Painting is the art of creating pictures using colors, tones, shapes and lines. It is a popular form of entertainment and expression. It is used by artists of all levels and ages. Paintings can be found in museums and galleries and are often displayed alongside other types of art. It is also a popular pastime for people of all ages, with even very young children enjoying the process and results of painting.
Whether you want to become a professional artist or just enjoy the fun of creating your own paintings, learning about the various techniques in painting is essential for success. You will find a wide variety of painting techniques, from very detailed and accurate to more abstract. Your natural skills and tendencies will help determine the best type of technique to learn. For example, if you do not have the patience to accurately render every tone and detail of a subject, you may be better suited to brushwork and color methods used by Impressionists than the rigorous practices of Russian academic painters.
A traditional painting consists of several layers: a ground, priming and paint. The ground is a surface that is prepared for the paint and is usually made of canvas cloth or wood. The priming is a substance that bonds to the ground and helps it hold the paint. The paint is a mixture of pigments suspended in a binder. The pigments can be either natural or synthetic.
The binders, which are liquid or pastelike, dries into a continuous layer and locks the pigment into place. This is what makes a paint look different from one brand to another–ultramarine blue in oil looks very different than the same color in water color. A coating is also added to the paint to provide saturation and protect the paint from abrasion and moisture.
When painting, it is important to avoid overworking your paint. It is very easy to ruin a color by over-blending, especially in shadows. Taking steps back and looking at the painting from a distance can help you avoid this. It is also helpful to work on a rough version of the painting on art paper before you begin on the canvas.
Paintings are often referred to as works of art, but what exactly is it that makes them so special? In order to understand this, you must first learn about the construction of a painting. There are many different methods of constructing a painting, but the most common is to apply a ground to a canvas and then cover it with a thin layer of paint.
This can be done with oil, acrylic or water based paints. Traditionally, the paint has been made with natural or synthetic pigments suspended in a binder such as linseed oil, damar resin or turpentine.
Depending on the combination and nature of the materials used in a painting, as well as how it is handled and stored, it can either age well or badly. Some pigments are very sensitive to light, acid or bases, and may fade or degrade over time.