Recently, choosing designs based on free tattoo designs has become popular for those looking to start someplace and build upon it. There are a lot of reasons why people might want to have some body are done, but the most common reason is for sentimental value or possibly because they enjoy the look of that one design. Free tattoo designs should be chosen carefully so you will not regret it in the coming years, after all tattoo designs are permanent.
Many people get tattooed to memorialize a special event in their lives, such as a marriage, a death, or a birth. These life altering times have a large impact on the life of the individual and free tatto designs assist the individual to discover a way to display the event in a manner that will remind them of it. Your tattoo designs must be chosen with percision in order to describe the purpose it’s for ,because tattoos always speak for themselves.
If you are uncertain about the free tattoo designs which to chose from but are trying to figure out if your should get it or not, then you probably should not get the tattoo. Many people use the justification that the tattoo can always be removed if you do not like it, but removing a tattoo is not quick or painless. Irreparable damage – as well as permanent scarring – can occur if a person attempts to remove a tattoo. If you do use the free tattoo designs, the image should be something that can be lived with for a number of years without wanting it to be removed.
There are many considerations to make when selecting free tattoo designs. Your most important consideration should always be why you’re getting a tattoo. Tattoos are permanent, so frivolous reasons for getting tattooed or being tattooed while intoxicated will almost always make the person regret using the free tattoo designs within several days of getting the tattoo.
Often when selecting trendy free tattoo designs, many people eventually become dissatisfied later. Perhaps they believed a picture would be permanently appealing, or they were persuaded by friends to get tattooed with a design they weren’t crazy about. There are thousands of people wearing generic tattoos, fairies, dragons, and cartoon characters because of the design’s popularity at the time. If a tattoo has no meaning to the wearer, it can become unattractive to that person, which leads to tattoo removal. Choosing the right type of free tattoo designs can be a difficult decision when based on what the person really likes instead of being based on a whim, so be sure to leave enough time to make a careful decision.
Pencil Drawing Tips on Shape Balance
Composition refers to the relationship of a number of elements that constitute a drawing. The positioning of shapes is one of those elements.
A viewfinder is a see-through adjustable piece of cardboard that lets you frame and isolate certain parts of the composition you are trying to realize. It is an invaluable tool to plan your composition.
You can easily construct a viewfinder as follows:
From a piece of cardboard, cut two identical L-shaped forms.
Join the two pieces together using two paper clips so that they form a square frame.
Because we used two pieces it is now possible to adjust the window of your viewfinder to the size of the scene you want to view.
For the purpose of composing a drawing we must take into account not only the positive shapes (the objects themselves) but also the negative shapes (the empty spaces in-between the objects). In addition, you also must see all those shapes in relation to the dimensions of your drawing paper.
With your viewfinder as an aid you can now apply some or all of the following guidelines:
1. As already pointed out, be aware of the format of your paper when placing your shapes.
2. Throughout your drawing effort be constantly aware of the location of your chosen focal point.
3. Unify not only the positive spaces but also do the same for the negative spaces. A good composition balances both the positive and negative shapes with respect to the focal point.
4. Two equally sized shapes should be positioned more or less the same distance away from the focal point. When one object is much smaller than another then the small object should be proportionately further away from the focal point than the larger one. Thus, in the end, the focal point should approximately function as the centroid of your drawing.
5. Generally speaking, a shape-unbalanced drawing or painting will look inharmonious and produce discomfort for the viewer. If this is not your intention you should improve the shape balance. On the other hand, unbalancing your shapes is a good way to purposely create an uncomfortable tension in your work.
6. Objects and/or subjects are best arranged asymmetrically relative to the focal point. Also, tall shapes look often better when they are further away from the focal point, unless they happen to be the focus themselves.
7. For some reason, it is more pleasing to the eye to see a group of an odd number of shapes than a group of an even number of shapes.
8. Your shapes should be arranged in such a way that the eye is always being led back to the focal point.
The few guidelines should give you a good start in your handling of shapes. However, remember not to apply the rules too strictly. Give your intuition and natural ability plenty of room when composing your next masterpiece.
