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Basic Surface Enrichments

December 5, 2021 By Sandy Breckenridge 2 Comments

3 Crow Image Example of Surface Enrichments
Note: The illustration of the three crows demonstrates the use of the three additional surface enrichments: color, texture, and pattern.

“There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.” — Edward de Bono

After Four Basic Surfaces, the fifth tutorial of the Graphic Design Basic Element Series covers three additional Basic Surface Enrichments.

The quote by Edward de Bono acknowledges one of the descriptive design terms as a repetitive action that limits creativity. The way the term or word pattern is used in design is as a noun that enriches creative visual appeal often making art more interesting.

Enriching the Exploration of Surfaces

There are three additional surface descriptions to add to the list of reflective, opaque, transparent, and translucent covered in our last tutorial. Now you can add these three to the explorations in your art journal. Record the additional variations as options to visually enhance a surface.

Texture Definition: A surface with repetition of a non-recognizable unit.

Many adjectives could describe the qualities of a texture.

Smooth can be one of them, but it does not elicit the contrast needed to distinguish it from an opaque or tonal surface. Explore and create examples that demonstrate how to example enough contrast for the shape to appeal to the viewer as a recognizable texture.

Creating Appealing Textures

Take an existing surface in one of your journal explorations and play with the following descriptions. You could play with a tonal circle, square, or triangle and illustrate any of the following definitions. Below are ten descriptions to get you started. See if you can identify additional textural enrichments and add them to the list.

  • Coarse
  • Bumpy
  • Rugged
  • Lumpy
  • Pebbly
  • Ripply
  • Fuzzy
  • Gritty
  • Chalky
  • Splattery

Adding Color: Newton’s Rainbow

The visible light spectrum is the section of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum that’s visible to the human eye as color. A complete study is needed to fully wrap the mind around the topic of understanding color theory. This tutorial just touches on the option of using color to define a design surface.

Back in the 1600’s Isaac Newton defined color by using a division of seven spectrums of light placed within a color wheel. It is referred to as Newton’s Rainbow.

The seven spectrums of light in Newton’s color breakdown.

The seven colors that he described are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Color as a Surface Enrichment

Color can enrich both a tonal and an opaque surface. It subdues an element by giving it a sense of moving into the background, or it can be bright and vibrant that visually moves the element forward into the foreground.

Color as a Surface EnrichmentColor can also enhance every design component.

It can define a space by using a colored line to outline a shape. Color can invoke contrast. Illustrating with complementary hues can create harmony or the opposite can happen with discordant colors.

Opposite colors on the color wheel can also complement each other. Some combined color choices can be so unappealing that an image can demonstrate a feeling of friction or uneasiness.

Color can define tonal percentages as additional light alters the illuminating value of a hue.

By darkening down color like in a cast shadow suggests another form of contrast.

Explore the use of color to enhance various shapes in one of your art explorations in your daily art exercise journal. Can you alter the mood or emotion you feel when viewing the image with the use of color?

The Graphic Design Color Wheel

Graphic Design Color Wheel

An artist uses a color wheel to help determine what chromatic relationship of color values and hues are best used to illustrate their works.

The wheel is organized with the primary colors placed equidistant from each other. The secondary and tertiary colors are found logistically placed between.

The entire wheel is a logical yet abstract visual aid. It helps when determining the assigned color codes of the value of a hue and aids in the printing process.

You may also be interested in bookmarking The Perfect Painting Palette Series to learn an optimal method for mixing colors that will make your artwork come to life. 

Pattern as a Surface Enrichment

Color and Pattern The definition of a pattern: A recognizable and repeating unit of shape or form can be described as a pattern.

A pattern can contain all other surface descriptions and enrichments as long as it convincingly suggests repetition.

Nature can implicitly illustrate the use of patterns. A beautiful example is spiraling seeds in the center of a sunflower. Or, the ripple of a pebble seen in a puddle of water. A pattern can be soft and curvy, or contrasting and definitive.

A fun exercise is thumbing through a stack of magazines and noticing how a pattern is pictured in nature and man-made elements. Some examples are in architecture, masonry, landscaping, fabric, weaving, pottery, etc.

