Transcripts
1. Paint an Art Challenge or Class Project with Ease: You've got an idea, you've got a theme in mind for a
challenge that you want to do, or a class project that you're in the middle
of trying to complete. You've got your concept, but then you're stuck. Maybe you're feeling a
little stuck right now. A little nervous, a little hesitant to even
begin your project, Or you're in the middle
of working through it and you're stuck and you just
can't seem to finish. So what's the solution? How do we get unstuck or
out of that artist walk? It's actually fairly simple. We have to get down to the root problems of
why we get stuck. It's usually because
we're waiting too late to make certain decisions
about our final piece. I'm glad you're here
because I think I can help. I'm Janice Tefco. I'm
a graphic designer, an art director, an illustrator, a painter, and also a teacher. I've taught at the
university level and I also teach
painting workshops. And I've noticed
something over the years. Oftentimes we get stuck because we don't have a workflow system. In each of the lessons
throughout this class, I'm going to be
talking about one of those problems and how to
work through that problem, resolve those issues, and
keep moving to the next step. There are certain steps
that artists use, either quickly and intuitively, or through a system like I've developed here and
that I'm sharing with you. Follow along in each
of the lessons. We're going to start
small, to get big. What I mean by that is we're
going to take that idea, generate a few different ways
of communicating that idea, pick a winner, and then I'm going to show you how you choose that winner and what
considerations go into it to finish your project. I'm glad you're here and jump
in and let's get started.
2. Project Challenge Prompt for this Class: For this class project, we will be creating a piece of artwork using the art challenge. Prompt of tools. Most art challenges
typically have a prompt, usually a one word,
sometimes a two word. We are simply going to be having the prompt of your tools, whatever you may be using
in your own profession. If you are an illustrator
or a painter like I am, I'm also a gardener, I'm going to combine
those things. My art challenge,
you can do the same. Or if you're a dog groomer
and you want to do dogs and dog grooming
tools, that would be great. Or if you're a
baker and you want to just use your baking tools, you can use those whatever you would like to
use for your tools. Then you want to come up with different ways of
illustrating or painting, or communicating the
use of those tools. It could simply be displaying the tools or the
tools in action, or something unusual or
specific about the tools. Like you actually have all of the ingredients for
a cake that you're making, or how are those
cakes decorated? There are lots of
different ways, which is part of this
process is coming up with how we actually are
going to convey the prompt, challenge, or the
brief or the specifics of what it is that we're trying
to communicate visually. That leads to what's really
a secondary project here. It's the system that you're
going to be learning as you go along completing your
final piece of artwork. I'm going to be actually
recreating a project that I had done in one of my painting
classes a few years ago. And it really didn't end up in my portfolio because I
didn't have a good system. And there was a lot of
mistakes made along the way. And in this particular case, I used water color. It was a watercolor
painting class. And the class project was to paint your tools.
What do you use? I was in a painting class, so I did the obvious and I painted the tools
that I have been used. I started big, I started
huge in the end. I really didn't like
my composition. I started over, however, my perspective was way
off in the soup can. It was still off when I
redid it because I hadn't really taken the time to
look, to see, to sketch. I could have eliminated that by planning it out a lot better. You think sometimes that
that's a waste of time. You don't have enough
time. You've got to dig right in really. Was it time we used? Probably not. So it's not
a very long class and I don't want you
to get really hung up on a lot of details. I just want you to
learn the process to use in your own work and in
your own art challenges. For your own portfolios, for your own gallery
exhibitions, even things that you might license or just give as a gift. We're going to start
with thumbnails, then we're going to
go on to roughs. We'll talk about color palettes
as well as composition. When to consider each of those which should be included in
which step along the way and how do you take that
idea and isolate it into a really beautiful
productive piece that communicates the parameters
of your project description? That's what this class
is really all about. If you're struggling with that, I'm really glad you're here. I'm pretty sure I can help.