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Beginners Oil Painting Tips – Know Your Oil Painting Brush Hairs
Today, oil painting brushes are made from many different types of materials. Each material has of course advantages and disadvantages. Beginning as well as advanced painters should have some familiarity with the properties of these hair-making materials.
Badger Hair – Badger hair brushes are used for blending and have a long tradition. The hair can be found in many parts of the world but varies greatly in quality. It is thickest at the point and quite thin at the root and has therefore a distinctive “bushy” appearance.
Synthetic Hair – Synthetic hair is of course man-made from nylon or polyester. The hairs can be tipped, tapered, flagged, abraded or etched to increase its paint carrying ability. The filaments are often dyed and baked to make them softer and more absorbent.
Some of the advantages of synthetic brushes are: 1) They are durable in the face of paints and solvents; 2) They are easier to clean than animal hair brushes because they are less likely to trap paint.
Raphael Kevrin Mongoose Hair – Raphael Kevrin Mongoose hair is strong and resilient. It combines the strength of a bristle with the control of sableand makes a long-wearing, medium-to-high quality brush.
Kolinsky Sable Hair – Kolinsky sable does not come from a sable but from the tail of a mink species found in Siberia and North-East China. In these regions, hair from the winter tails of males grows long and strong because of the extreme weather conditions. It is the best material for oil brushes because of its unusual strength, spring and snap (i.e., its ability to retain its shape). A Kolinsky sable brush can hold a very fine point or edge and a professional grade of hair.
Hog Bristle Hair – Hog bristle hair comes from hogs with the most sought after coming from China. Bristle hair forms a unique V-shaped split or flag at the tip and tends to have a natural curve. A brush with “interlocked” bristles, with the curves formed inward to the ferrule, has a natural resistance to fraying and spreads medium to thick paints smoothly and evenly. It is also a less expensive alternative to other good-quality hairs.
Red Sable Hair – Red sable hair is obtained from a red haired weasel and not from sable. Quality and characteristics can vary greatly. A good quality pure red sable brush is a good alternative to the more expensive Kolinsky sable brush, with similar performance and durability. Note that weasel hair is often blended with ox hair to make a more economical brush, but, in the process, the fine point is sacrificed.
Ox Hair – The best quality ox hair comes from the ears of oxen or cattle. It has a very strong body with silken texture. It is also very resilient and has good snap. However, it does lack a fine tip. The hair is most useful in flat shaped or medium-grade wash brushes. Ox hair is often blended with different natural hair to increase its resiliency.
For the extra tips in the neighbor niche of pencil drawings, please read how to draw with pencil.
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Beginners Oil Painting Tips and Advice – One Basic Approach to Creating an Oil Painting
In this article I will give you an overview of my personal approach to the creation of an oil painting. There are of course many valid approaches to painting and with experience you will develop your own specific approach. But if you are a beginning painter you may want to try and practice the following approach.
The Drawing Phase – Usually I first execute a regular drawing on the canvas. This drawing can be anything from a few lines to a completely detailed map of all the forms. This may even include indications of where the lights and the darks are and what colors need to be used.
A good drawing tool for an oil painting is charcoal. Of course, the best tool is some neutral mixture of thinned paint and a brush. However, this takes some getting used to. Often, I actually use a graphite pencil and when the drawing is finished I spray the drawing with workable fixative.
The advantage of starting with a drawing is that many important decisions can be made up-front and that everything is in place by the time you finish the drawing. After that, all that is left is painting.
The Block-in Phase – This is the first painting phase. I use fairly thinned-out paint and a brush that feels a little large than it should be. Here you focus on the big shapes that you see in your drawing. Don’t pay attention to detail. What is important here is that you observe the colors of the shapes correctly and that you maintain the integrity of the drawing.
Usually I start out with the dark shapes. Then I proceed with the brightest colored shapes, always making sure the colors stay harmonized. Finally, I put in the more subtle colors many of which will be duller and more difficult to judge.
Again, in this phase hold back on painting details. Maintaining the correct geometry of the large shapes, their exact color (hue, intensity, and value), and their correct position within the composition is the task at hand. And don’t forget to include the background.
