Art Lesson With Tints, Tones, and Shades

In school, I learned what tints, tones, and shades of color are.  These are a whole set of neutrals that utilize the values of color.  The value is the relative lightness or darkness of a surface.  It is the product of mixing white and black only.  The best example would be of a black and white photo, there are different values in each part of the photograph.
Whenever I am painting, this is the knowledge that I use and look back on when I am mixing colors (hues).  When you think of a color at it's lightest point and watch it move to it's darkest point:

those are the tints, tones, and shades of the color.  For instance, I took the colors orange (of course) and blue.  I would start in the middle, on my paint palette I would have 2 orange piles of paint and 2 blue piles of paint.  One pile I would continue to add white and paint to the left of my middle section.  The other pile I would continue to add black and paint to the right of my middle section.  The idea is to get the smoothest transitions from one side to the other.  I could have made the transition in my colors much smoother but my professor had told me that for the number of rectangles he assigned us I did really well.
Tints:  a color (hue) with anything from the lightest 1/3
Tones:  a color (hue) with anything from the middle 1/3
Shades:  a hue (color) with anything from the darkest 1/3

The Easter season brings out lots of tints of color.  Tints are where our pastels come from.  So in a sense, tints are pastels.

Here is another assignment we had to do:

Sorry the glare from my light and the camera make some of these colors hard to see.  At the top we had to paint the colors on the color wheel.  Then in the squares below, we painted tints, tones, and shades.  We didn't need to have smooth transitions in this piece just examples of each.  The first 2 rows are the tints, the middle 2 rows are the tones, and the last 2 rows are the shades.
These 2 assignments I found the most enjoyable in class, I LOVE working with color!!
I hope I was able to pass a little of my knowledge along :)

Tomorrow (March 27th) is my brother Patrick's birthday so I would just like to wish him a very special
Happy Birthday from his big sister!!xoxo

Savannah

Springing Into Action

This weather has been absolutely beautiful!  I love winter but am really enjoying all of this sunshine.  I'm looking forward to seeing all of the beautiful flowers and bright green grass that will hopefully be starting to grow.  Here are some pictures of flowers that I have created:

 These white orchids are one of my favorite flower paintings I love how it came out!

 My two favorite contrasting colors as flowers :)

I hope these paintings bring happy thoughts of spring!  Be on the look out for future blogs with new flower drawings and paintings :)
xoxo Savannah

Enlarging With Thumbnails

Sometimes while I am drawing a picture there are areas that give me a hard time.  The details are tricky or I just need to focus in on that one area to really get the area looking like I need to.  Whenever this happens I learned to draw a thumbnail off to the side or on a separate piece of paper.  A thumbnail is drawing a smaller box that you fill with that one area that is giving you a hard time.  This thumbnail helps you draw the piece larger and focus in on only that spot.  It is giving all your attention to one thing at a time and perfecting it.  I've also learned that this is also a lesson for everyday life not just drawing.  How can a big picture be accomplished if none of the smaller tasks are completed to their fullest extent?

When I was trying to draw the train station in North Conway there was a lot to take in and of course it was giving me some problems.

The thumbnails can sometimes help with concentrating on angles or depth.  Here are a few more pictures I did in a studio:

I even like the look of a drawn set up with thumbnails surrounding it.  It is like zooming in on specific areas to take a better look.
Next time you are drawing and need to work on a specific area, don't hesitate to draw a few thumbnails. They really help me!
xoxo Savannah

Doodle Doodle Fun

Doodling is so much fun!  I've noticed when I am on the phone, bored, or in a restaurant sometimes I start to doodle...and so do other people!  Sometimes, those doodles are the ones that come out the best.  Your brain is able to tune into your conversation or surroundings but let your pen, pencil, or crayon run free.

 I love drawing ribbons.  One slow Sunday, when I worked at Target, I was really bored and I took a piece or receipt tape and just started doodling.

 When I was at RIC (Rhode Island College), I was sitting on the grass in between classes waiting for someone and just took out a notebook and started doodling the trash can haha.

Doodles can look like something or they may not.  Next time you catch yourself doodling don't be so quick to throw the scrap of paper away.  Hold onto it and look at it another day or save it to continue doodling on another day.  Have fun doodling!
xoxo Savannah