3. Start Strong with the Right Supplies: Supplies for this class
are really pretty simple. You're definitely going
to need a pencil. I would also recommend that
you have some art notebook, which would simply be unruled,
unlined blank notebook. This one is made by store. I like to keep it as
an artist notebook. It's a good place
to just keep all of your ideas and the
progression of your ideas into one place. If you work digitally, then an ipad or a program
illustrator will do just fine. Although I do recommend
that you start out doing your sketches even on
printer paper would be fine, then transferring those into your digital format afterwards. I think the process of
really working with a pencil or even a
pen and just working quick and loose really
helps out so that we don't get stuck
trying to get that idea. Because sometimes
we're just working too specifically and
we need to back up and work a little bit quicker
and looser as you're going to need whatever
medium that you choose. If it's paint, grab
your paint brushes, your favorite ones,
Don't get anything new. Whatever paint that
you typically use, quash water color, acrylic. Also, find a comfortable
corner of your space, your studio, or your house, or even outside a
comfortable place that you want to work. I think that's just as important sometimes as choosing
our supplies. It's always helpful to
have actual tools or even some photograph as
a reference before you began just to really get the idea of the shape and size of those tools
that you've chosen. I'm going to be doing
the obvious choice here. It's what I did with my project
and using my tools again, I'm going to add
some flowers for my garden because I really like to garden and to work with
flowers as part of my medium. Now, you also we'll need whatever goes along
with your painting, your water brush also, you're definitely going
to need a pencil. I'll be starting out
with sketches on just a piece of paper
within my art notebook. And you're welcome
to do the same. Or you can start out using
just even some blank paper, some printer paper, copy paper. We'll do just fine. Don't get stuck on trying to go
gather a lot of supplies, use whatever you
have, keep it simple. That's part of this process too, and that's what's going to
help you overcome some of those obstacles that you may be encountering to finish your art.
4. Getting Clear on Your Idea with Thumbnails: A thumbnail is basically
a small, quick, easy way to really nail down your ideas and to really flush out the best way to
implement that idea. It's a combination of
writing out your thought, what is different ways of
conveying your idea on a page. We want to stay loose.
We want to stay easy. Come back up here on the end
of your pencil and even if you're using an ipad,
do the same thing. Don't choke up and be
really tight like this. Resist that in
temptation. Ease up. This is supposed to be quick, easy, loose, and fast. You can use any
medium here for this, but I particularly
like to just use plain old paper and a
pencil because it's fast. I'm not worrying
about color yet. We're going to talk about that probably in the next lesson. We're not really worrying about specific details in
my original work. I'm trying to now come up with different ways of putting those on the page,
a different composition. So instead of that role of tape, maybe that's now a pretty
flower coming in with. Sometimes it is
also a good idea to have on hand what you're
trying to paint or illustrate, so that you can work out those. If a flower is
hanging upside down, which direction are
those leaves going? I'm trying to make something move through the
page here compositionally, so that there's some
movement in here and you get the idea of
that's a flower again, it's, I might not remember that that's
what I was making there. I might think that was that
piece of masking tape again. But because I've put some
notes in there for myself, I'm going to remember
when I go back, I'm still getting generalized, but I'm adding in a few more little details,
you get the idea. I always like to try to do at least six to
ten push yourself, see if you can even go all
the way up to a dozen. I continued on, and
I hope that you did two to generate a
few more ideas, I wanted to see how this
might look in a longer, more rectangular
horizontal format versus the vertical one
that I had done here. I also was intrigued
by how I had done one large flower here
and of these tools, but I wanted to see what
would it look like if I flipped that concept
and did more flowers. And I even went out
to my garden and picked some ours to use. I thought this draping look of this lavender might be
really pretty here and here. I'm going to definitely develop this one because I really
like the graceful, elegant elephant, elegant nature of this one.
That's a definite one. Still really am intrigued by this one because of
the simplicity and the straightforwardness of it and how these shapes are
going in this direction. But then this one comes
back down in through here. I also want to back to the original
idea that I had of this, if you remember this more of
a still life looking piece. But again, I'm going to
probably switch out and not get so overly fancy with the
reflection of that soup can. And maybe do something a
little bit more elegant like this beautiful
ceramic piece. It was a gift and I
absolutely adore it. I'm still put some of these paint brushes
in here and tools, but I'm going to
add and put some of these stems in here
because I think that, that would be really an
interesting combination of seeing those all together, my tools, and my
inspiration for my art. This one, I'm going to
definitely develop this one. I'm going to definitely
develop, when I say develop, I'm going to take them up and
I'm going to re sketch them because I don't know what I'm going to put here and maybe
I don't put anything. Maybe it's just
really just this. Maybe it's that I'm going to maybe do a few more
sketches over here. Because once we jump
onto this size, we're going to loosely
sketch them in. And then we're actually
going to start testing out those color palettes so that when we go to the next size up, it's going to be addressing
all of those things, composition perspective, and
also our color palettes.
