Art Mini Course

1. Intro to mini course: Welcome to my studio. Thanks so much for signing up to this mini-course. This arc minute course is all about practical tips in R that goes beyond basic drawing and painting techniques. It will help you navigate the process of framing art on paper and Canvas on your own. You'll learn about various types of plexiglass frames, max, and other materials needed for framing to make an informed decision. If you'd like to frame art on paper yourself, or they're framing kids online. Or take it to the framer. You'll learn about fixatives and varnishing, including the advantages and disadvantages of some brands available on the market. Today, I'm reviewing several products that I'm currently using myself in my studio. Also, I share my secret weapon, the most beautiful marker I've found so far to create art on paper. In this lesson, I showed you several markers that I use for different purposes, creating art on paper. I also include the download explaining how to take care of Waller in your collection, as well as a digital download of one of my art instruction books for you to keep. I might add more downloads to this course. In the future. They will be free for you to use whenever they become available. If you are enrolled in this course. I designed this course with the idea of giving some practical information to you that can be time consuming and frustrating to learn on your own. It took me a while to figure out what Plexiglas to use for my art. I need a lot of mistakes, so I put practical information inside the scores for you to understand what to pay attention to whenever you decide to frame your art on paper. I don't claim and to know everything. Rather, I'd like to share what I longed dealing with framing, matching, varnish, just markers, and so much more. I hope you enjoy taking this course. If you wish to continue learning about the colored pencil techniques or oil painting, you're welcome to use this special coupon on any or all of my video courses I offer here. You're probably wondering who I am. So I'd like to mention why I started creating these video courses and why it is my passion when they graduate from high school and Moscow, I didn't know what to do with my life. I got a scholarship to study and I started Business Administration in the US. So after relocating to the ears, I didn't have a clear direction. I chose going to art school part-time to fill in the gap I felt inside me and I turned to painting in my early twenties. I've already had a college degree in business administration, but they missed on big aspirations or lands for myself. I felt a huge disconnect between this profession and my soul. And I couldn't imagine living in some office space, performing tasks and crunching numbers. That didn't make much sense to me. I had a different personality and I had a different calling. I took some art classes at Tulsa Community College or for the fun of it. And immediate goal became learning how to draw and paint realistically. Because classical art education was almost nonexistent. 25 years ago, I spent years learning the craft by going to various arts. And I went through five colleges and universities. At some point, there was a moment when I felt like I gained ground at representing the wall realistically enough in my work. And I began painting my personal stories. I wasn't encouraged to pursue art when I was a child. And it was very difficult to find education in realism painting when I started as an adult. That's why I'm very committed to art education, creating digital courses, writing books and articles about art and contemporary artists, as well as hosting my hooked on our podcast for you to learn about contemporary art and enjoy painting. Dover publications published two of my books on colored pencil drawing. I wrote many articles about contemporary artists are in the magazine. I also created a lot of tutorials for the art magazines over the years. So I have a lot of practice built into the education that I'm channeling in my video courses. Thanks so much for watching and don't forget to enroll into this course today. Take care, Bye bye. 2. Types of Plexiglass: Hello guys. In this lesson I'm going to explain the differences in acrylic glazing. Acrylic glazing is more shatter proof than glass. It waits a lot less. It can also be less expensive than glass. Also, acrylic glazing could have UV protection baked into it. All of these advantages make acrylic glazing a better choice as opposed to framing art with glass frames with standard Plexiglas. It looks sort of like this. If I take it out from the frame, you can see that it's a very thin piece of plexi. This type of plexiglass is standard in ready-made frames that you can buy at the corrupt store. The disadvantage of such plexiglass is that it scratches super easy and it's also very thin and reflective. It's enough to have just a single scratch to ruin the entire presentation of art. However, when you or the plexiglass samples from a foramen company, here you can see samples from the American frame. You'll get a much higher quality of plexiglass. Still there is a very big difference between each of the samples. And I'm going to explain the difference in this video. Let's look at standard acrylic glazing. If I compare it to the standard acrylic coming this the ready-made frame, it's a lot thicker. You can see the difference in thickness, but all other qualities are about