In order to paint well, you need to draw well.What you need to draw these projects and demos is simple. Some oil pastels, maybe a pencil or some erasable colored pencils, a kneaded eraser and a sketchpad or sketchbook with a lot of pages.
I prefer wire bound sketchbooks 9" x 12" or smaller because they fit on my scanner and lay flat. My favorites are the spiral bound hard cover ones that even need a drawing board. They're inexpensive online, especially if you watch for sale coupons
Line
Line is the most basic drawing skill you'll ever have. Accurate outlines are what you need to draw under any kind of painting.
Proportion Judging the proportions of anything by eye is tricky and takes a lot of practice, but once you have drawn the same thing many times it gets a lot easier to understand its proportions. Draw your favorite things over and over.
Gesture Drawing
Fast one to five minute sketches will improve your observation and drawing skills more than you expect. Also linked under Creativity as a daily art exercise anyone can do.
Contour Drawing
A more advanced treatment of line that follows the shapes of shadows as well as objects.
Shading
You can shade a drawing many different ways. Gradual shading is an important skill for realism. Shading establishes the depth of objects and makes them look three dimensional.
Perspective
Whether you're drawing trees and mountains in a landscape, buildings on a city street or two cans on a tray right in front of you, perspective is how to make things look three dimensional and real. Good linear perspective gives depth to the whole painting.
Notan
A Japanese concept and technique that's become popular with many Western artists as a way to make your art more powerful, more dramatic and expressive, with better composition.
Color Theory Color theory, identifying colors and how they behave next to each other is a way to get true color -- or exciting color that comes out better than life.
Composition
How to decide the shape and size of your picture, and where to place its focal point using the Rule of Three. Why it's good to crop photos or move the objects in them to suit yourself.
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