sketch in the graphite really try to focus on the shadows of whatever you are drawing. Try looking at them more as shapes then shadows and lightly sketch them in.

Once you're happy with what you have for the sketch this is where you might get a little scared, but don't be! You can read an artists confidence in their mark makings, but you have to remember every piece you do is a stepping stone to becoming a better artist. You're going to learn from your mistakes.

Start with a larger sized tip pen with your mark making and begin to chose areas where it may be the darkest part of your piece and begin criss crossing/ cross hatching away!

The marks should almost look like thousands of X's built into a shape.

Gradually work all over the piece focusing on the darkest areas and then slowly spreading out giving the piece volume and value. Creating value in cross hatching is key to a successful piece!

Being my first cross hatching piece, I feel like I learned a lot from it, it may not be the best work of art by any means but like I said, each piece is stepping stone to becoming a better artist.

Colored Pencils

I feel like I am obligated to do a post on colored pencils, seeing that I use it in almost all of my pieces. Like I said in my previous post, I never realized how much of an importance colored pencils were in the illustration field. I always looked at them as being for the younger crowd before I started my major in art in college.

When I first was told to get colored pencils, me being the poor college student, bought a cheaper brand of colored pencils. Don't do this! Finally when coming to R.I.T. my one professor made a polite demand that I must buy prismacolor colored pencils. I was annoyed and really didn't want too but did and I am so happy that I listened and followed through, prismascolor colored pencils is the way to go!

Materials in the art world are almost as important as the talent the artist has. The quality of the brushes to the quality of paint, canvas, board, paper, colored pencils... It all counts!

You can use colored pencils on illustration board, canson paper, regular paper, wood, whatever you like really. I prefer using canson mi teintes paper personally, try and chose a color that will help as good foundation for your piece. For example if doing a face portrait flesh colors work well such as tans and reds.

There are so many different techniques to go about when using colored pencils. I always start with a basic outline for the piece though, I start off with using a white colored pencil for the basic outline. From there i begin to build the piece layer by layer. Some people start with a dark color and work their way to the lightest but I kind of go all over the place, it's up to you on this one. When just using colored pencils for a piece I almost use a hatching technique. Which means my piece is mainly made up of small markings that build whatever it is I am drawing.

Colored pencils also really work well with less opaque paints like water color and a water downed gouache. It could be the underlaying portion of the piece and even an over layering part of the piece or both.

When handling colored pencils it is important to try and not to drop them. The wax lead that is inside the wood of the pencil can break up inside and it will decrease the life expectancy of the colored pencil and you'll have to keep buying new ones. Some artists use an exacto knife or blade when sharpening colored pencils, I personally feel it is a waste of time. I'm not saying to go and buy a cheap sharpener I like to use two different types of pencil sharpeners.

My favorite is my old school Boston vacuum mount self feeder that I use when I'm home. I couldn't find a website for the manufacturer but you can purchase them on amazon, ebay or even at an office supply store. Mine is over well over 20 years old and I love it.

My traveling pencil sharpener is just a simple hand held metal pencil sharpener with a no shavings holder. I guess I'm old school when it comes to sharpening pencils, I'm completely fine with that though. It does the job without destroying my pencils.

Gouache comes in handy for the highlights of a piece with colored pencils. Sometimes if you have too many layers it gives the piece a glossy look, a flat media like gouache helps break this up. For instance in a self portrait I did of myself I just used it on the eyes, which I did make glossy but the little marks of gouache breaks it up and brings the piece to life. Don't use just pure white though, it may be too intense, I suggest adding a little blue or black so the white isn't so severe.

Oil Pastels

Last year in one of the classes I was taking, I was introduced to one of my favorite media's in the art world, Oil Pastels. When first being introduced to them I was very weary on what and how I was supposed to do with these thick waxy crayons, but the second my oil pastel crayon hit the paper it was love at first sight!

Now when dealing with oil pastels it's good to know that they are very forgiving when it comes to mark making, you can keep building layer on top of layer and blending the variety of colors. I never thought I was going to enjoy doing this as much as I did.

With oil pastels I have discovered it's great to use as a primary media but you also can also include a tertiary media or two to strengthen your piece with this media.

When starting your oil pastel piece make sure to have a good variety of colors, I would chose between a set of either 36 to 48, it will really save you time when trying to come up with the most ideal color that you want in an area of your piece. I use Cray-Pas Expressionist extra fine quality oil pastels. If you want to start off with the junior kit which is 16 cray-pas colors just to get a feel for it, go for that.

Since oil-pastels is similar to painting only it isn't wet media, I like to start with laying down a base color of paint before doing anything else. I like using a water downed gouache or water color for this, chose the the most common dark color that you plan on incorporating in your piece, this will speed up the process, you won't regret it! Make sure it is dried before continuing with the piece.

A cold press illustration board I feel is likely the best choice for oil pastels but i have done pieces on just regular colored canson mi teintes paper which eliminates the initial process of painting, that's up to you.

So once you have your chosen colored canson mi teintes paper or painted cold compress illustration board lay down the basic outline of your piece with, yes you guessed it, color pencil! I never realized until coming to R.I.T. how important colored pencils are to an illustrator!

Once you have the basic outline in, lay down the layers of oil pastel, I really like to get expressive with my colors and line values. In the sets that are larger in variety they usually come with a blender crayon which really helps with blending in colors so be sure to make use of it if you cannot get that particular color you're aiming for or there isn't a cohesive blend going on, sometimes the blending process can get mucky.

When I'm finished with the oil pastel I like to bust out the gouache again, white gouache turns into your best friend at this point for the highlights of the piece. Since I love doing portraits as I'm sure you can already tell, I find the whitest highlights and use a very very lightly watered down gouache now remember what I said before in a previous blog about oil and water mixing, keep that in mind!

Okay so when you think you are completely done, there may be certain areas that have a waxy build up, easy fix I usually hit the back of the piece (if it's on a board) if that doesn't work Q-tips come in handy with an easy gentle wipe on the oil pastel waxy build up.

The piece I'm showing is a piece I did in my illustration techniques class from this past fall using the techniques I described above.

A Clean Brush is a Happy Brush

As I've said before, brushes are just as important as the paint you are using when doing a piece.

 Not only is it worth it to throw in some extra dough on brushes but cleaning them right after use is the most important rule of dealing with paint brushes. It will allow their life expectancy to increase and I know you don't want to be dropping your hard earned cash anymore then you have to at the art store.

When dealing with gouache, acrylic and water color paints its a must to keep water next to you. Change the water once it gets to the point of murky. I just learned that if you keep a piece of bar soap helps as well, especially when using a brush during the piece and you're changing the color of paint with the same brush.

With oil paint just make sure you have turpentine or paint thinner handy. All you have to do is dip the brush in either solutions and wipe it clean with a rag or towel.

Once you are finished with your brush completely for the day head to a sink. I use the sink in my basement because it can get a bit messy. Warm water with soap or detergent and make sure you rinse and wash out all the paint. There should be any color in the water when you put your fingers through the hairs of the brush. I take regular paper towel and squeeze the hairs of the brush with it just to make sure I don't put them away wet.

There are brush cleaners sold at art stores and even brush cleaners. I do not own one of these, I don't mind cleaning them myself. But if you're interested in looking into it I know one is called the brushmate and i know Winsor and Newton has a few different care products for your brushes.

For those of you that think it is too late and your brushes have expired due to poor use I attached a video I found on youtube on how to revive your brushes and bring them back to life!