the same. It's very reflective. It is clear about my place it over my drawing. Colors. They as bright as they are. And then if I move it up just a little bit, because usually they have mapped around the picture. There is no difference in color or saturation. If you are on budget, this would work. But just know that it's highly reflective and it can scratch as well despite it thickness. It doesn't scratch as easily as the standard plexi. But I've scraped. I've scratched and therefore, this is irregular plexiglass. And as you can see, it's highly reflective. You can see how my window gets reflected in the plexiglass. Also, it scratches very easily and it's enough to have one scratch to 0. And the viewing of the painting. That's how art looks behind regular Plexiglas. As you can see, there are tons of reflections. The only way of dealing with this is that you could hang your art on the wall where you don't have the windows or how a lot of light. Otherwise. I'm going to look at all of these reflections, but the image itself shows super clear. It shows even better than if I put it on the glass. But overall, I don't recommend regular plexiglass, although it is the cheapest. Simply because of the reflections and the fact that it's scratches so easily. Next comes nan glare, acrylic glazing, and it comes with the same thickness. It's very thick. It's getting harder to scratch. If you look at it up close, you can see that it doesn't glare as much a standard Plexiglas. But it also makes drawing silica little bit diffuse. Diffuse, diffuses the light. And that's the reason why it might appear a little bit less color and dance. If you move just a little bit away from your drawing, there is not that much of a difference, but be aware of it. As you can see, when I place it right on my drawing, there is not that much difference in in color. I would say there is no difference at all. And it reflects a lot less. However, these Plexiglas, non glare acrylic glazing doesn't protect your drawing from harmful UV rays. And if you display your art, is the lights on or In a gallery setting, I don't think it's a good choice. I think about the choice is UV lamp glare, acrylic glazing because it protects from the lights. When I compare that to like so I don't see the difference in glare. I think it diffuses the light about the same. And when I place it over my drawing, there is a tinier, a loss of color. Usually the framers say that it's not the loss of college, just this plexiglass diffuses the light a little bit differently. I frame several pieces is this plexiglass. And I can tell you one of the biggest drawbacks about these acrylic glazing is that when you move it from your art work, your art becomes blurrier. If I place it right on my artwork, it looks just fine. But if you have a mat cut-out around your drawing, so you end up having just a little bit of space between your art and your math. You might see it a little bit of blower. And that's the disturbing facts about these glazing. In my opinion. It works when it's placed right on your drawing, but you move away from it. It becomes a little bit blurry. In my opinion. You'll see examples of my frame paintings and see that that's not quiet man glare because it does catch the light, but it catches a different layer from regular acrylic. Acrylic glazing is about the same as standard glazing. It's pricier, but it reflects the light the same way. The, the advantage of having this one is that it protects your drawings from harmful UV rays. Finally, there is the best acrylic glazing that's called Optum museum acrylic glazing. It also protects your drawings from harmful UV lights that has purplish bluish tint when I rotated. And you can see how it reflects light. When I place that on my drawing, I see no difference in color. It's about the same. And if I move it up just a tiny bit, I don't see any changes either. Obviously. It's sad that it's the best acrylic for archival museum display. Just one of the things that I find a little bit disturbing is that I opened it and I touched it and it has all these marks, um, that are kinda difficult to remove. So it means that if you open a if you open the seal and you must immediately don't leave it in your space because those marks are going to accumulate on your Plexiglas. Here's just another example of placing museum acrylic plexiglass. And you can also see that that's there, a thick all plexus crashes. So it's not like glass scratches, but when handled carefully and laugh, I think it's a very good solution. Instead of framing your art is regular glass. When you transport your art, your CPR, you can't afford breaking the glass and cutting through the drawings. Okay, I'm going to summarize the properties of all acrylic glazing available. Now, this is a regular standard Plexiglas that comes some ready-made friends. It's reflective, It's thin, It's scratchy, It's silly, but it looks glass clear. When you place it on the other arm. Standard acrylic is about the same thing, but it's a lot thicker. It reflects a lot. It makes your art glass clear. Uv acrylic glazing. Same thing. It's thick. It's reflective, but it's glass clear when you place it over your drawing, there is no difference in color, intensity, none glare, acrylic glazing diffuses the light. It's not as reflective. I'd say it reflects strong lights differently. It's clear when you place it right on your drawing, and that might diffuse it a little bit more as you move it away from your drawing, you in another layer. Acrylic glazing is about the same thing. It diffuses the light. It's clear when you place that right on your drawing. And it might look a little bit diffused when you move it away from your drawing. The good thing is that it protects us from harmful UV rays. Finally, it's the most expensive acrylic glazing. It's called museum acrylic glazing. It has UV protection. It's clear when you place it over your drawings, and that doesn't seem to change colors. I move it away from my drawing. It's also thick and it has slightly bluish tint when I look at it sideways. 