Neg/Pos Zip Bug Pattern Image
Zip Bug Design: A negative/positive pattern demonstrating reversing direction.

Once I was asked to create a pattern that included reversing the design element. The art exercise was a challenge and was fun and rewarding. Perhaps, you may be up to the same challenge?

Depending on your given allotment of time a lovely floral pattern might be the perfect first attempt in pattern making.

Downloadable Tutorial Guide

Please feel free to download the image guide for Basic Surface Enrichments.

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The next post in this series describes Basic Picture Arranging Principles. The placement of the elements can even suggest to a viewer that a two-dimensional surface demonstrates a three-dimensional perspective.

An artist can place an element to build interest and move the eye into the artwork. This can entice the viewer to relate more deeply to a dominant object and allow other illustrated elements to be supportive of the theme.

Our next tutorial will describe the Basic Picture Arranging Principles found in design and a downloadable tutorial image.


To follow along, click > Art & Design Tutorial Table of Contents

Graphic Design: 4 Basic Surfaces

October 27, 2021 By Sandy Breckenridge 1 Comment

Example of Four Basic Surfaces

“To improve oneself you must be as persistent as the drip, drip, drip of water filling a bucket. Do a little bit, every day.” ― Jeffrey Fry

After Basic Directions, the fourth tutorial of the Graphic Design Basic Element Series covers Four Basic Surfaces.

The quote by Jeffrey Fry reminds me of what it means to have a daily art practice. I don’t know of an artist who would say they have mastered art! Art is one field where there is always more to learn, do, express, and discover.

Exercising the Artist Within

Have you experimented with the mantra shared in the last graphic design post?

“line, plane, tone, small, medium, and large”

Creating an art journal is a perfect way to track progress. This way you’ll have an easy record of your daily art explorations. You can go back anytime and embellish or change up the variations you create and explore additional elements.

Try altering each of your illustrations, paintings, drawings, or images by using a different medium, too. Try incorporating new shapes, sizes, textures, tones, and directions.

Exercising the way we see an object or an interest while recreating that which we see in simplistic terms can lead to a pleasant storm of ideas.

I remember one of my art instructors telling me that all design in art is redesign. Another way to phrase the evolution of an idea is that it is a variation of a theme.

Identifying Four Basic Surfaces

It is time to experiment with the next category of elements in this series. These are the Four Basic Surfaces in graphic design.

  1. Reflective: A surface that gives back an image
  2. Opaque: A surface that is solid without light
  3. Transparent: A surface that transmits light rays so that objects on the other side are recognizable.
  4. Translucent: A surface that lets light pass through it but is not transparent.

Reflective Surfaces

Reflective Surface
Reflection of flowers in foil.

The most common reflective surface that we experience is easily found in our homes.

The mirror is the most obvious device that reflects. But this brings up the question of how reflection is modeled in art?

Creating a collage from torn papers can be a perfect way to incorporate existing reflective surfaces by including foils, reflective tape, or paper in your design.

You can also purchase mirror paint at most any home improvement store. In an art store, you can find acrylic paint that is formulated to reflect or simulate reflective qualities in an artwork.

There is also another way to capture the qualities of a reflection. For example, a landscape painting may illustrate a lake with a body of water reflecting the trees and mountains above.

Another illustration could be a painting of a car with a shiny finish parked alongside a row of bright flowers showing a floral reflection as a point of interest.

What examples can you dream up and add to your daily art journal that offers reflective qualities?

Opaque Surfaces

Opaque Surface
Example of an opaque surface where light is blocked by the dense curtain.

A solid color that does not allow light to pass through it is very easy to illustrate and takes the least amount of imagination.

If you held up a piece of opaque paper to cover a lightbulb the luminous rays are not able to penetrate or shine through the surface.

In an art image the same is true. Just like the illustration of the curtains that cover a window, the objects on the other side of an opaque color are not visible.

Transparent Surfaces

Transparency in art can be created by using a clear film like medium or paper to overlay over another layer of colored paper. The color will be clearly visible.

