How is it that some artists paintings look bad up close but when you step back they look amazing?
You make an assumption that they look bad. What you are seeing when you stand a distance from a painting is an impression of a whole image. What the painter paints is in the least amount of detail to give the impression of a whole, your eyes and your mind complete that whole view. It gives a bit softer appearance when the strokes are lighter and disconnected, it allows our minds to view the work and connect the pieces together. It's a technique for painting that many artists utilize.You say bad when it's not bad at all. The painting is meant to be viewed at a distance and you are meant to see it as a whole. It is a trick if you will to allow the viewer to connect the dots to see the whole. You look at something like this every day. Every digital image you see is comprised of thousands or millions of pixels that complete the image. But when you look at an image all you see is the whole image. Much like thisor thisor this pattern used in color offset printing, before the days of digital ink jet printingThis is what a highly pixelated image will give you looking close-up, but if you reduce the size of the image, or view it from a farther distance you will see it more clearly. Just look at the image immediately below and squint your eyes and look at it - you'll see much more detail than what you might think. Better yet, stand up and walk back about 5 steps and then look at the image. The processes for printing images recognize how the mind works, that our mind will complete the images and merge shapes and form to add detail that isn't directly visible. We see it as a whole and complete the image.What a painter does is paint strokes to imply shape and form, then they stand back to view the work in the context it will be viewed. Most paintings might be viewed from a distance of 5 to 10 feet for example, so the artist paints to give the effect of how it will look viewed at that distance. What an artist does is create an impression rather than an actual rendering. That's what makes art so compelling, it's a grand skill to be able to make one simple brush stroke to create. Rembrandt was a master at that subtle brushstroke.
How can I color the night starry sky with color pencils?
I need to make a night sky with stars for my art homework. All must be done with color pencils and last time I messed up because I didn't know how to blend in the colors. How can I color in the night sky? It's not exactly one color, it's darker at the top, so ik for sure, that somehow I might mess up if I do it w/out help. Thank You! :)
How should I color black on a big sheet?
Charcoal will give you the greatest range of value. It comes in a variety of forms. Most commonly, vine charcoal is a soft and cheap type. You can also find it compressed into squarish sticks. I prefer charcoal pencils. General brand is my favorite but it can be difficult to find. Charcoal can be very messy though and that is the biggest drawback. You will need to learn to use this material. Just try experimenting with your hand position, sharpening techniques and blending methods. You will also want to check out fixatives (I like Sennelier). One last tip, don't try to use a regular eraser on charcoal. You can use a kneaded eraser or a piece of chamois (shammy).
How do you avoid colors blending together when washing tie dyed shirts using RIT dye?
There are 2 ways in my opinion. One way is to get a large bottle of vinegar, the type you use to make pickles. Put it in a bucket, or put a stopper in your kitchen sink and put it in there. Then just drop a shirt in, squeeze and ring out, then rinse it out. It helps keep the color in. Then you can wash it. Also, you can put a stopper in your sink, fill it half way up with cold water, and add ice cubes. Then take your shirts "rinse" them out. Move them around, squeeze, etc etc. Then ring them out, and you can wash them. It does pretty much the same thing as the vinegar, but not as strong. It is up to you
Whenever I try to do a makeup look, my eyeshadow always blends in with all the colors & turns into one shade. How do I fix this?
First off, are you using any sort of eye primer or concealer on your eyelid? This can really help to ensure your eyeshadow sticks to your eyes and doesn’t move around anywhere. Be sure to apply a neutral shade that matches your skin tone after applying the primer because a primer alone can really hinder your blending if you don’t set it with a shadow.Next, the quality of your shadows is important. High quality (usually expensive) shadows offer much better pigmentation and blend so much more smoothly than shadows of poor quality. If your shadows are chalky or aren’t very pigmented, not only will they not offer much color but you will have to blend incessantly to get them to look good. This often leads to overblending, which makes your shadows look muddy.When blending, you want to keep a light hand. If you’re pressing too hard, the shadows may mix with each other. Blend only in a small concentrated area between shades to create that gradient effect between the colors rather than blending with broad strokes over the whole eye; this will help keep each color separated with a smooth transition between each one. Also, when applying a shadow, pack it onto the lid instead of sweeping it on so that that shade stays concentrated where you want it.Make sure your blending brush doesn’t have any old product on it so that you don’t accidentally blend an unwanted shadow somewhere, muddying up the look. Try out different blending brushes, preferably a fluffy one (try Morphe or Sigma) to see what works for you.Also: practice! Your skills will get better with time. Best of luck to you!