3. Tips framing art on paper: When you get your custom order back until your stood there? It depends what you order, of course, but what I have here, I have a custom cut frame. Then I have a custom cut Plexiglas. I will need to remove this blue field. And if you have the art and if you order the custom cat map, it should fit in here as well. Then the final piece is the acid free banking. You're framing supplies consist of three backing. My app was our than some plexiglass and the frame itself. A lot of times this is not included into the kid. So you have to read the details to see if it's included or not. Your map is going to cover at least a quarter of an inch on each side of your drawing. It needs to stay behind your math of this land, the frame or nose to cut the math. Or if you use standard size my ads, you can just take your drawing, go to the store and play C0 drawing underneath the math to see if it's a good fit or not. The wife math and the backing must be set free. And even the mountain type that you use to mount your drawing, you're backing board. It also must be set free, otherwise, your drawing is going to yellow over time. And vanilla, you pick your mouth. A look at the corners. They need to be cut nicely. Plexiglass comes to this protective film that you need to remove before placing it into the frame. This can be a real challenge because you'll have all the dust and dirt on this film. And there is a lot of static when you start removing the protective film from your plexiglass. So you must work and vertically and conditions to make sure that your plexi stays clean. Once again, the thickness of your Plexiglas depends on the company you order. If I order these Plexiglas from a different company, it would be a lot thicker. Line seal, place it over your art. Check for tinea tiny particles that could get stuck right under your plexi. And they would show on the map to be very clean. Also while you're checking it for small particles, be careful with it. Remember not to scratch it. Once you're done checking a line, everything and the frame. Just couldn't do it differently. You could place the frame upside down for us and then replace the art over. The total size of this artwork is 31 inches. I divide this number by three, and I roughly mark 1 third of the total size of my art work where I would be placing the wire. I'm going to place it at 10.5 inches here. And Margarita, same length on another side. Here we go. Here's the finished framed artwork. I use UV and then glare Plexiglas on it. And I'm happy with the results. Here. I'd like to show you how some of the artwork looks on the back. Depending on your framing kit, you're going to have various supplies to hold your panel or Canvas or baking in the frame itself. In this section of the video, I'd like to explain how you can think of your mat. Because when we get into the framing store, it's very difficult to figure out what colors you need or Don't need and how it all relates to your art. First of all, it's always recommended to use white or off-white mat over your drawing. But I think sometimes it just too stark white. And if you want to use color, use the color one in a double mat. I have it as your first choice, and then place the light mat over it. If you use mat that have colors in them, those colors need to match the colors that you see in your art. For example, if you have a bunny that's blue, white, you can match this beautiful blue with the color of your mat. Sometimes I don't know what color to use. And I go to the craft store and basically take my art with me and go through the breakout maths section of the craft store, take them out and place them over my drawing to see what colors would work. My art work. What do you must know is that not every drawing is going to fit a standard size pre-cut mat. And that's the problem because you either need to spend time searching for a specific math online or you have to go to framing store to cut this math. However, if your art matches, then they're mad opening in a standard size, then it just a matter of buying it online. When I was in college, I learned how to cut my mouth. It's a trickier process and although it seems easy, it's not. So I highly recommend you go to a framing store to order a custom cut math, because everything needs to line up, the corners must be perfect. And if you decide to cut the double mat, it becomes even more complicated. To cut that out of a particular size. Your math needs to cover one-quarter of an inch of your drawing to fit well. And sometimes if you want to stay on budget, you can try cutting out the math that fits standard frame. This means that the outside dimensions of the map must match the frame, say it's 11 by 14 or 16 by 20. When this happens, then your math might not have an equal distance. And usually