Grape Painting

I find  painting still lifes with fruits interesting and challenging, as I need to complete them before all fruits are eaten. It took me three days to paint this bunch of grapes. I was finishing it when there was no grapes left, all were eaten by my little son.

Pastel Orchids

Finally I finished painting my Pink Orchids. Since a long time I've been thinking to paint them but always delayed for different reasons. If you look at them closely, orchids remind butterflies sitting on a stem. They are so beautiful! I enjoyed painting my orchids and I hope, you'll enjoy watching them!

Pastel Painting

I tried painting with pastel after rain few days ago. It was amazing! Now I know the difference between pastel painting and pastel drawing! I am using a very soft kind of pastel made in St. Petersburg, so when there is high humidity, this pastel applies to paper almost like thick paint and the art creation process reminds painting more than drawing. This is the result of my experiment:

Colors Symbolism and Effect on People

Different colours have different effect on people, their mood and feelings. Some colours evoke romantic feelings, others - aggression or aloofness. Knowledge about colours effect and symbolism helps to choose the right color in paintings, interior design and fashion.

Red

Red is the most emotionally intense color. It fastens heartbeat and breathing. It is also the colour of love and passion. Excessive red can evoke aggression. In art, red is usually used as an accent as it always attracts attentions. It is used to spur people’s actions for example for sales purpose.

Pink
Pink is the most romantic colour. It is the colour of youth, tenderness, naivety and carelessness. Pink surrounding is very tranquilizing. Sports teams sometimes paint the locker rooms used by opposing teams bright pink to make their opponents lose energy.

Blue
Blue is the colour of sky and sea. Deep blue symbolizes mystery. The effect of blue colour is opposite to red. It calms and relaxes people. It is widely used for bedrooms and kids’ rooms. It is peaceful and tranquil; however, it can be cold and depressing. Studies show that people are more productive in blue rooms.

Green
Green symbolizes nature, life, fertility. Brides in middle ages wore green dresses that implied fertility. Deep green is the colour of wealth. Green is most popular colour in decoration. It is calming and refreshing colour. Green also improves vision and relaxes eyes.

Yellow
Yellow colour always attracts attentions. At the same time it is the most difficult color for eyes to take in. Yellow increases concentration and speeds metabolism. This sunny color always associated with warmth and optimism. However, it is noticed that babies cry in yellow rooms more often and people loose their tempers often when they are surrounded by yellow color.

Brown
Solid, reliable brown is the colour of earth and nature. Light brown implies genuineness while dark brown is similar to wood or leather. Brown can also be sad and wistful. Men favour brown colour more often than women.

Purple
Purple symbolizes royalty, luxury, wealth, and sophistication. Light purple is more romantic, dark – is more philosophic.

Black

Black is the colour of authority and power. It is stylish and timeless. It is widely used in fashion as black clothes are never out of time and make people look thinner. It also implies devotion to a person or to religion. A woman dressing black can imply submission to a man.

White

White colour symbolizes innocence and purity.

Gouache overview

Gouache colours are a popular medium for beginning and amateur artists, designers and illustrators. This article contains useful information about gouache, its features and usage.

What is Gouache?

Gouache is opaque watercolour prepared with gum arabic.

History of Gouache

There are different versions of gouache history. One of them says that it was discovered by an Italian monk in the 11^th Century by adding zinc white to watercolours. Since that time, gouache was considered as a type of watercolours for many Centuries. It was never so popular medium as watercolours and oil colours; however, nowadays its popularity grows more and more. The reason for this are gouache properties that allow to reach great results in technical and graphic illustrations, decorative and fine art.

Gouache Properties

Gouache is known for mattness, brightness and intensity of colours. Unlike classic watercolours it has high covering power, so it is possible to apply light layers of colours above dark ones. There are several types of gouache: classic and acrylic, art and poster gouache. Classic gouache painting can be easily moisturized and edited after drying, while acrylic gouache becomes waterproof. Art gouache features more natural colours than poster. Poster gouache has very bright colours ideal for poster drawing.

