4 Benefits Of Painting Landscapes

1. Heightened appreciation

Painting landscapes gives you a heightened appreciation of the natural world. It enables you to see the world more closely and to understand it finer points and intricacies. Many people don't fully appreciate the beauty of the natural world around them because they don't take the time to look at it more closely. When you paint a landscape, you're challenging yourself to inspect part of the natural world so you can effectively depict it in your painting. You have to see what the world around you is made up of.

2. Getting outdoors

Many landscape painters choose to practice plein air painting. This is simply the act of going outdoors and painting the world as you see it. Plein air painters explore the world around them to find a beautiful spot to paint. One of the reasons why so many artists enjoy plein air painting is because they get to be in the great outdoors surrounded by nature, as opposed to stuck in a stuffy studio. There are some artists who just explore their local region for great places to paint and there are others who will save up and travel to different countries to find the subject for their next painting.

3. Exploring colours

Nature is full of all sorts of colours - the colours that make up the natural world are seemingly endless in number. If that's not enough to contend with, there's the fact that light constantly changes throughout the day. You can paint the same scene loads of different times, each set at a different time of day and each using an abundance of different and unique colours. One of the best things about landscape painting is that it opens up a whole new range of colours for you to work with, many of which you may not have seen before.

4. Emotional connection

Many people believe that looking at landscape paintings is good for them. They find landscape paintings to be soothing and calming. One of the main benefits of landscape paintings is that your paintings can make others feel good. Paintings in general can have a captivating quality; landscape paintings have the ability to trigger emotional responses from people. They can help people get in touch with not only their feelings, but also their past experiences as well. Landscapes can help people remember and relive particular times of their lives that they're especially fond of.

Joanne Perkins is a Berkshire-based artist with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. She specialises in painting Berkshire landscapes and loves capturing the natural beauty of her local countryside. She is happy to accept all queries and questions. For more information about Joanne, her work and her current projects visit: http://joannesberkshirescenes.com/default.aspx Joanne can be found on Facebook

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5 Things To Know About Underpainting

1. Colours used

Many artists used to use monochromatic underpaintings. The reason for this was to give substance and volume to the different aspects of the painting, as well as to enhance the contrast between darker areas and lighter areas. However, any colour and any colour of combinations can be used. It's worth experimenting to see what different effects can be produced by using different colours and colour combinations for your underpainting. Many choose to use lots of different colours as a sort of template for layers to be painted on top.

2. Purpose

Underpaintings are used to give paintings more tonality and texture. Many artists use a limited number of colours to create a first version of their painting, marking of areas that are going to be rich in colour as further layers are added. Underpaintings can also be used to give your painting flashes of colour. The colour used in the underpainting will very slightly show through the layers on top of it. It's a good idea to experiment with contrasting colours, so the colours from the bottom layer will be shown more effectively. A really good underpainting can produce colours that visually mix with colours from the topmost layers of the painting without the colours physically blending together. Think of an underpainting as a blueprint for the final version of the painting.

3. Popularity today

A lot of artists don't actually use this technique today. The reason is because they simply don't see the point in spending time on the bottom layers when it's the topmost layers that matter the most. Underpaintings were very popular throughout history, though nowadays the practice of creating an underpainting has lost favour with many artists. Using this technique definitely has its advantages, as it allows you to map out your painting and highlight areas where more colour is going to be applied. Using underpaintings can be a great way to get you to think more about the composition of your painting.

4. Grisaille

Grisaille refers to paintings that are completed either in monochrome or nearly all in monochrome. The colour used in grisaille paintings is usually grey; grisaille works can be found in many different shades of grey. Artists also use grisaille as an underpainting: the first and bottommost layer of the painting they complete in grey. Using the grisaille underpainting technique can give paintings a sort of 3D effect. Grisaille was developed by French painters and was commonly used throughout the Renaissance. Though grey is mainly used, browns can be used as well.

5. Verdaccio

Verdaccio is the name given to a specific mixture of pigments. Those pigments are black, white and yellow. When these pigments are mixed together, they produce soft green colour that has hints of yellow or grey, depending on how much of each colour is used. This mixture of pigments was very commonly used by Italian artists for underpainting. It was especially popular for portraits and other works featuring people, as the green of the verdaccio would complement and balance the pinks and other light colours used to depict the subject's skin tones.

Joanne Perkins is a Berkshire-based artist with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. She specialises in painting Berkshire landscapes and loves capturing the natural beauty of her local countryside. She is happy to accept all queries and questions. For more information about Joanne, her work and her current projects visit: http://joannesberkshirescenes.com/default.aspx Joanne can be found on Facebook

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13 Fast Facts About Acrylic Paint

1. It is less than a century old. The first type of acrylic paint to become commercially available was actually polymer-based house paint, which became available in the 1940s.

2. It was only in the 1950s that acrylics were made commercially available. After that, they took off in popularity and they're remained a top choice for many artists ever since thanks in part to their great versatility.

3. Acrylic paint does have lots of its own characteristics, though it can easily be manipulated to resemble oil paints or watercolour paints. Many artists therefore use this type of paint as a substitute for oils or watercolours.

4. Acrylic paint consists of a pigment that's suspended in an acrylic polymer emulsion binder. The pigment is the material that gives paint its colour and the binder is what holds the pigment together with the emulsion.

5. Painting with acrylics gives your work a sharp, clear and bold effect. It's a good choice if you want a painting that looks really realistic.

6. Acrylic paint tends to dry quite quickly, though you can add a retarded to the paint to slow down the drying process.

7. You can easily paint layers with acrylics, as the paint's colours are permanent. You can paint one layer on top of another and the layer that's been painted over won't be visible at all.

8. Acrylic paint can be applied to a huge variety of surfaces. As well as canvas, it can be applied to surfaces such as glass, wood, ceramics, plastic, fabric, metals, stones, cars, houses and even cardboard paper.

9. There are loads of different mediums and substances, such as gels, sand and rice, that you can add to acrylics to give them all sorts of different textures. Many artists like experimenting by adding different things to the paint to see what effects they produce.

10. An acrylic painting that has completely dried out does have the tendency to attract dust; once you've finished working on painting, you should add a layer of varnish to it in order to prevent dust gathering on it and damaging it.

11. If you've got lots of acrylic paint on your brushes or on your hands, all you need is soap and water to get it off.

12. One of the most famous artists to have used and experimented with acrylics is Andy Warhol, known for pioneering the 'pop art' concept and movement. Many of his most recognisable and influential works, including Campbell's Soup Cans, were completed in acrylics.

13. Acrylic paint is known for producing vibrant, loud and solid colours. Paintings done in acrylic paint stand out and tend to be very eye-catching.

Joanne Perkins is a Berkshire-based artist with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. She specialises in painting Berkshire landscapes and loves capturing the natural beauty of her local countryside. She is happy to accept all queries and questions. For more information about Joanne, her work and her current projects visit: http://joannesberkshirescenes.com/default.aspx Joanne can be found on Facebook

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