it's a three inch distance on all sides of the math. So if your mat this cut to a standard frame, you might end up having, let's say, two inch distances on the left and the right and three inch distances at the top and bottom of the map. You can also double up on frames that already have pre-cut maths inside them. And those maths match the finish of the frame. If you're drawing fits within that math, it might be the best and the easiest choice. You have to frame your art. If you frame your drawings for a specific art show, just think of the overall presentation. What I found being difficult than my cases that I frame art on its own, but I don't consider the overall feel when I have to mount the show. So there is a lot of mismatch in my framing. I think your presentation counts for a lot when you do a show. So think of that as well. How would you present your art in a group? It needs to be coherent in both your frames and my ads that you choose. It's best to frame art with real-world frames, but as you know, it's very expensive. So a good alternative to that is to frame art with the metal sectional frames. And I've done that for I find that a metal sectional frames don't hold the glass or plexiglass. Well enough if your art is big, more than say, 12 by 16, so I don't really recommend it for a big art work. I'd like to show you a couple of unconventional framing choices. One is framing, art on paper. This aerial art box, usually called float or frames. They can also be found in stores or they could be custom cut. Another way of framing is to exclude the math and frame your art on paper. This the frame plexiglass and set free backing. Sometimes it works well when R doesn't need that extra space between the frame and the art itself. Usually art on paper needs Umayyad around it because otherwise the frame squeezes how the art, but other times it works. So experiment with your artwork to see what works the best for you. 4. Framing art on canvas and panel: I'd like to add this bonus section here. Framing are on, on panel and Canvas. It's a lot easier because there is no math or backing. All you need is a frame. And again, the frames could be a ready-made standard frames, and they also could be custom cut to fit your particular art piece. The most important thing that you need to know about Canvas frames is the rabbit. Because canvases have three-quarters of an inch or up to two inches in depth. Not every frame is going to feed this depth. So pay close attention to this fact. Also, if you paint on a panel, it doesn't matter that much because panels are very thin and they can fit into any frame. But if your paint on canvases, always consider the canvases depth to make a good fit in the frame. You really need to experiment with your frames or look some samples online. Because framing can really change the overall presentation of your art. Sometimes art looks a lot better in a very simple frame or a canvas float frame as opposed to framing is a very elaborate or baroque style frame. You'll have to consider how a particular piece would be presented in a frame. And you can also consider your face to cure rate your frame choices. Usually the color of the frame repeats one of the colors present in the painting. If you have a lot of gold in the art, than it makes a lot of sense to put the gold frame around that. But if you have a silver axons in your art, then think of silver frame. If you have some black in your painting, then consider framing. A black frame. Most frames overlap the edge just a little bit, and sometimes the style of the frame doesn't look right because it can feel like it's gracious that are out of the frame or, you know, it, it puts pressure on the art. So sometimes you'll see a frames that have some aligning between the frame and are giving the painting space or room to breathe. Finally, I'd like to leave you with some pictures that I took in various art museums. And you can look at framing in the pictures. Most of them are gold and some of them are silver. But as you can see, the very elaborate, this type of framing is not popular in contemporary art world. Thanks so much for taking this lesson and I hope you learned a lot. Bye bye. 5. Fun ways to use Markers on paper: In this video, I'm going to review several markers that I've been using to be on the safe side. None of them can be used with oil paint, but you can use this acrylic paint and colored pencil work. These are two coming from Walmart. This one is silver and this one is gold. And all the markers that I'm reviewing our permanent. So we have to rely on the manufacturer telling us if it's true or not. I do like these particular golden silver markers because they don't dry out that quickly. And they do appear like silver and gold. And depending on your surface, you're going to see a slightly different on a different result, but they're very shiny. And they'll look like gold and silver. I've been using the spans to place super fun highlights. I think they come in different colors. I bought them at Michaels and I know that they're also sold online. And I would prefer buying off-white hello, like cream because highlights are often warm. But in any case they come with different points. And as you can see, it's a wide permanent marker. And if you compare it to other markers, it's a softer white. It's not as bright as colored pencil, but sometimes it can be useful to get into a very small details. And I use it in