A transparent surface can easily be modeled in a collage using see through materials as one of your supplies.

Transparent Surface
Example of a transparent surface allowing the outdoor scene to be seen through the window panes.

How might transparency appear in a painting?

Imagine an illustration of a window with lightweight gauze curtains covering a few panes of glass.

The glass clearly allows the distant scenery to glimmer through and this surface leaves nothing to the imagination for the viewer.

Another example, could be a painting of a pristine body of water that allows images of the colored stones that lay at the bottom to shine through the water’s calm surface.

Transparent surfaces can be implied or created. You might try using various types of see-through materials that allow objects and shapes on the other side to be fully visible.

Translucent Surfaces

Translucent Surfaces
An example of a translucent surface showing lightweight gauze curtains allowing the background to show through.

Light also plays an important role in creating translucency. In this case, light passes through to create transparency, but the objects on the other side are not fully recognizable.

Artist materials could include tissue papers, or other lightweight see through materials such as a tinted film.

Using the previous example of a window with a lightweight curtain, we can see the material allows the glimmering colors and elusive shapes to shine through to the viewer.

Downloadable Tutorial Guide

Please feel free to download the image guide of the Four Basic Surfaces.

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Art Playtime

Make sure to take time before moving on to the next post and record examples of each of the Four Basic Surfaces in your art journal.

The next series post incorporates several Basic Surface Enrichments. They offer additional opportunities to change up your creative ideas and practice creating some fun art images.

To follow along, click > Art & Design Tutorial Table of Contents.

Steps-by-Step Guide for Painting Snowcap Mountains

February 22, 2021 By Sandy Breckenridge 2 Comments

Mt. Rainier National Park
View when hiking from Paradise in Mt. Rainier National Park.

“Our task, regarding creativity, is to help children climb their own mountains, as high as possible. No one can do more.” – Loris Malaguzzi

Mountain illustrations can be challenging and overwhelming subjects for many artists. A photo contains so much detail it’s often hard to know where to start.

It’s a good idea to take time to explore the landscape after you choose the mountain you’d like to paint.

Ask the questions:

  1. “What sold me on this image?
  2. Was it the contrast of the elements, the light source, the shape?
  3. Where does my eye naturally flow?”

Now create a preliminary pencil comp to determine the best layout. A quick drawing can help with proportion and how much of the painting you want to allocate to the foreground, middle ground, and background as you determine the main point of interest.

Mountain Painting Process

After you have a plan it’s time to set up your Double Primary Palette and gather your supplies. Use the image guide below as a reference to help you in mixing the hues.

Mixing colors for Snowcap mountains
Use 3 dull colors plus white, and maybe a little black to match your scrap for: light now, dark snow, light rock, and dark rock.

Then follow the following steps.

First, prepare your paint mixes to match the scrap for all areas of your mountain:

  1. Dark Snow,
  2. Light Snow,
  3. Dark Rocks,
  4. Light Mountain Rocks.

Note: The overlap in your paints will define the medium shaded area.

1. With a #2 pencil, draw your mountain outline. Pencil in the fall lines and any additional detail that helps to define the light and dark areas. Later you can erase the graphite using a kneaded eraser that will not harm your painting surface.

2. Apply frisket or mask off your mountain area and apply a wash of color in the blue, mixed blue, and cloudy or cloudy sky and let the paint fully dry.

3. Now wash in the light snow on the major shaded areas. While wet, add additional wash in some of the darker areas. Then let this layer dry.

4. Now apply a single color wash over your entire mountain, building up the color to a darker tone at the bottom and lighter at the top. While still wet you can take a tissue and lift off paint to reveal the nearly pure white areas where you determine the light is brightest. Let this layer dry.

5. Now go back in and add detail to reflect the darkest crevices, caverns, small rocks, shadows, etc. so the highlights also appear brighter.

6. Add detail at the base of the mountain to reflect the shadows at the base of the mountain and where the middle ground will meet the mountain.

The following slide show provides a simple guide of the detailed steps.

