DaVinci Artist Supply

Getting Started in Airbrushing

Airbrush Styles
What a versatile tool an airbrush is! Miraculously it can make flat objects look 3-D, create soft shadings, make designs appear transparent, do textured backgrounds and much more. Airbrushes come in a variety of different styles at different price levels. The styles of airbrushes are defined by:

Profile (gravity feed or bottom feed). With a gravity feed airbrush, the paint is poured into a cup on top of the body. A bottom feed uses a hose and suction to draw the paint up into the nozzle.

Trigger action (single or dual/double). With a single-action airbrush, you press down on the trigger to get air and paint in a predetermined spray pattern. With a dual-action airbrush you press down on the trigger to engage the air and pull back on the trigger to get paint.

How paint is mixed with air (internally or externally). In an internal mix airbrush the air goes into the body of the airbrush and meets the paint inside the tool where they mix. In an external mix airbrush air and paint meet outside of the brush. Basic Supplies
To get started, you’ll need the following: an airbrush, hose, air source, airbrush cleaner, airbrush holder, stencil film, stencil adhesive, cutting mat, X-Acto #1 knife with #11 blade, old toothbrush, round wooden toothpicks, black fine tip permanent pen, masking tape, dust mask, metal ruler and paper towels. Air Sources
Compressed air and a connector hose are required to run an airbrush. Two common air sources are aerosol propellant cans and electric compressors.

Aerosol Propellant Cans It’s wise to have two cans of air so as one cools down and loses its pressure, the second can be used while the first warms to room temperature. To turn the air off and on, propellant cans require an adapter (regulator valve) for the top. Use a vinyl hose to connect the airbrush to the propellant.

Compressors These are the easiest to use but most expensive type of air source. The personal-size compressor equipped with an automatic shut-off is very convenient for serious airbrushers. Use a 10' braided hose with a moisture trap to connect the air brush to the compressor (instructions come with the compressor).

Pastel Basics

Many budding artists choose to work in pastels because they are easy to use and the colors produced are rich and sensual. To create a work in pastels you only need paper, fixative and the pastels themselves. There’s no premixing on a palette, no need to add mediums and pastels can be applied to almost any surface. Though pastels are similar to chalk, they are actually a powdered pigment bound together with a gum or resin and shaped into sticks or pencils. Several types of pastels are available in both student and artist grade. Student grade pastels are economical and ideal for experimentation. Artist grade pastels use finer pigments making them more expensive, but their strong color quality and smooth consistency are the reward. Although seemingly an intimidating aisle in the art store a few rules of thumb can unveil the pastel mystique.

Pastel Types

Soft/Chalk Pastels
These are the original and most popular pastel. They glide easily onto a paper’s surface with the ability to produce many different types of strokes. This pastel has the widest range of colors available. However, soft pastels can get dirty and dusted from the surrounding chalks. Keep them clean by wiping them with a tissue as you work or laying them in a bowl of rice which will rub away the dirty surface powder.

Hard Pastels
These are the original and most popular pastel. They glide easily onto a paper’s surface with the ability to produce many different types of strokes. This pastel has the widest range of colors available. However, soft pastels can get dirty and dusted from the surrounding chalks. Keep them clean by wiping them with a tissue as you work or laying them in a bowl of rice which will rub away the dirty surface powder.

Water-Soluble Pastels
These pastels have a chalky consistency and are used dry or wet. Available in pencil and stick form, once applied to paper they can be thinned with a wet brush. Many soft and hard chalk pastels are also water-soluble.

Oil Pastels
Oil pastels are cream-based stick pastels. These colors can be used direct, built up in layers, blended with a cloth or even diluted with mineral spirits to create rich, transparent washes. They can also be used in combination with other dry or wet media to produce myriad effects.

Basic Modeling

Modeling
Modeling is the process of shaping and forming an object from a pliable material such as clay or quick hardening materials like Fimo, plaster of Paris and papier-mâché. Modeling is very a tactile art at which it is very easy to succeed and provides fun for kids as well as adults. Only a few basic supplies are needed to get started: some modeling material and a few basic tools that can be purchased or found around the house.