Supports for Gouache Painting

Gouache can be used on any kind of paper or canvas. The only limitation - it must not have oily surface.

Gouache Usage

Gouache is very easy to use. That is why it is recommended to art students to sharpen their painting techniques on gouache before they start using oil colours. All you need for gouache painting is paper, palette, brushes, water and gouache.

Useful Tips

• Gouache colours can be mixed with each other in order to reach to the desired hue. To reach a lighter colour, white colour can be used. Such famous gouache producers as LEFRANC & BOURGEOIS produce two types of white colour: mixing white and permanent white (the first one is used for mixing with other colours, the second one – for applying above other layers as it has higher covering power).

• Add sufficient amount of water to make gouache as liquid as shampoo or dishwashing liquid.

• Avoid applying very thick layers, as it can cause cracking of your painting later.

• Note that gouache colours change after drying. Light colours become darker while dark colours become lighter. With experience, you will know what to expect from every colour you use. Another solution can be using small containers for your palette. Place each colour of you palette in a small container with cover (to keep it wet) and stick a piece of paper on it with a colour sample. By this way you can keep the colours you use the most always ready for painting and see how they will look like after drying.

How to Develop Colour Perception

The article contains the theory of colour perception and a very useful exercise that anyone can use in order to develop this skill.

Every subject in the world has its own colour. We can recognize some of them thanks to their colours. We know that grass is green, the sun is yellow, sky and sea are blue. We know that ripe apples are red and unripe – green. Seasons can be distinguished by the colour of leaves on trees: light green in spring, deep green in summer and yellow or orange in autumn.

Scientists believe that ability of colour perception develops with evolution and age of people.

Thus, people of ancient Greece and Egypt recognized fewer colours. This theory is proved by the colour palette they used for their art that is usually limited by yellow, ochre, brown and red shades.

At present, eyes of a mature person can recognize up to 350 colours and shades. However the ability of colour perception is very individual. When children learn to recognize colours their colour palette is limited to the basic colours. It is clearly seen on children’s drawings. Many of them grow up with limited colour perception. For example, two shades of one colour that can be easily distinguished by a person with developed colour perception seem the same for a person with limited ability of colour recognition.

Consequently, two questions arise: why people need to develop colour perception ability and how it can be developed?

It is known that colours effect on people’s emotions, mental state and even physical body. The ability of colour perception allows people to fully enjoy the life in its beauty and diversity.

There are many ways of developing colour perception. One of them is to surround you with original art. It can be beautiful pictures, handmade souvenirs and professionally designed interior. That is why it is highly recommended for parents to decorate children’s rooms with original art instead of posters with cartoon characters.

Another way is paying attention to colours. See, how shades of the same objects are changing depending on light illumination and surrounding objects. For example, if you place a yellow lemon on red surface it will get reddish shades from down, on green surface – greenish. The same lemon illuminated by electricity light will have cold yellow colour with warm shadow, when illuminated by sun light its colour will appear warmer and its shadow colder. Pay attention to landscape colours in different times of day. In the morning colours are cold, illuminated by midday sunshine they are warm. In the evening surfaces and object reflect colours of sunset or night illumination sources (street lamps).

The following exercise is very helpful for those who want to feel colours deeper. Choose one word from each column and try to imagine a scene. Think, which colours can transfer the mood of the picture, time and idea. Paint of draw pictures using varied mediums, such as gouache, water colours, pastel, colour pencils, etc.

Feeling       Object            Time or weather          Place 

Happy         Cat                  Morning                       Garden 

Sad             Soldier             Rainy                           Castle 

Friendly       Horse              Sunny                           Forest 

Angry          Dog                 Snowy                          Desert 

Scared         Girl                  Windy                         Sea 

Mystery      Traveller           Midday                       River 

Calm           Old woman       Night                         Room 

Surprised    Sailor                Midst                         Road 

Brave          Bird                  Storm                        Mountains 

Confused    Boy                   Sunset                       Street