5. Prevent Color Picking Problems with Palettes: What we are going
to be doing is then considering what type of a color palette that
you would like to have. Either a full range of colors or narrow yourself down into
a limited color palette of either 23 or even
up to eight colors is typically what you would
use in a color palette. I have a little booklet that
I keep on hand that I did. It's actually in gas because it really shows a nice
fold rich color. And it's quick and
easy to paint on top of each other to see the
relationships of the colors. This is what I would consider to be a very limited color palette. Somewhat monochromatic but
not completely monochromatic. Monochromatic meaning
that you're really taking, that wouldn't
be the green, it would just be the shades of blue and often just shades of the same blue or the
same shades of green. These are just little ways that you could do
this, even digitally. You could do it in whatever
medium that you are using. I am going to probably
replicate this somewhat in water
color because this is as the characteristics
of quash being a very opaque medium versus the transparent medium
of the water color. The paints are going to
look somewhat different. Whatever medium that you
have chosen to work in, I encourage you to just
take a couple of minutes. It does not take long at all. Choose your medium and create some pleasing
color palettes for you. Or color palettes
that are related to the specific design challenge or project that you
might have chosen to do. Then when you're done with
your color palettes and you're done with your thumbnails
and even after the, the rough lesson, but the
lesson on doing rough, then you can go ahead
and upload those. I would love to see
what you're working on, and I'm sure the other
students would too. And maybe we can even give each other some
feedback on them. There are incremental project
opportunities to upload in that project gallery
before we actually get to the true final project. And I'm excited to
see those as well.
6. Clarify Composition and Color with Roughs: As you begin to recreate your thumbnails as roughs
slightly larger compositions, you should now really begin to really focus in on specifics. Like when I first
sketch this out, I wasn't sure which flower
it was going to be. Now I've decided I really like this pretty daisy that
was growing in my garden. I'm going to begin to reference
my actual daisy here, which is always very helpful if you don't photos we'll do, but just be mindful of
Right laws and all of that. Unless it's your own
photograph which is wonderful. Even better, I'm going to
use the actual flower here. I just at this point want to
get daisy ness like in here. But I also want to start to really think about
the perspective. Remember, one of the
reasons I wanted to redo this was because this perspective
is just completely off. And had I taken the time to
do a rough to resolve that, I probably would not feel
inclined to redo it. I would have put it
into my portfolio. Instead, I wasted a lot
of time getting all of these things pretty precisely replicated and then didn't end up being able to
use it because this was not a reflection of the skills that I wanted
to convey in my portfolio. I will continue on and you should do the same to
then make choices. I might now want to try to use a different brush
that's reflective of what I'm currently using. I'm going to maybe put this
one in here and I will continue on through.
You do the same. Then we will next start to
consider our color palettes. Now, my pigments
are dried up here because I keep this
loaded routinely. I tend to use not one of my absolute better
brushes and not one of my teeny tiny
ones to re wet. I'll go in and you can
even use a dropper. You can miss it. But I like to just
get a little bit of water in there ahead of time. And I can pick up some of my favorite colors that are
sitting around in here. And you don't need a whole lot. Obviously, we're working pretty small, we don't need anything. Here's where I might
start addressing. Okay. Do I want to background? I don't know. I'm going to
just play around with this. I start light like
we're starting small, we're also going to
start light because you can build those colors
up as you progress. Hard to take them out if
they're already in there. Not impossible, but it's
a little bit harder. I think for this one
I'm going to do part of this with this
background wash in there. These are where we're
making our decisions. Before we get to
our final piece, we're just thinking
things through hopefully. Yep, I've got some
nice active pigment in there and I'm
going to want to find that lavender color
still a little too gray. We'll get there. I don't want to spend a whole
lot of time on this. I just want to get used
to the color palette. Get used to my paint
brushes again, start to warm up, make a few of these decisions. I'll continue to do that as I paint through two or
three more of these. By the time I get to transferring my final
pick onto my good paper, I will have resolved so much and I'll feel so
much more confident. You will too, to actually
finish your project. You will have gotten a lot of these decisions made in
the appropriate time. You're not making them at the last minute or in
the final stretch. You're making them before
you even begin to play. Not a beautiful painting, it's just your thoughts and
your plant out ahead of time. Warming up. We're warming
up with our colors. We're warming up
with our brushes. We're getting back into
the mode of painting, especially if you've been away
from painting for a while. This is a really
valuable way to just get back back into
the flow state.