Clays & Tools
Modeling materials may be placed into two categories: traditional and non-traditional. Clay, clay mixtures, papier-mâché and plaster of Paris are considered traditional materials. Clay, also called earth clay, is very common and is what most people think of when they consider modeling. The one deterrent from beginning modeling using earth clay is that the final product must be fired in a kiln. Unless you have access to a kiln, begin your modeling education using air-hardening or oven-hardening clays. Clays made from synthetics, such as Fimo and Sculpey polymer clays, or made from clay mixed with chemicals and oils known as plasticine, are for obvious reasons considered non-traditional. Polymer clays come in a huge assortment of fully blendable colors; they remain pliable until you fire them and can be fired in a home oven. Plasticine clays also come in a variety of colors but remain totally pliable–they are used mainly in preliminary sculptures and for animation. Because clays are so pliable, it is easy to manipulate them with simple tools that may be fashioned from everyday objects. A bent piece of wire or different size nails are quite useful in shaping sculptures as are toothpicks and scissors. For more professional results clay tools are available. These tools are typically shaped wood or bent metal wire on wooden handles. Just a few will allow you to define your sculptures with precision.

Molds
When pushed into a mold a pliable material will adhere to the mold’s shape, most often with extreme detail. Molds are available pre-made, and all you need to do is push a modeling material into them to create the shape. These push-molds are great fun for kids and crafters who find the results can be used as jewelry, ornaments, wall hangings, magnets, etc. Molds can also be custom made from any original piece of sculpture. Custom moldmaking is a complex process and complete books on the subject are available.

Fabric Painting and Dyeing Basics

Fabulous Fabric Art
The key to successful fabric painting is understanding when to apply paint and when to use dyes. Paints, sometimes called textile colors, will adhere to just about any surface. Dyes, on the other hand are absorbed into the fabrics’ fibers. Because dyes are designed for certain types of fibers, it’s important to match your dye to your fabric. There are three essential types of fiber–plant, animal and synthetic. Plant fibers include cotton, flax, rayon and linen. Animal fibers include silk, wool, feathers and cashmere. There are innumerable synthetic fibers

Getting Started in Fabric Painting
There are many ways to apply paints to textiles. Fabric markers are the easiest method. Simply draw or write on the cloth as you would on paper. Fabric paints are also available in easy-to-use squeeze bottles with applicator tips, or in jars. Jar colors offer the most flexibility as you can use your choice of a wide variety of brushes. Jars usually contain more paint by volume, making them ideal for larger works.

Drawing Basics

Drawing
Each of us has our own way of visually interpreting the world. Often the creation of a drawing can be a meditative outlet with the resulting image a map or visual tour of one’s inner landscape. The way one sees and translates shadow, color, form and spatial relationship is an extremely personal and magnificent expression. That is why all artwork is beautiful, no matter the technical skill. Composing original and creative drawings is within everyone’s capabilities. Understanding the behavior of your tools can be the first step to mastering your artwork. Starter sets and “how to” books are great ways to learn about basic materials and build your skills.

Pencils
Most pencils are compressed mixtures of graphite and clay which vary in hardness according to manipulations of the mixture. The softest pencils have little or no clay allowing more graphite particles to adhere to the paper’s surface. Pencils are marked with a number using the H and B systems to indicate the lead’s hardness. Medium to hard pencils are marked with levels of the H system. 10H is the hardest and the lead’s softness increases as the numbers decrease to 2H and H. Within the B system, the leads increase in softness as the numbers increase. For example, a full range a may look like this:

Hardest - 10H.9H.8H.7H.6H.5H.4H.3H.2H.H.F.HB.B.2B.3B.4B.5B.6B.7B.8B.9B - Softest

Colored Pencils
Colored pencils offer the same drawing characteristics as regular pencils but include the bonus of color. They’re produced in many shades because their colors cannot be mixed on a palette to produce different tints. Colored pencil strokes, however, can be overlaid on each other to achieve a myriad of effects. Some colored pencils are water-soluble. These pencils, when used with water, give the subtle effects of watercolor painting.

Charcoal
Charcoal is made from vine, willow or other twigs that have been charred for use as drawing material and it is superb for blending and creating gradations of black. Sold mainly in pencil and stick form, charcoal is available in soft, medium, hard and compressed versions. Soft charcoal is light and easily erasable but does not make a true black. Compressed charcoal makes thick heavy rich blacks. Although charcoal’s main advantage is that it is blendable, this also means it can be smudged easily. The use of a fixative is necessary when work is complete.

Printmaking Basics

Printmaking
Printing is the transfer of ink onto a surface. Two forms of printing that can be done by hand are screenprinting and block printing. These forms of printmaking are used to reproduce original artwork repeatedly in a series and can be used for many different projects such as T-shirts, greeting cards, posters and more.

Screenprinting
Also called silkscreening or serigraphy, screenprinting is a process by which an image is transferred through a synthetic silk fabric onto paper or another flat surface. To get started you need screenprinting inks, a squeegee to apply ink, a stencil or item to print from, a surface to print on and a silkscreen frame. These frames are covered with silk and can be purchased pre-made or you can make them yourself.

