The basis

The blending | The centring | Shadows and lights

The blending is a technique that allows making a slight transition between two colors. This technique is generally used in oil paintings. However some other materials like watercolor or acrylic are also workable.

In this session, we will speak about oil painting that, thanks to its extreme adaptability, can easily be mixed.

Here are the steps :

	• Place the two colors side by side
	• Always pass in the same side a dry and clean brush on the separation line in order to mix the different tints

Alain SERRUYA, painter exhibiting on this site is an expert in this domain. He uses the blending technique in order to come closer to the reality, to the photography.

If you work with a pencil, you will make a blend by using an eraser. For the pastel or the charcoal, fingers are the best tools.

The centring | The blending | Shadows and lights

Centring is part of the bases for a good drawing. With the perspective and the composition that we will deal with in a next course, framing participates with the emotion and the force you will wish to put in your work.

Framing is very used in photography for the principal subject that will be clear whereas the background will be fuzzy.

If it is difficult to correctly centre a subject when one begins, there are some hints and tips that can help. We will see here how to build a framework, makeshift of course but very useful.

Building a framework

Here is the equipment you will need :

• A piece of cardboard
• A cutter or scissors
• A set square
• Une règle de 30cm
• 2 paper clips

Using a set square and a cutter, cut two "L" in the cardboard. The width of each sides of the "L" must be 3 to 4cm. You should obtain the following result :

With the first paper clip, hang the small side of one of the two "L" to the big side of the other :

Do the same operation on the other side using the second paper clip...

Your framework is finished. Thanks to this tip, you will obtain several possible frameworks. While playing with the lengths of the "L" you will form a square or a typical rectangular Landscape.
The paper clip will allow you to preserve the form during its usage.

Concrete exercise

Let's now have a look at the way to use it. We will work with the following picture :

Imagine that you want to paint this Mexico landscape (Tulum ruins). Painting this whole scene would not be very artistic. The foreground is flat, the sky takes the third of the landscape and the ruins are all together so that one does not really distinguish from the others. There is not any principal subject, we do not know what to look at...

The best thing would be to isolate a part of this landscape in order to harmonize the whole picture and give more power to the principal subject.

While holding your framework in your outstretched arms, it is possible to isolate an interesting subject.

Here, an other subject with another size for the frame :

When you begin, it is better to take a picture of the landscape you wish to retranscribe and to work at home...

Let's focus on our first idea. The final rendering is well balanced, homogenous and powerful. Whatever the watercolor or the oil, the temple is both imposing and softened by the leaves of the foreground.

Shadows and lights | The blending | The centring

Once you have chosen and framed your subjects and then observed and traced the perspectives, the study of the shadows and lights is essential to bring realism to your scenes. In fact, they will give all their relief to the forms you will draw.

If you observe the objects around you, you will notice that the relief depends on the quantity of light that they send back. Thus a dark object will always appear flatter than the same clearer one.

The photo of the car above will more or less show you the bottom bend in the door depending on its color (white or black).

In the same way, an object enlightened by the front, by the side or by the back will react differently in terms of relief. Indeed, depending on the quantity of direct light or on the opacity of its color, an object will appear with more or less relief. This is why in winter a landscape will be duller, sadder and without life, than in summer or in spring, under a radiant sun.

When you will study your compositions or landscapes, you will have therefore to pay attention to:

• The direction of the light (be careful to the reflexions as for example on a mirror placed on the side of an object)
• The intensity of the lighting
• The type of light (sun, artificial light, clouds, interior, exterior...)
• The color of the objects

The more a light is strong and direct, the more the object will present contrasts and very highlighted shadows (White/Black). The more the light will be diffused and weak, the more the object will be grey and uniform. The choice of a light is essential to determine the atmosphere that you wish to give to a drawing.

In the above example of a white statue, we notice that :

• A natural light, diffused, uniform and especially full-face (photo 1), returns a flat objects, with little relief.
• The usage of a flash (photo 2) reinforces the relief. This is simply due to a unique light direction (the shadow testifies it) and a more important intensity. Therefore the object sends back more light. Nevertheless, be careful to the flash and the artificial lights that cancel the colors!
• A light direction by the above, called "zenithal" (photo 3) considerably changes the shadows on a subject. In the present case, the upright shoulder of the woman is not highlighted anymore (she is in the shadow) but in the same time the focus is on her hairstyle (that was unnoticed in the photos 1 and 2). All will depend on the detail you wish to highlight.
• The ideal case will be an oblique light, of a 45° angle, because it will bring a well divided light and the cast shadows will not bother the designer.
• A lighting coming rather from behind and that is called "light from behind", will of course leave the frontal part of the subject in the shadow. Photographs hate such kind of light !
• At last the lighting going up from the bottom, called "low-angle shot", is very rarely used. It gives a dramatic aspect to the enlightened subject.

If we now linger over the shadows we will say, first of all, that if there is not any light, no shadow will appear... While lighting up a subject, we create shadow and light zones that form what we call the "modeled".

Two categories of shadows exist :

• The "clean" shadows that are located on the object itself.
• The "cast" shadows that are located on the environment of the subject and are created by the subject (photo 2 of the statue where the shadows are located on the wall behind). The cast shadows are a projection of the subject on its basis and therefore in the continuity of the light direction.