At the end of this phase my canvas is usually completely covered with paint, i.e., no white areas are left unpainted. This gives you a good idea of how all the colors look like relative to each other and if they harmonize without the influence of bright white areas.
The Shaping Phase – Now you can begin to model the large shapes and refine them so they start to resemble the actual objects you are trying to paint. In this phase I use a thicker paint than in the Block-in Phase and also a somewhat smaller brush. Also, I refine the color relationships in terms of hue, intensity, and value as best as I can.
This phase usually requires the most time and effort. Still, do not be tempted to put in fine detail. At the end of this phase you should already have a very good idea of how the end product will look like.
The Detail Phase – This is the last phase. This is the time to indulge in the details. Details include things like small twigs, pupils and irises for the eyes, small lines and curves, and highlight, in other words, anything that cannot be done with a large brush. Some details require thin paint (best done over a dry underground) and others, such as highlights, often require lots of thick paint right out of the tube.
The above guidelines are admittedly not complete in detail but are a good starting point for any beginning oil painter.
For more tips in the neighbor area – read how to draw with pencil.
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Beginners Oil Painting Tips – The Block-in Phase
This phase is the second phase of a basic approach to the creation of an oil painting. The first phase is the drawing phase and involves the drawing of the scene you wish to paint. So, at the start of the block-in phase we assume that we have a canvas with the drawing of our scene on it.
The block-in phase consists of establishing the large shapes of color as indicated by the drawing. The emphasis here is on correctly observing the color of these shapes and making sure you maintain the correct geometry.
In this stage you should not be concerned with painting any details. I use usually work with fairly thinned-out paint and a brush that feels a little too large than for the work I’m doing.
Start out with the darkest shapes. Make sure you do not misjudge these dark colors. You will rarely find anything that is totally black. Most dark colors have a certain bias such as blue, brown, or purple.
Next I fill in the brightest colored large shapes (i.e., those colors that stand out or leap at you). Observe and analyze the color according to hue, value, and intensity. Also, make sure the colors stay harmonized.
Finally, I put in the more subtle colors many of which will be duller and more difficult to judge. Note that these more muddled colors are just as important as the bright colors. In fact, they are part of the reason why the bright colors can shine as they do.
Again, in this phase it is important to forego the details. Only two things count in this phase:
1) The correct coloring of the big shapes. This requires careful observation, analysis, and color mixing. It is important to check and recheck and if you feel the color is not quite right you should take the time to correct it even if you have to scrape it off the canvas.
2) Duplicating the geometry of the drawing. There is often a tendency to grow things. For example, when painting the large areas of a flower we tend naturally to make the flower larger. So, be disciplined and keep looking at the drawing and stay within the lines. Keep everything in its position and its proper dimensions and don’t forget to paint the background if there is one.
At the end of this phase the canvas should be completely covered with paint. This way you have a good idea of how all the colors look like relative to each other without the presence of the harsh white canvas. You will also be in a good position to judge how well the overall color scheme harmonizes and if you need to make any corrections. And one more time, restrain yourself to add any details.
In this article we had a detailed look at the so-called block-in phase of the painting process. The end result is a fully colored canvas of large shapes all with the correct color in terms of hue, value, and intensity. During this phase we have also paid attention to the harmony of the colors.
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Beginners Oil Painting Tips and Advice – Thinking While Painting
Oil painting is a mainly right brain activity but the left brain is by no means idle. A good question to ask is: What sort of brain activity goes not the act of painting?
Here are some answers:
The Drawing Phase – In this phase you create a drawing on your canvas. During this effort you should be preoccupied with all the technical issues that make a good drawing.
Is this shape right? Is this angle too shallow? Is this object in the right place? Is this line too short or too long? Is this what I intend to convey to my audience? In other words, be preoccupied with concepts such as accuracy, seeing, comparing, judging, etc.
You must learn to draw well so you don’t get constantly distracted by your lack of skill.
The Block-in Phase – This is the phase where you color the large shapes in your drawing. Here you must keep in mind not to deform, enlarge (this is particularly easy to do), or crimp these shapes which were already correctly established in the Drawing Phase.