7. More Tips on Finishing Your Project with Ease: Now as you begin to
bring your roughs up into your final drawing
to begin your painting, or if you're just simply going to do a drawing,
that's fine too. You have the opportunity to make some additional revisions like I have chosen to do this verbena flower
rather than the daisy. I've also decided to run it closer to my original
thumbnail so that the bottom of the flower is more in line with the of my paint
brushes and my tools. I've also decided to maybe go back again to more of
my original sketch and just have the brushes and not include the
pencil in there. I'm going to continue
to further refine my composition by maybe just
putting in this fan brush. I'm still not sure about that. As I continue to draw that out, I'll continue to make
those final decisions. Just some thoughts as you are
completing your sketches. As I'm backing off now because I do want to use my
transparent water color, I'm not going to put in quite as many pencil
strokes as I did. I can always refer
here to where I want to have a little bit more
shadow or more depth, but I don't want my pencil
lines to really muddy this up. I'll put these in
as a loose area. And again, you don't
want to do a whole lot of erasing on your paper either because you can make
holes in the surface of it, Even just slightly a disturbance in the surface of your paper and it will pull more of that pigment into the paper
than what you might want. It'll just be a bump along the path of your
nice, smooth paper. Just another thing to consider if you're using watercolor. Some other mediums don't have quite that same
problem because it's not as sensitive
and as transparent. If you are feeling a
little bit overwhelmed by ability to draw paint, just remember that
the purpose of this particular
class is really to develop a system for
approaching a design challenge. It's not really a specific
painting or drawing class. There are other classes
here on skill share. You are really
wanting to see that you're not able to
find another class on. Then let me know, I'll see if
I can develop one of those. This is more of a
process class then it is a technical drawing
class or painting class. Your skill is developing this system for app
finalizing class projects. Once you're completely
satisfied with your drawing, probably a good
idea at this point to record it somehow
to make a copy of it, either in an actual photocopier with a camera your
smartphone will do, or even if you do want to
maybe work digitally and you haven't started already on a digital formatter program, go ahead and take a quick
photograph with that there, and then you can import
that into your procreate, or even then on to Illustrator
on your computer and work. From there, you go
ahead and get started in whatever medium
that you have chosen. I will do a little bit of a
demonstration so that you can see how I start my watercolor. I'll do some of these
warm up strokes before I begin painting my, my final piece, which
I have done here in my sketchbook to keep
it all altogether. Now sometimes I will use
much better quality paper, but for the purpose of
this demonstration, it's really more convenient for me to just keep
it right here. If you would like to follow along with me while
I paint mine. Stay here, right here with me
while I paint for a while. Hopefully, you've
already decided what technique
you're going to use, what medium you're going to use. Now we're really just getting
again into that flow state. We've done our practice strokes, our warm up strokes over here. If you at any time feel like, oh, this brush isn't working, it's not coming out,
or I've tightened up, I've cramped up, I've
lost my sweet spot. You feel that tension coming
back and creeping in. Go over here and work
that out a little bit, because not every brush stroke probably should end up
on your final piece. It's okay to work
back and forth. It's why it's nice to have
a nice area to unload some water if you feel like
you've got too much on your brush or to work out, again, resolve some
of those colors. I just want to lay lay in a little bit of
pigment, mostly water. And I'll be coming back
around and working on that as I go. I'm right handed. Most of the time I do tend to start
on my left and work my way. I'm not dragging my
hand through that. But you will want to take into consideration how you work
so that you can adapt. That you definitely should be considering every
item as a group, even when you're
laying in your color. I would recommend that
you consider all of these things so that you don't have one thing
painted completely, and then maybe you spent a lot of time on one
element like I did previously and then
everything else is off. I do think it's good
to work back and forth so that it's consistent in style
across the whole piece. While you are working
on your project, just remember
periodically to check your posture to make sure
that you are relaxed, that you are enjoying
the process, that you are holding your
pencil or your pen or your brush where it is a little more
comfortable and a little bit more relaxing and not
generating all of that tension. When you are finished and
take a moment to really reflect about what
you have learned, how far you have come and
upload your project to the project gallery in this class so that we can all share in the joy
of each other's paintings, to get some feedback, to be inspired by one another. My project will be there so that you can take
a look at the end. And the completed
project that I have created as well. Happy painting.
8. Class Conclusion and Congrats!: Are you feeling more confident at this point? I sure hope so. Because you should, you should
be very proud of yourself. We went through a lot of information in a
pretty short time. And the most important thing is that hopefully
you had some fun. And that you have gained
some confidence and courage and a new system to
really do it again and again. And the confidence and the
skills to continue throughout your career or even
just your hobby. Thanks for joining in. This has been a lot of fun. I hope you had fun and
learned a lot too.
Janice Stefko, @thepaintgardener
