How to make wet or oily skin appear believable Playing around with different states of familiar materials, like for example wet skin can be great fun. You can even do this easily with old painting you’ve got laying around, just to add the final realistic touch. Wet or sweaty skin can be tricky, but let’s focus on creating the illusion of wet skin without actually painting any actual droplets. Think in 3D, and which direction the light source would bounce […]
Henning’s 101 : Materials Having an understanding on how different materials works will add extra flavor and texture to your art. Get a quick walk through here. (C) Henning Ludvigsen Painting is all about somewhat tricking the viewers to believe what they are seeing. What is it that makes us perceive that we’re looking at an object made out of glass, cloth, wood, ,metal, or even different qualities of the same material? As an artist, you have to convince your […]
How to paint plumage and feathers From an artist’s point of view, painting plumage and feathers is often a dreaded process, but even if it is without doubt time consuming, it doesn’t have to be complex or difficult at all. Now, there are many types of feathers, and if you plan on painting birds, you should study theory about different kinds of feathers and their purpose. Some feathers are for protecting against weather, some for insulating the body; some are […]
How to add a soft fantasy glow to your art Using a soft brush with a low flow works nicely to apply glow around highlights, and I recommend doing this at the final stages of a painting. If you really want to achieve a global glow effect there are simple shortcuts, but know that this will change the colour values in your picture quite a bit. Unless, of course, this is the effect you are aiming for. Add a flattened […]
20 fantasy art tips 1 – Fantasy skin Skin is an extensive subject that can be great fun to study. When painting skin for a fantasy-related piece, you can stretch the rules further than if you were creating for a more traditional genre. Monochromatic skin tones is a good start, but by capturing all the different levels of colours and different skin types, and then experiment with this, you can still end up with a monochromatic expression even though […]
Old style pin-up art the new way See the creation process of a modernized pin-up artwork and get the know-how to do it yourself. Painting pin-ups can be a whole lot of fun, no matter if you go for the old-school vintage cheese-cake kind of look or if you want to add a modernized twist to it. You don’t have to be a pin-up artist to create pin-up art, but to achieve the very special look and feel, you will […]
Painting beard It’s easy to make short beard or stubble look too neat, noisy, or perfect. Beard should look a bit messy, contain many colours, and consist of quite thick stubble or hairs. Start off with a slightly darker grey colour to de-saturate and mark the area. Just as when painting hair, make sure to start off with the darker stubbles or hairs and work your way up towards the brightest details on top. Working from a dark base up to brighter layers of […]
Know your values Make your values balanced by implementing some very simple rules about light and shadows in your already existing work-flow. There is a whole lot of theory when it comes to creating art, and it’s up to each and every one of us how much of this we want to put into action when painting, rather than rely completely on our artistic sense. There are no definite answers to what is the best way of working, but I […]
Colour Learn how to control your colours, and take advantage of different colour theory principles to make your art pop! There is a lot of theory and studies on colour principles, and you don’t need to know them all to be able to create good compositions. You can push your art a lot further by simply taking advantage of a few of the most commonly used principles. (C) Henning Ludvigsen Hands down, on the ranking of the most important art […]
Core drawing skills and workflow Nail down your own core drawing skills, and start building your very own methodical way of working to reach your goals. (C) Henning Ludvigsen “How do you work?” – is something most artists get asked often. I think this is what makes art so very interesting, because it’s our individual ways of working and skills that differentiates us from each other and makes our paintings unique. Build your workflow methodically to get the most out […]