Be busy judging colors in terms of hue, value, and intensity. At the same time, think about how you will mix these colors on your palette. Which tube colors will you use? To do this well, you need to learn a few things about color mixing. During this phase, I recommend using fairly thin paint.
Squinting is a great help, particularly for discerning values. To identify hues, avoid staring at them for too long. It’s better to have a quick look, preferably with your peripheral vision. Also, restrain yourself from painting details.
The Shaping Phase – This phase involves the modeling of the shapes so they look like the real objects. Here you should revert back to the drawing mode. That is, think angles, lengths, curves, and position.
Also, refine the values, hues, and intensities. Stand back regularly and judge your work from a distance. Also, in this phase we use thicker paint.
Keep in mind that at the end of this phase your painting should be more or less finished.
The Detail Phase – This is the final phase where you add in the details. This is the icing on the cake phase where you can dream and let your individual talent come to the fore.
Be in a delicate and soft mood. Think of hints, lost edges, accents, etc. Use thin paint for delicate lines or thick paint for highlights. Be discrete and measured. Don’t overdo it.
The purpose of this article was to give you an idea of the sort of thinking patterns that go into the painting process. Painting is a mentally demanding activity and requires very much a multi-tasking approach. For many people, this takes some getting used to. At first, you may want to write lists of the various things to keep in mind while creating your masterpiece. Later on, all this will become second nature. As always, practice makes perfect.No shortcuts here.
Oh yes, and above all, don’t forget to sign your painting!
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Beginners Oil Painting Tips – The Detail Phase
The fourth and final phase of the basic oil painting process is the detail phase. This is the time to incorporate all the details like small decorations, fine textures, and highlights.
At the end of the first phase we are left with a complete drawing of the scene we wish to paint. The purpose of the second phase is to take the drawing and transform it into a series of large colored shapes. These large shapes must have the correct geometry and color. The third phase, i.e., the shaping phase, consists of modeling and refining the large colored shapes we produced in the second phase.
By the end of the shaping phase we should have more or less a finished painting. There are is no white canvas left and all objects and subjects should be drawn and colored correctly. So all that is left to do is adding the details.
Details include things like small twigs, pupils, eye lashes, small lines and curves, and highlights on a cheek or piece of clothing. In short, anything that cannot be done with a large brush.
Some details will require the use of thinned-out paint. For example, when adding thin lines or curves for hair or grass, we can get good results by using thing paint. However, in these situations you should always be aware of the so-called fat-over-lean rule of oil painting.
The fat-over-lean rule of oil painting states that you should always paint fat over lean. The words fat and lean refer to the amount of oil contained in the paint. So, in principal, when applying layers of oil paint on top of each other on your canvas, you should always apply a fatter layer on top of a leaner layer. If you put a lean layer on top of a wet fat layer changes are that, after some time, the lean layer will start to show cracks.
Other details may require the use of thick paint often right out of the tube. This is the case with heavy highlights and very intense accents such as red reflection on a roof of a house.
The reason details are better added at the very end as a fourth phase is that they are usually quite small and need to be placed very precisely. Therefore, it is better to start with painting large general shapes and then to progressively add refinements until the entire scene is correctly reproduced on your canvas.
Also, details are often meant to be accents of intense color which requires thick paint and therefore, according to the fat-over-lean rule, are best put on last.
Finally, with the benefit of an almost finished painting it becomes much easier to judge if the added details are artistically well-distributed. For example, it is almost always the case that a focal point area will have more detail than other areas. For comparison purposes it is a good thing to have at your disposal a general overview of the entire painting.
Learn more about how to draw with pencil.
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How to Draw with Pencil Fundamentals – The Line
The line is one of the most basic entities used in drawing. The straight line has two fundamental properties:
Length – Naturally, the length of a straight line is the distance between its beginning point and its end point.
Direction – A straight line also has a direction. Its direction is determined by the angle it makes with a horizontal or vertical line.
So, when you want to draw a straight line you need to think about two things: length and direction.
A pencil artist seldom uses a ruler to draw a straight line. Lines are drawn free-hand. And this takes quite a bit of practice. In the end you should be able to draw straight lines and parallel lines fairly easily.