combination with colored pencil drawing on colored paper. Next I have a bunch of Winsor and Newton permanent pigment markers. They also come in different colors and they have two points, chisel. And I find that when they say that they are permanent and they are very bright if they work. Okay guys, because of what I've noticed about this type of markers, they don't last very long. Sometimes when I open a fresh pack, it barely works. So be aware. This type of soft markers, copic, this one, they just don't last long in my experience at least. But the color is bright and I like to use it to feel in a large background spaces. In the beginning of my colored pencil drawing. I'm using Winsor and Newton pigment marker here. But you're welcome to use any any of your favorite markers. You want to have a chisel tip and you apply the old colored pencil, you can blend it like so. A lot of artists start shading by applying the permanent marker for almost like I'm doing here. Then coloring on top. It's okay to do so as well. But I find that it's easier for me to apply some shading and colored pencil then blended, let it dry, and then go back and work on it some more. I would shade over this to make it nice. And even as you can see, the marker makes it a lot darker and it makes it nice and smooth. As you have noticed, I'm using the orange, but it turns the colors are really dark, so you have to play. Ms. Young, markers to see how dark they can actually get. Then I'm going to even out all of this later on. If there's my colored pencil, as you can see it, there is a very big difference between the land and then blended parts of the drawing. Once it's dry, I can shade over it. I can I can also spray it with a fixative, give it the variable light called let it dry and shade over it. I think one main disadvantage of using the marker is that it makes everything very flat. We can see it from the distance. That's why it's not enough to have this blend that lay add a lot more to have more depths. My drawing. These are Craft Smart markers and they're different. They're oil-based paint pens that I buy them at Michael's. What I like about them, that they're very good for painting on metal, glass, plastic, ceramic, and I use them on a resin glass, but you can also use them on paper. Again, they're permanent and some of them are very shiny and silver area like this one. And the pink one. They also Canvas different points. This one comes with a very fine point. What I dislike about this is that again, the markers that come with such born, they don't last very long. This one seems to be going and going and going. And then you draw on colored surface. It looks very shiny. Finally, I'd love to share my recent discovery. It's called liquid Chrome by a Molotov. It's a German company. Anyway, this marker is fantastic. It might not. Lucas fantastic. Drawing these lines here. But I'll, I'm going to show you drawings than this, this marker and that really has this effect. Yellow, liquid chrome. See it shines the most. It's a fantastic marker. One thing that I noticed that if you go on Amazon to buy it, be aware that some retailers put the image of the original liquid Chrome marker, but they don't sell this marker, they sell something else. And so people get disappointed. So know that buy from the retailers that you know, like **** Blick Art Materials. So JSR theorem. To summarize, all of these markers have different users and their grade in combination with your watercolor or colored pencil artwork. You can apply them over acrylics as well. I don't think it works on oil paints. These are great to feel in a large spaces. These are wonderful to use. To create small highlights. These are fantastic to make embellishments, like golden silver embellishments. These are good for painting on glass and also creating those tiny embellishments in our beautiful embellishments. And this is an alcohol-based marker, which is also fantastic. That's my favorite. So far. 6. Fixatives vs varnishes: Hello. In this lesson, I'd like to mention the use of fixatives and the varnish is because they are used incorrectly been I see artists supply them online. And I want to give you some major points so you understand how to use them correctly. First of all, fixatives made for art on paper, and the varnish is made for oil and acrylic painting. This is a very crucial difference. So don't mix the two. Always apply your fixative over your drawings and art on paper, and apply your varnish over your oil and acrylic painting. A note of caution, please don't use cry alone, a workable and crystal-clear on your art. It's very inconsistent. And you can run Europeans in and regret you bought it in the first place. You can use Grumbacher final fixative. It's it's a very good fixative. It it fixes the surface and makes it nice. And even I bought this advanced colored pencil final fixative recently because I do a lot of colored pencil work. And I was disappointed in this one. I don't really recommend that. Although a great thing about it is that it's nontoxic. So you can spray it inside. It's supposed to be okay for your health. It doesn't have that much of a product in comparison. So other fixatives for dry media. The real problem, this, this one is that it's spray isn't consistent. And if you draw on another thin paper, it's going to crumble your paper when you spray it, It's phrase in bursts. And sometimes those droplets are huge and they dry out and