Stefan Pabst - The Art of 3D Drawing: An Illustrated and Photographic Guide to Creating Art with Three-Dimensional Realism

Artists eraser: This is an essential item for drawing. A kneaded eraser can be formed into a small wedge or point to remove mistakes in tiny areas. Vinyl erasers work well for larger areas and can remove pencil marks completely. Vinyl erasers wont damage your paper unless you scrub them too hard.

Paper: Single sheets of paper work best. Art paper is available in a range of surface textures, from smooth grain (plate and hot-pressed) to medium grain (cold-pressed) and rough to very rough. I use rough paper for the drybrushing technique (see ).

ADDING PAINT

Paints: Oil paints are made up of pigments suspended in oils (such as linseed oil) with additives for durability and consistency. Color and consistency vary slightly according to brand, and there are many different quality options. Experiment with various brands, and decide which you like best. Each project in this book lists which colors you will need.

Paintbrushes: Brushes vary in size, shape, and texture. Some are sized by number, and others are sized by inches or fractions of inches. There are four main brush shapes: round, filbert, flat, and bright. Round brushes taper to a point and work well for detail work and fine lines. Filbert brushes are slightly flattened with long bristles that taper at the tip, so theyre good for blocking in large areas and rounding out forms. Flat brushes, which have long, rectangular bristles, can hold a lot of paint and work well for creating corners. Bright brushes are similar to flat brushes, but they have shorter bristles, which allows for more control. The sharp corners are good for painting thin lines, such as outlines.

Cats tongue brushes feature a pointed tip in the shape of a triangle. They can create precise strokes and also work well for painting edges and flat areas.

Cleaning your brushes after use will keep them in good condition. Remove as much paint as you can with turpentine, and then wipe the bristles with a paper towel, moving in the direction of the bristles. Then clean them with warm water and gentle dish soap.

Working surfaces: A flat or slightly tilted surface is best for drawing, and an easel is the traditional choice for oil painting.

All colors are mixed from the three primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. These cant be created by mixing other colors. Secondary colors (orange, green, and purple) are each a combination of two primary colors. Tertiary colors (red-orange, red-purple, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, and blue-purple) are created from a mixture of a primary and a secondary color. Hue refers to the color itself, such as blue or orange, and intensity is the strength of a color.

COMPLEMENTARY & ANALOGOUS COLORS

Complementary colors are any two colors that sit directly across from each other on the color wheel, such as purple and yellow. Analogous colors are adjacent to one another (for example, yellow, yellow-orange, and orange). Analogous colors are similar and create a sense of unity or harmony when used together. To mute a color, or make it subtler and less vibrant, mix in a bit of its complement.

COLOR TEMPERATURE

An easy way to understand color temperature is to think of the color wheel as divided into two halves: The colors on the red side are warm, and the colors on the blue side are cool. Colors with red or yellow in them appear warmer.

WARM COLOR WHEEL

This color wheel shows a range of colors mixed from warm primaries. Here you can see that cadmium yellow light and cerulean blue have more red in them (and that cadmium red has more yellow) than do their cool counterparts in the wheel below.

COOL COLOR WHEEL

This cool color wheel shows a range of cool versions of the primaries as well as the cool secondaries and tertiaries that result when they are mixed.