art lessons for kids Archives - SandyBreckenridge.com

The 8 Compositional Devices

April 24, 2021 By Sandy Breckenridge 2 Comments

Catching the current — One Dominant is primary device, Frame is the secondary device.

The Eight Compositional Devices are the foundation of graphic design. You can train your eye to notice how each one is composed and how one of the eight devices becomes the foundation of the design.

The graphic image above has a primary device of One Dominant which contains the eagles in the sky who are catching the air currents. A One Dominant device does not touch the edges but lies within the image. The artwork also contains other design relationships including a secondary compositional device. The elements in the pattern flowing around the One Dominant device are described in the Graphic Design Element Series.

Identify the Primary Device First

Essentially, each of the devices contains a primary and may also include a secondary. The next several posts in this series will explore all sixty-four device combinations! This is a fun series and explains how designs are composed.

Here is a list of the primary eight devices:

One Dominant
Two Dominant
Pattern
Negative Positive
Structure
Movement
Frame
Perspective

A downloadable image illustrates each of these compositions.

Here is a slide show of examples of each so you can examine them in greater detail. Take the time to memorize each. They can become your foundation as you create.

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Exercise Ideas:

Look through old magazines that you don’t mind ripping out the pages. Identify at least three examples of each of the eight devices. Start a slush file which is a term used by artists. It’s a folder containing examples of ideas that you categorize of examples. The contents of the file serve as references for stimulating your imagination when you begin a new creative project.
Play with your favorite art medium and illustrate an example of each of the eight. In this creative exercise, remember to keep it simple like the examples in the slide show.

In case you are viewing a post in the middle of a series, click to view > Art & Illustration Series Table of Contents

Painting Foregrounds: Creating a Foundation

April 5, 2021 By Sandy Breckenridge 2 Comments

“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” —William James

Mama bear and cub at the water’s edge. — Mama and Cub at the Bay

The Perfect Palette series has taught us how color choice, value, and intensity—combined with a thoughtful deliverance of the creator’s intent—are essential for building a scene. It’s a satisfying outcome when a viewer is captivated by an artist’s rendering.

The quote by William James articulates how an artist interprets a scene from their chosen reality, keeping the gems and asking the viewer to step into the image to discover its essence.

A well-executed image moves the audience’s eye through the image to discover various treats. Hopefully, they deeply engage and find it hard to break away, like they’re in a captivating spell!

If you’d like to explore purchasing a poster of the above print, please click > Mama Bear and Cub Poster

Building the Foreground

The first two layers when creating the foreground foundation — The first two layers of the foreground foundation before adding the detail.

Painting foreground rocks, trees and their root mounds, grasslands, twigs, gravel, flowers, weeds, all start with a foundation.

Steps for painting the foreground foundation before adding the final detail:

When laying out a foreground plan, move the brush inward with every stroke to represent a thoughtful execution. This is one way to define and record the experience you wish to give the viewer.
Always note the light source so you can begin to define the shadows and the highlights.
Change color and hue about every four brush strokes.
Use a balance of red, yellow, blue based hues using simple abstract shapes.
The percentage values are in the lower range in the foundation layer while still consisting of a combination of 2 bright and 1 dull color.
A perfect shadow tone combines Ultramarine Blue and Raw Sienna, and uses a little black and Alizarin Crimson for the holes in the soil, rocks, trees, etc.

Now it’s time to add the rest of the foreground detail:

Adding the foreground detail — After the first two layers now add the next layer of the foreground detail.

Three Steps When Painting Rocks

How to Paint Rocks — The three steps to painting rocks.

After painting the foreground base foundation, if the image contains elements like rocks, add another light wash to further build the rock’s next layer of detail.

Note the warm side of the rock and the cool side. The intensity is heavier in the middle value of the rock.

Warm area: the middle value of grey plus a little Yellow Ochre
Cool area: the middle value of grey plus a little Ultramarine Blue
Core: and a little black to your mix

Add another wash using a dry mix over your current rock’s foundation.

Now, begin to build additional detail using whatever technique supports creating greater dimension. Some favorites are dry brushing, a toothbrush, dry brush or tool to flick paint, course airbrushing, or even squirts of spray paint.

Painting a Seamless Transition

The painting is complete when all three fields, foreground, middle ground, and background seamlessly flow together.

The following images illustrate how foreground, middle ground, and background combine to complete the painting and go on to capture the viewer’s eye. Hopefully, they feel enticed to step into the painting to explore this new reality.

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The eye might first notice the focal point or it may be intrigued by the small rusty orange flowers in the foreground and move on to see bears. Or the eye may first see the bears, move to the sky, the sunrise, back to the foreground while noticing the detail in the grasslands, and then back to the bears.

- To where do your eyes naturally move?
- Did you notice where your attention first landed in the scene?
- Did you notice if your eyes moved to other elements in the painting?
- Did your eyes interpret the light source?
- Did you find the scene comforting?
- Was your imagination engaged?
- Did you feel your eyes wanted to return for a second view?

