Step-by-Step Guide : Traditional Art Methods Every Beginner Should know

That's it, you master sketching. You're now trying to expand your skill set to various painting method but you do not find a comprehensive guide on the internet to fullfill your thirst of knowledge. Move no more, i am here. I'm Zack Wynter. Art teacher of secondary school and today i will teach you what you seek.

Before diving into the subject you must understand something. Traditional art methods have been refined over centuries, providing a rich foundation for creating beautiful, uplifting works of art. Whether you're looking to refresh your memory or learn the basics of painting technics, you need to train yourself to patience and resilience, building a solid foundation in painting technics is not a linear process. You'll suffer mostly in the beginning then it will fade away for the entire remaining process.

Essential tools you must have

Big and small canvas :

Do not neglect any of them, train yourself to work on extreme small canvas as well as big canvas. This will train your perception of shape and the ability of your brain to reproduce them through various setup.

The different canva size in the market :

• A0 : 84,1 x 118,9
• A1 : 59,5 x 84,1 (cm)
• A2 : 42 x 59,4
• A3 : 29,7 x 42
• A4 : 21 x 29,7
• A5 : 14,8 x 21
• A6 : 10,5 x 14,8
• A7 : 7,4 x 10,5
• A8 : 5,2 x 7,4
• A9 : 3,7 x 5,3
• A10 : 2,6 x 3,7

Additionnal information : The A1 format is obtained by dividing the length of the A0 format by two and taking the value of the width of the A0 paper format as the length. It is always useful for you as an artist to understand how things are what they are so that you do not depend on memory. You will be able to recover loss data from your mind this way more effectively.

Brushes :

You must have the main types : flat, bright, round, filbert, sable. If the shop you visit do not know these artistic references, seek for the following numbers written in the brushes :

• Round 8 : ideal for washes and for covering large areas (background).
• Liner 2 : small and edgy ideal for sketching and emphasizing silhouette.
• Angular Wash 3 / 4 : ideal for creative brushstroke and clean lines
• Fan 4 : idea for spreading brush pigment over medium place with creative brushstroke.

Graphite pencils from H1 - H6 to B1 - B6.

Paints : Acrylics studio brand / Watercolor.

How to study painting technics efficiently :

Use medium canva and draw basic shape such as : cube, ball, cylinder. Do not draw circles, triangles, square, these shapes do not have volume and they are flat.

Replace brushes every four to six month :

since the frequency vary from an artist to another, there is a quick way (as demonstrated in the image ) to know if your brushes need to be replaced :

Painting technics :

Underpainting (Acrylic / watercolor / oil painting ):

Create a small rectangle of 4x4, paint it with a single color (brown for example ). Let it dry for few second if it's a watercolor and for one entire minute if it's acrylic.

Then paint your grassy landscape full of green / yellow and see how colors behave in interaction with the underpainting effect. Retry this exercice on multiple rectangle with same idea but different underpainting and study how the color you choose in underpainting affect your colors.

Glazing ( Watercolor only ) :

Glazing is the inversion of underpainting, instead of preparing your paper to receive paint, you paint normally, then, when you're done with your painting apply thin, transparent layers of paint (by using water ) to modify the color and luminosity of your underlying layers.

Example : In this image, the blue square and yellow square meet at in intersection and become green square, that's because glazing made color change their hue.

The impasto technic (Acrylic and oil painting )

You will need knives for this technics or a tool with flat surface. The principles of this technics are simple yet complex to master.

The printmaking :

Printmaking involves creating artworks by printing, typically on paper. Techniques include etching, lithography, and linocut. This technic will not be detailled here but require your interest so i judged good to mention it here, it's a whole world alone, so you should go get a preview of it as soon as possible.

Additional tips :

In order to enchance highlight and emphasize contrast in your paintings, you can use pastel. With pastel, you expand your possibilities, here are some additional technics you can search about for pastel. We may cover some of them or all of them in future articles or video :

• Blending : With soft pastel and your finger or tissues, blend acrylic and pastel. In order to know if your current medium accept pastel or no, there is a rule of thumb : The fat over thin rule.
• The fat over thin rule : In order to make your painting able to resist time, you must always use fat (rich paint ) over thin paint, not the opposite. Some example of Fat over thin :
• Acrylic first then oil above.
• Watercolor first then Acrylic.
• Scumbling : Lightly drag a pastel stick over a layer of another color to create a textured, broken color effect. This technic add texture to subject like foliage, rock, sky, fruits.

Conclusion :

Traditional art methods are far more bigger than this single article suggest. By practicing the above technics you can acquire a solid base to express your creativity and your artistic potential. I suggest you grab a simple subject such as a simple shape or a fruit and you paint with a single medium, then you try two medium, then you try underpainting, glazing and so on. This way you'll make sure you master each component i presented to you quickly without spending hours. Thank you for reading see you next time !

Additional ressources :

• 5 tips for better composition.
• Color theory : Understand and master it.
• Painting materials for digital painting : comprehensive guide.
• How to draw cast shadow with mathematic.

Color theory : Understand and master it