Painters Online

Start Art 8 53 www.painters-online.co.uk RT START STAGE 2 Draw the circle With a mechanical pencil, trace a perfect circle onto your canvas paper.With a ruler, create a border box around the sphere.Then draw a horizontal line behind the sphere.This will represent a tabletop, and give the illusion of a background area. STAGE 3 Paint the base colours With a dark grey that matches the No. 4 on your value scale, base in the tabletop with a No. 4 round brush. This brush is pointy and can get into the corner and go around the curved surface easily.This deep grey will give us a foundation upon which to build the rest of the painting. To paint the sphere, begin with the darkest area first. In this case, it is under the sphere in the cast shadow. Use the ivory black full strength (No. 5 on the value scale) to create the cast shadow over the dark grey. Use the same No. 4 round brush. Switch to the No. 6 soft filbert brush and fill in the entire sphere with a medium grey mixture.This should match the No. 3 on the value scale. Be sure to completely fill in the sphere so that there is no canvas showing through. STAGE 4 The awkward stage With the No. 4 dark grey mixture, apply the shadow edge of the sphere with a No. 6 soft filbert brush while the medium grey paint is still wet.The filbert brush will blend the tones. Make sure the shadow is parallel to the edge of the sphere, allowing the two colours to blend.Allow the dark grey to show along the edge of the sphere, creating the reflected light. While the paint is still wet, add some of the medium grey mixture above the dark grey and blend the two, using long rounded strokes that follow the contours of the sphere to create the halftone area. Blend until the tonal transitions are smooth. STAGE 5 Finish With titanium white, apply the full light area and blend it into the halftone using a No. 6 filbert.To make the light areas stand out, apply some of the medium grey mixture behind the sphere to create the background.The light edge of the sphere contrasts against it. This is not as easy as it looks, so please do not get frustrated. Remember, you can go over things as many times as you want. I often will add some paint, and softly reblend into the paint that is already there. I can spend a lot of time trying to get it just right.This is all part of the challenge! t t t t