The idea here is to swing your arm from the elbow as opposed to from the wrist. You can use your wrist for tiny lines or other small details. But generally you keep your wrist and lower arm fixed as one unit and you rotate your elbow as you draw the line. This movement happens quite fast. Also, hold your pencil any way you want, i.e., the way you are used to it.
To measure the length of a line you can use the following procedure:
First, you choose a Basic Length Unit. It is the length of a line segment that is not too long and not too short relative to a scene.
We will choose two such basic units:
1. Life Unit – First, we choose a basic length unit for the real scene you want to draw. For a large life scene you can do this by holding a pencil at arm’s length with locked elbow. Then, with one eye closed, you can measure a basic unit (not too long and not too short) with your pencil using your thumb as a marker. Draw this line segment on a separate piece of paper.
2. Paper Unit – Now, you also need a basic length for your actual drawing. This is because the size of the real scene will usually be different from the one you will render on your paper. Again, use your pencil to choose a basic length unit suitable for the size of your paper and call it the “Paper Unit”. Draw it next to the Life Unit.
Now we are ready to use these two basic units. We use the Life Unit to measure any length on the real composition. We express these lengths in terms of the number of Life Units. For example, you will speak of this table leg being about half a Life Unit or this hat sits 1.5 Life Units to the left of that umbrella. Don’t forget to make the measurements always in the same manner, i.e., at arm’s length, with locked elbow, and with one eye closed.
Next, you take your Paper Unit and multiply it by the ratio you just obtained with your Life Unit. For example, on your paper the table leg will measure 0.5 times the Paper Unit or the hat will sit 1.5 Paper Units to the left of the umbrella. That’s all there is to it.
Then there remains the technique to measure angles:
Angles are measured relative to the horizontal and the vertical. If you work on rectangular paper you can use its vertical and horizontal edges as a reference. The angle you observe in your life composition will be the same on your paper. No ratio involved here.
Again, you can use your pencil but this time align it horizontally (or vertically) and estimate the angle a particular line makes with your horizontal or vertical. This technique requires some practice but after awhile you’ll get a feel for angles. After you’ve drawn the line you can check of the length as well as the angle seem right to you. It is remarkable how quickly the eye gets trained to detect incorrect proportions and angles. But it does take some time and practice.
Note that curved lines can be considered as a linkage of small straight lines so that the same techniques can also be applied in an approximate manner to these curved lines.
Feel interested to learn the skill of oil painting? Read beginners oil painting here.
For the upper back tattoos read these tips as well.
Beginners Oil Painting Tips – About Brushstrokes and Such
A question: Is there a secret way to hold a brush so every stroke is a stroke of genius?
Best is to hold the brush towards the end of the handle. This gives you a little more space and a better view of your canvas.
If you want more control (e.g., to paint details), you should hold the brush closer to the head. Other than that, there are no secrets. Just experiment and find your own way.
Brush-holding and brushstrokes brings up the question of style and technique: How do you develop style and technique? The answer is: Just practice and further don’t worry about it.
Your style is in your brain while technique building is a matter practice. The manner in which you become fluent in these techniques actually becomes a part of your unique style.
You can also learn a lot from the masters. Don’t copy their moves but, in time, give them your own twist.
Hold the brushes in different ways, put the paint down in different ways, and observe what happens and repeat what works for you.
A brushstroke generally implies four separate actions:
Cleaning the Brush – The main thing to remember here is to always pull your brush, never push it. This reduces wear and also shapes the hairs of the brush.
Shaping the Brush – If you clean a brush correctly it should be shaped and ready to go. However, for delicate work (e.g., thin lines) you can chisel-shape the brush. That is, you hold the brush at a 45 degree angle to your horizontal palette, push down on it, and then slightly forward. The brush tip should now have a straight chisel-like edge.
Loading the Brush – Now you can load the brush with paint in several ways. Shovel-loading a brush means lowering it onto your palette and pushing it at a low angle into a pile of paint. The paint is only on one side of the brush.