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Developing A Style

After painting several life-like reproductions you’ll soon identify and develop a personal style. Mountain illustrations can be whimsical and fairytale-like or highly graphic with high contrast.

They can feature unique brush strokes, lines, and tones. The reference scrap can inspire you to choose how much detail you’d like to include. They can be painted digitally or painted by hand using gauche, acrylic, oil, or watercolor paint and brushes or even colored pencils and markers.

Painting Tips

Remember mountains shaped like cylinders, or a combination of cylinders that have areas that protrude and recede—cliffs, crevices, ledges, rocks, etc. The lightest tones are where edges protrude and the light shines the brightest. The tones get darker as they recede into the shadows.

You can use a combination of washes and dry brushing. The washes cover the largest areas and some will overlap creating medium tones. The dry brushing techniques help define the darker areas of the greatest detail.

In our next Tutorial we will cover painting the middle ground and how it creates harmony. Hope to see you there!


Table of Contents for the Perfect Palette Series

  1. The Many Hues of Color
  2. Best Palette Colors to Build Depth
  3. The Double Primary Palette
  4. Painting Blue and Cloudy Skies
  5. Mixing Colors for Painting the Background
  6. Painting Mountains
  7. How the Middle Ground Creates Harmony
  8. Stepping Into the Foreground
  9. Laying Down Foreground Foundations: Rocks, Tree Mounds, etc.

Mixing Colors for Painting Backgrounds

February 18, 2021 By Sandy Breckenridge Leave a Comment

Landscape Mountains Lake River

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” — Edgar Degas

The background of a painting creates the atmosphere for the entire artwork. The success of the subject matter comes to life as the viewer steps into the background, becomes engaged, and is guided to the point of focus.

A close up of a flower, a bowl of fruit, a mountain cabin on a lake, or a distant star on the horizon all need to relate to a harmonious background. Closeups, still life, portraits, and landscapes are all sustained and strengthened by the background’s visual story.

The background forms the stage and is a big part of what the artist is wishing to convey. It should complement the middle ground and foreground while infusing light, depth, harmony, and visual appeal.

Planning Your Colors

Before you rush into painting the background, do a little prep work. By now you should have the Double Primary Palette set up and are ready to begin mixing paint hues for the background application. You have your scrap in hand and an idea of the composition of your painting.

In the same way you learned how to mix the correct value percentages for blue and cloudy skies, the base mixes for this area of your painting will start with primarily these 4 dull colors plus white.

The four dull colors are:

  1. Ultramarine Blue
  2. Alizarin Crimson
  3. Yellow Ochre
  4. Naples Yellow

At times your painting’s background will also need to include the other two dull colors: Burnt Umber and Raw Sienna that are also used when painting cloudy skies.

Mixing background colors
Example of how to mix background colors, keeping the hues in the range values between 10 to 55 percent.

Follow the plan as you see illustrated above when using these four dull colors and create three mixes of blue, red, and yellow as your base background colors. You can also use this same technique using the two other dull colors if needed.

As you apply the paint to your canvas, the mixes are blended again according to your scrap or your color guide plan.

To keep harmony always mix by adding a little red, yellow, and blue to each mix.

Remember, the background value should never exceed 55% or it will become too dominant. The viewer’s eye will get confused and your painting will lose its sense of atmosphere.

Applying The Background Paint

How to mix background palette colors

It’s important to always think in values as you see in a greyscale based on degrees of ten. As you move from the background forward, always add 10% detail as you get closer to the middle ground. The above sample painting is the background slice of a larger image.

The next tutorial will provide instruction on painting background mountains. These majestic structures need additional instruction before we move to the middle ground paint colors, values, and their intensity.


Table of Contents for the Perfect Palette Series

  1. The Many Hues of Color
  2. Best Palette Colors to Build Depth
  3. The Double Primary Palette
  4. Painting Blue and Cloudy Skies
  5. Mixing Colors for Painting the Background
  6. Painting Mountains
  7. How the Middle Ground Creates Harmony
  8. Stepping Into the Foreground
  9. Laying Down Foreground Foundations: Rocks, Tree Mounds, etc.
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