stay like that. So you'll have to clean the nozzle. And it becomes a nightmare because you can't really remove anything from your drawing. So I recommended overall, if you're looking for a non-toxic fixative for your drawings, consider trying out spectral effects. It was recommended to me by a bricklayer who is a consultant. It is non-toxic, which is great so you can spray it indoors. But I haven't bothered. I don't know what the difficulty would be. This one. Whatever fixative or varnish or spray varnish you buy, you have to test it on a separate piece of paper. You want to see how it works on a scrap piece of paper first. I prefer using math fixatives. I don't really like gloss ethics that is, but it's a personal choice. There is also a difference between a workable fixative and the final one. You can use the workable fixative to fix your drawing in between the layers. So you can apply more color over your drawing when the surface becomes two vaccines. But I find that by using a final fixative very lightly. I achieve the same result. Okay, I'd like to show you two other final fixatives for dry media. They are manufactured by the senior year, the French company that produces very nice, high-quality art materials. They are pastel, so very nice. And I decided to try this fixatives to see how they work. Just like any other fixative, it's harmful to breathe them in. So you have to use well ventilated area or spray fixatives outside. Low humidity, 5560 degree weather, but they have a very fine mist and the coverage is a really great. Also there is quite a lot of product in each of their cans. This one has a fantastic super fine spray and it's easier to spread in short. Bursts and it gives me a nice even coverage. This one works in a similar fashion. And it actually came to nozzles. I'm assuming if I want to have a thicker application, I can put this nozzle in. This one has a fine mist. I recommend them both. And the third one is by Grumbacher. If you're the oil and acrylic painting, you also need to varnish your art. It is safe to varnish oil paintings. After six to 12 months have passed. Oil painting takes a lot, a long time to dry out. Even if it's dry to the touch. You can varnish your acrylic paintings in three days. It takes the three full days to form a permanent film. Gambling manufacturers. They're good, high-quality products. And gamba picture varnish, is that good varnish for both oils and acrylics? It goes on crystal-clear. You need to turn off your air conditioning because as soon as you start applying, applying varnish, like so, all the dust is going to get attracted to your Canvas. That's why you need to limit your air movement as much as you can. And if something goes wrong, you can let that dry. It dries very quickly. And you can use Graham's law. It's a safe choice for the mineral spirits and you can remove your varnish. The sum games all. Some artists like to use gloss varnish. I'm not a big fan of gloss varnish because it just to reflective and my opinion, and you sort of need to use more of it to have a nice and even application. Never bore your varnish straight on your Canvas. It's a huge mistake. You need to use your qualia glass bottle, put some varnish in here, and then GPO, soft brush. Start working on your brush and quite quickly and move from one corner and keep moving down. Don't go back because it's gonna get messy because the varnish starts drying right from the start. It's easier to move down and finish working on that. I'll let that dry. And if you need to come back to it, do a second coat, very thin second code going in a different direction. I think it's quite difficult to apply the liquid varnish over a very large painting. It requires skill, believe it or not. I tend to use Grumbacher final varnish. This one is made for oil and acrylic. I guess still have one for oil. Only. Read the labels carefully. And it's a very good varnish. It gives my paintings nice. And even if C and mix all the colors pop and I absolutely love it, It's harmful so you shouldn't breathe it in. And I usually spray it outdoors. The humidity needs to be a lot to the while loop is the sprays. And you need more of it to cover the entire painting in comparison to this. But I think it's a very good alternative if it's hard for you to cover the entire painting. If you like a gloss varnish. This is a good one and your sofas will be very glossy. The disadvantage is that you need to use a lot of it to have full coverage. But it works really well. And this is a very good brand of varnish. Please don't use triangle on. It's recommended to use a retouch varnish when you want to protect your painting before six months have passed. Basically, it's a diluted version of a final varnish. Thanks so much for watching this lesson. If you have any questions, you can email me or message me on Facebook and Instagram. Take care, Bye, bye. 7. Thank you end of class: Thanks so much for taking this video course. I hope you learned a lot. If you have any questions, you can reach me via email or you can message me on my Facebook page or Instagram account. You can also share your art with me and I can repost it in my stories. And also, if you'd like to give feedback or write a testimonial, please let me know. Again. Thank you so very much for taking this class. If you'd like to learn more about colored pencil drawing and oil painting, can see the taking my other video courses. Take care, Bye-bye.