To tip-load a brush, you first smooth out the front of the paint pile. Then, you pull a chisel-shaped in a slight arch across the front edge of the pile. The result is a thin line of paint at the very tip of the brush.
If accuracy is of no concern you can pull-load your brush. Pull a brush at an angle through the upper layer of the paint pile. The more paint you want the deeper you should go into the pile. The brush-to-palette angle determines how far down the brush will be covered with paint.
Body-loading is a form of pull-loading but with a small brush-to-palette angle at a thin paint pile. The goal is to cover the entire brush head with paint.
Application of the Paint – A shovel-loaded brush makes precise strokes of varying thicknesses and almost functions as a writing tool.
A tip-loaded brush can be held perpendicular to the canvas and, while lightly touching the canvas, create very thin lines.
A pull-loaded brush is useful to create run of the mill strokes that don’t require too much precision.
A body-loaded brush is good for applying impasto strokes and heavy highlights. Impasto is a painting style in which the paint is laid-on very thickly.
Much more can be said about this but just remember, the ease with which you apply brushstrokes depends on how you load your brush.
Learn also how to draw with pencil.
For the tattoo art lovers, read useful tattoo tips here.
In this article I will detail the tube colors of a starter palette for beginning artists – sort of beginners oil painting palette guide. These are in fact the colors I personally use most often. Here is the proposed 6-color palette:
1. Lemon Yellow
2. Cadmium Yellow
3. Cadmium Red
4. Permanent Rose (Alizarin Crimson)
5. French Ultramarine
6. Phthalo Blue
7. Titanium White
8. Ivory Black
Note that White and Black are generally not classified as colors.
A color is often known by different names depending on the manufacturer. For example, Permanent Rose is more or less the same as Alizarin Crimson.
The above palette has the capacity to produce very clean secondary colors, i.e., colors that are a mixture of just two tube colors.
Notice that there are two versions of each primary color (yellow, red, and blue). One is a cool version (i.e., leaning towards the blues and greens) and the other is a warm version (i.e., leaning towards the reds and yellows).
First learn to completely understand how the six colors together with black and white interact in their numerous mixtures.
Here are some of the more important properties of the palette colors.
Lemmon Yellow – Lemmon Yellow is a cool, greenish leaning, and opaque yellow. Opaque means solid or not-transparent. This yellow is a medium-to-slow drier with medium to low tinting strength. Low tinting strength means that you need to add a lot of this paint to see its effect in a mixture. Its greenish bias makes it an ideal yellow to use with Phthalo Blue (Red Shade) to produce very clean secondary greens.
Cadmium Yellow – Cadmium Yellow is a warm, orange leaning, and opaque yellow. This yellow is a medium-to-slow drier and has a high tinting strength. Its orange bias makes it an ideal yellow to use with Cadmium Red to produce very clean secondary oranges.
Cadmium Red – Cadmium Red is a warm, orange leaning, and opaque red. This red is a slow drier and has a high tinting strength.
Permanent Rose – Permanent Rose is a cool, violet leaning, and transparent red. This red is a medium-to-slow drier and has a medium tinting strength. Its violet bias makes it an ideal red to use with French Ultramarine to produce very clean secondary violet.
French Ultramarine – French Ultramarine is a warm, violet leaning, and semi-transparent blue. This blue is a slow drier and has a high tinting strength. Its violet bias makes it an ideal blue to use with Permanent Rose to produce very clean secondary violets.
Phthalo Blue (Red Shade) – Phthalo Blue is a cool, green leaning, and transparent blue. This blue is a medium-to-slow drier and has a very high tinting strength. Its green bias makes it an ideal blue to use with Lemmon Yellow to produce very clean secondary greens.
Titanium White – Titanium White is an opaque white and covers up just about any color. There are other whites such as Flake White and Zinc White. As a beginning artist you may want to avoid using Zinc White because it tends to crack when applied thickly.
Ivory Black – Ivory Black is the cleanest of all the tube blacks and is extremely constructive in lots of mixtures. Other tube blacks include Lamp Black and Mars Black.
This simple palette is amazingly versatile and many minimal-minded professionals use nothing else.
You are welcome to read more about how to draw with pencil.
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