Why does my eye makeup look bad and messy?
Blending - You could be blending your eyeshadow incorrectly. A light color in the inner corner is a universally flattering look. You should blend in from the outer corner in small circles. This will create a nice, smoky effect.Color Combo - You might be using a color combo that clashes, or is unflattering. For my daily look, I use three nude colors: one very light and shimmery, one medium brown and shimmery, the other dark brown and matte. I apply the light color to my crease and inner corner, about halfway down the eye, and then put the medium color across the whole eye. Then, I apply the dark color on the outer corner about halfway in and blend inwards. You probably don’t need this tutorial, but my point is to keep it simple, use only three colors for your daily routine, and try to have them be the same color, just different shades. Of course, you can do more, but if your shadow looks messy this is probably the best bet.Mascara - Mascara puts your whole look together, and the way you apply it means everything. Don’t get caught up in trying to make them look long, make them more voluminous. I use Covergirl’s Lash Blast mascara, in the orange tube as it helps volume. You can get this in any Walgreens and similar store, and I highly recommend it. Most of you mascara should be applied at the base of your lashes, though you should still work on length, obviously.Eyeliner - With this, I don’t even bother most days. If I were you, I would stick to a smoky eye, something that doesn’t need eyeliner, and is sometimes worsened by it. If you want to include it in your daily routine, I suggest just doing the lash line, and no wing until you get good. Practice making winged eyeliner before you shower, so it will wash off soon after you do it, and it’s a good way to get an experience and style.That’s all I have for you. Hope this is helpful! If not, tell me your specific problem.
What would be the equivalent of colored charcoal?
It's been a while since I've used chalk pastel pencils, but, if I remember correctly, they're pretty similar to charcoal. However, if you want something that's even closer to it, I'd recommend you try regular chalk pastels instead. They're really soft and really easy to blend, and you can get them in a ton of colors. For a stick pastel that's firmer and less messy, check out the Prismacolor Nupastels. They work great too, but I still think you'd be better off the with the regular square ones. Here are a few links for you. The first one is for the Nupastels, and the last two are for your average stick pastels. http://www.dickblick.com/zz200/34a/ http://www.dickblick.com/zz200/05/ http://www.dickblick.com/zz219/30/ Hope this helps!
What are some of the easiest techniques to blend pencil portraits?
Please don't use your fingers! Yes I would start by saying this, loud and clear. When you're blending with your finger, you're transferring oils from your finger on to the paper which doesn't give a finished look. Trust me, you don't want to do that.So now coming to the things you CAN DO, there are a lot of techniques for blending. Since you haven't mentioned whether it's for graphite pencils or colored pencils, I'm gonna discuss graphite here and this is the link for colored pencils (Dimple Gudivada's answer to How do I blend the colours of the colour pencils? )Q-tips : They're probably the easiest to get your hands on and work wonders. They're really good for getting into small spaces and you can get a really smooth finish using them. Plus they're handy.Blending stumps : You might've heard of them, it's nothing but paper rolled tightly to form a stump which come in various sizes depending on your preference. They're good for details and textures.Brushes: Makeup brushes are a godsend as they give you the really smooth finish and can really transform the portrait from a good one to a great one. You can use normal painting brushes too if you don't have makeup brushes. They're really good for blending skin and literally work wonders!Tissues : They're really good for blending large areas and provide a smooth look. Face tissues are softer and work better.Hope this helped. Good luck!
My eyeshadow ends up looking messy and "muddy"?
Try using a smaller brush to blend with. That way you won't pick up all of the colors and merge them into one big muddy color. I'm not sure what your technique is with everything, but small yet fluffy brushes will give you a lot of control but still give that soft, blended look. Good luck!