When an artist gets their audience to consciously and unconsciously respond to this list of questions in a positive way, it’s time to celebrate. You’re on your way to becoming a master artist. Congratulations!

Please feel free to share this series with other artists or anyone who may want to deepen their knowledge and understanding of color, theory, and atmospheric perspective.

Our next art series will describe all the Basic Graphic Design Elements. What a fun series to learn how design can be interpreted mathematically and be combined into recognizable marks and shapes!

Table of Contents for the Perfect Palette Series

Stepping Into the Foreground

March 15, 2021 By Sandy Breckenridge 2 Comments

Wheat stalks in the foreground — A picture with a grassy foreground of a farm and Mt. Baker’s snowy cap in the background. I took this picture in Mt. Vernon in Washington state.

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” Vincent Van Gogh

The foreground of a painting acts as an invitation to allow the eye to move comfortably to the focal point.

In a way, it is a promise that the viewer will enjoy the journey. An inviting foreground is like an eye-catching welcome mat against a front door. It makes one eager to ring the bell, gain entry, and explore the internal spaces.

If the foreground is out of balance or lacks harmony with the other planes in the image it can be compared to a home lacking curb appeal. If there is too much clutter upfront the viewer can get lost in the distractions and lose interest before discovering your intended feature of the painting.

Two Brights and One Dull

Painting palette, mixing foreground colors — 2 Bright Colors + 1 Dull Color mixing examples for creating foreground colors.

When choosing the color hues for this first visual field two bright colors and one dull color are blended, adding a little white or black (if needed) to match your reference scrap. This process ensures the foreground has the necessary intensity.

The foreground color choices are richer in value and intensity than the middle ground or background. The percentage of detail increases, too. Additional warmth can act as an invitation. Another option is even larger brushstrokes to suggest to the viewer’s eye the foreground plane is closer.

Too much detail in the foreground can also distract the eye from establishing an enticing relationship with the focal point.

Increasing Color Values in the Foreground

We previously learned the color’s scale percentages in the background are best between 20 and 35. In the middle ground, the range is between 40 and 55. In the foreground, we step up the percentages between 45 to 70 percent.

Some compositions may defer from the suggested values. They could be as much as 100 or as little as 10 percent which depends on the reference scrap.

Layering the Foreground

The painting’s foreground usually includes natural elements like tree mounds and roots, rocks and boulders, textured soil, varied grass mounds, water, natural vegetation like weeds, grasses, and flowers. Sometimes a man-made element like a swing, bench, or bicycle is added for interest as long as it does not take away from the focal point.

In our next post in this series, you will learn how to lay down a base foreground foundation to give the impression of texture, color harmony, shadow, and atmospheric depth. After this step, additional layers of detail bring the foreground to life.

Be sure and check back soon for our next tutorial lesson.

Table of Contents for the Perfect Palette Series

The Quickdraw Challenge

January 31, 2021 By Sandy Breckenridge Leave a Comment

“Sketching regularly requires you to pay close attention to the visual world around you. With practice, you begin to see things you never noticed before.” —Paul Laseau

One of my favorite creative activities is the Quickdraw Challenge. The idea is to set a timer for a specified amount of time, such as an hour, and practice in your medium of choice.

How to get started:

Gather your supplies
Create an intention
Set your timer
Now, go!

At the end of the hour, stop whether you feel you are finished or not. This exercise allows you to play and frees up your mind to flow and create without overthinking.

I like to put all my quickdraws together and revisit them at a later time. They are perfect for use as comps to stimulate ideas. You may choose to refine your creations and develop new works of art. Or, you may get lucky and find in the hour you created a piece you simply love.

Starting With a Scrap Image

There is nothing wrong with starting with an image or photograph you might find. Design is just redesigning. As long as the scrap is not recognizable and you have not violated copyrighted material, go for it.

Playing with Graphic Elements

In the Graphic Design Element Series, you can learn about all the fundamentals of design. Line, plane, tone, small, medium, large, circle, square, and triangle are the first of elements that are covered.

You’ll notice in the video below where I provide an example of this exercise I used simple lines to create the Field of Flowers image. I actually really liked the finished piece, so I uploaded it to my online shop.

Video of a Recent Field of Flowers Quickdraw

This illustration only took about 45 minutes from start to finish. It is pretty cool and when I uploaded it to my online store. I loved how it looked on many items.

When you unleash your creative spirit, you can create almost instant gratification and help build your confidence. I invite you to play, have fun, and explore different mediums.

One day you might play with pencils, the next watercolors, the next photo enhancement. The key is to permit yourself to play. Playing is an act of self-love and who can argue with that?!

To see how this image looks on various home items including big pillows, click >Field of Flowers
(Scroll to the bottom of the page after you click on the link and you can see a wide range of items with this design.)