Paper Stencil Method
Depending on the finished look you desire, there are a number of blending tools to choose from for use with pastels. Stumps are sticks made of compressed paper which have double pointed ends and are easily sharpened. Tortillons are only pointed at one end and are made of tightly wound soft gray paper. Chamois cloths are fine quality skins also used for blending and shading pastels. A recent addition to the blending category is the Colour Shaper. These tools provide a truly unique approach to blending and moving color. Consisting of a long handle fitted with flexible, washable rubber heads they come in an assortment of shapes and sizes suitable for any technique.

Screen Filler Method (Touche Resist)
This screenprinting method uses a chemical-based stencil material called filler which is brushed directly on the surface of the screen. When dry the fluid blocks or masks out the areas you do not wish to be printed. This allows the ink to be forced through the screen wherever the filler has not been applied. This “negative” method of printing means your print will be the opposite of that which you created on your screen.

Photographic Emulsion Method
This method offers the widest range of possibilities to the screenprinting artist. It is the one used commercially as it makes possible the printing of fine line drawings as well as the use of halftone photographs. First, a light sensitive emulsion coating is applied on the screen. Next, a film positive of the desired image is exposed and developed directly on the screen creating the printing image. Note: Photo emulsion should not be left on the screen indefinitely unless a permanent stencil is wanted.

Ink Basics

Ink Basics

Inks are an excellent medium for line drawing, wash illustration and lettering work, and are suitable for most drawing surfaces. Inks can be made from pigments or dyes. Pigmented inks are typically permanent, smudge-proof and water-resistant. Colored dyes lend brilliant hues but they tend to fade with time. Dyes are not recommended for permanent work.

Inks are made from solutions of carbon particles suspended in water and mixed with a binder such as shellac. Depending on the binder, they can dry to a matte or glossy finish, be opaque or transparent and can be mixed with each other and overlaid to create an infinite variety of shades and tones. Inks can also be water- or oil-based. illustration using acrylic inksBlack drawing ink, sometimes referred to as India or Indian ink, is the popular ink for pen drawing as well as in calligraphy. Originally sepia ink was prepared from the ink sac of a squid or cuttlefish and was the vogue in 18th century European brush drawing. Today it is made in with modern methods.

Inks are primarily applied with brushes or pens. They are sold in glass or plastic bottles with eyedropper caps, or in squeeze-bottles with narrow necks. Both allow you to fill a pen easily without spillage. There also are inks specially made for technical pens, graphic design use and airbrush applications. All brushes and pens that come in contact with ink should be washed immediately when work finishes because, once dry, ink is very difficult to remove.

Technical pen

Most technical pens are refillable but many use their own compatible ink cartridges that should never be refilled from a bottle but discarded once empty. Inks for reservoir type pens are available in filler bottles. Some drawing inks contain a high proportion of shellac that dries quickly and can clog the fine filament inside the ink delivery system within the nib. The most suitable ink is one that is free flowing but quick-drying, with good adhesion qualities. Some water-based dyes do not have sufficient viscosity for technical pens, causing the dye to flow too freely from the nib and flood the drawing. These should be avoided if possible.

Canvas Basics

Canvas Basics
Canvas fabric can be woven both from natural and synthetic fibers. The natural fibers most commonly used are linen and cotton. Linen is by far the superior because of its strength and resistance to decay. Woven from flax, the weave persists throughout many layers of paint in both fine and coarse textures. This is the fiber that Rembrandt's masterpieces are painted on.
Although inferior to linen, cotton is used more frequently for economic reasons. The cotton family offers many different fabric types. Duck cotton is fairly thick and is good for all-purpose painting. Jute cotton is rough-textured and loosely woven. It is excellent for impasto techniques but is not recommended for permanent pieces of work. Osnaburg cotton is made of single yarns and is generally of a lesser quality than duck. It is good for non-permanent student work. Cotton sheeting is closely woven and smooth, making it good for detail work. Within types of cotton fabrics many different weaves are available such as Alabama, Atlanta and Dallas weaves.

A Few Words About Grounds
Similar to applying a basecoat primer when painting a wall at home, canvas must also be primed using a ground. Because canvas is a porous surface, paint can seep into its fibers like a sponge. Priming the canvas prevents this seepage. The most common ground used is gesso, which should be applied in several coats. Gesso can safely be used with both oil and acrylic paints. Canvas is available already prepared with a ground, or in the raw. Canvas boards and pre-stretched canvas are generally pre-primed. Always be sure to gesso even pre-primed canvas, to ensure maximum archival standards and premium surface quality.

Easel Basics

Easel Basics

An easel is an essential piece of basic equipment, as it provides a secure platform for your artwork.
When purchasing an easel it is important to look for qualities that best suit your personal work style. If you‚Äôre new to art, it‚Äôs advisable to buy an inexpensive easel and plan to replace it in a year or so, after you‚Äôve gained some experience and have a better idea of what you need. However, in the long run it is to your advantage to buy the most versatile, sturdiest easel you can afford. Sometimes, more than one easel may be necessary to suit all of your styles.
Easels encompass a wide range of needs for every level of artist from beginner to professional. They can be made from different grades of wood and aluminum with styles ranging from master easels, to display easels, to small tabletop easels. You can pay ten ($10.00) to ten-hundred ($1,000.00) dollars for an easel, so it‚Äôs a good idea to do some research and find out what type of easel best suits your needs and style. No matter the decision, an easel can ease your work considerably.

Types of Easels
Two of the most common types of easels are studio and sketching easels. Studio easels are large and quite often heavy. They are designed to support large canvases and are typically constructed of wood. Sketching easels are light and compact for portability. They are designed to hold smaller canvases and can be used when sketching or painting outdoors.

Support
Consider the weight of the canvas you most often work on. Do you need an easel that will hold a heavy canvas? Envision yourself poking or stabbing at the canvas as you would with a brush and think about the stability of the easel. Does the easel move around too much, so as to hinder the painting experience?

Adjustability
Adjustability Artists sometimes prefer to have the center of the canvas in line with their vision. Because of this, some find it imperative to have an adjustable canvas tray. Also very useful is an adjustable clamp at the top of an easel which attaches the top of the canvas to the easel body for extra support. Adjustable legs offer the benefit of working at various heights, and also allow the user to change the angle at which the easel holds a canvas. Angle flexibility provides artists who work in pastels the ability to work more cleanly, because an adjustment can angle falling chalk particles away from the surface of the paper. Watercolor artists hindered by water movement, and usually limited to working on a table, can benefit from a clamp mounted table easel that adjusts to lie flat. Be sure to consider the space in which you work. The easel you choose should either fit the area full-time or easily fold up out of the way.Adjustability

Portability
If you paint outdoors, the portability and weight of your easel become factors. Usually a simple inexpensive model will serve, but you may prefer the luxuries of the more specialized easels which feature carrying handles, backpack straps, a palette and a supply drawer.

Matting a Picture Basics

Matting Pictures Many people use mats to frame their favorite pictures or posters. Images framed by matboard look neater and visually seem to sit comfortably in a defined area. Because mats come in so many textures and varieties of color and shape, they have the ability to blend with any type of decor. For instance, colored mats highlight pictures by picking up similar tones, while double-matting creates depth. Also, a beveled mat draws the viewer‚Äôs eye smoothly down into the artwork or picture.

Pre-cut mat frames are available as are uncut matboard sheets. If you choose to make your own, there‚Äôs a world of mat cutting borders and techniques to explore. For example, you can cut two mats in different colors with slightly different dimensions, and double-mat your picture. Some mat cutters can be used to create different corner shapes to further enhance your picture matting.

A Few Words About Matboards
The composition of the type of matboard you use is of concern if the art you are matting is original or valuable. For these types of matting jobs, you will want to invest in quality board made of 100% cotton rag fibers or purified lignin-free wood pulp treated with an alkaline buffer to absorb atmospheric acidity. These materials are usually called ‚Äúmuseum-quality‚Äù or ‚Äúacid-free.‚Äù Where longevity is concerned, colored paper-covered pasteboard typically found in the general store will not hold up. These boards are of low quality and deteriorate rapidly, and their failure can damage the artwork. These boards can be distinguished from the high-quality matboards by looking at the core of the material. It is usually white or cream-colored, contrasting with the paper covering.

Mat Cutters
Two types of mat cutters are available‚Äìhand-held and tabletop. Hand-held cutters are convenient and less expensive, but do not have a built in straightedge. Mat cutterThis means you must use your own straightedge, most likely a ruler, and coordinate yourself to keep the matboard firmly held in place while cutting to prevent slippage and damage to your matboard. This method makes it slightly more difficult to create accurate sharp cuts. Table-top cutters have straightedges along with enough weight to help hold the board in place. When using mat cutters, keep in mind that the blades easily dull and must be changed frequently or else they create scraggly edges. In fact, some people who frame their own artwork often replace their blades each time they cut a new board.