How to Add Perspective to a Wall Mural or Painting

Posted on by

Part of being a great artist is to understand painting perspective. This will aid you in creating believable 3-D objects. Here are some tips for helping you understand the composition of realistic looking objects.

One rule is to prevent objects in a painting from “kissing” each other. Do not have two objects just touching each other as that will look awkward. Every object or subject in a painting should be standing definitely apart in the scene or deftly overlapped. If the objects are “kissing” the perspective in the painting will be thrown out of whack.

One way to keep a painting in perspective is to paint the background first. Then paint in any objects in the foreground. Another tip is to paint in the brightest color you have on your palette first and then create shadows and sculpting effects with darker colors later.

When painting in a realistic way light sources or light directions are also completely crucial to having it look believable. Some painters make a viewfinder which helps them find the right proportions to compose a painting.

Focus is also a component of making believable three dimensional objects in paintings. Cropping out the elements that you don’t want in your composition can trick the eye into making it more believable.

However perspective is absolutely crucial as it refers to our point of view and where lines converge. Lines that are all parallel to each other in a painterly scene are called the vanishing point. They will always converge or vanish in a drawing. The exception to this rule of realism is lines that lie parallel to the picture plane in 3D perspective.

Foreshortening of objects in the foreground is also a rule of perspective. Things that are further away are drawn smaller as they recede into the distance.

There are other rules as well. Objects which are lower than the viewer’s eyes will appear below the level of the horizon, and the viewer will be able to see at least a little bit of their tops. Objects which are entirely above eye level will appear above the horizon, and the viewer will be able to see at least a little bit of their undersides.

In perspective painting most shapes don’t look real unless they are slightly distorted unless they are parallel with the picture plane. Circles will appear as ellipses.

There are also one point, two point and three point perspectives in each drawing. It is best to take a drawing class or get a great book on the subject to understand these concepts fully.

How to Decorate A Still Life for a Painting

Posted on by

If you want to be successful at painting a still-life then you need to pay some serious attention to how you set it up first. You need to pay attention to the composition, mood and lighting of the objects that you want to paint. This is why it is important to pay attention to the still life composition by arranging and rearranging the components of the painting until you are satisfied that it is perfect.

A still life is just simply a work of art that depicts inanimate subject matter. Typical food, flowers, plants, rocks, curios glasses, vases, books jewelry, coins and pipes are part of a still life composition but technically any object at all will do. Before the 1700s religious artifacts largely comprised the composition of still lives. They were first seen on the walls of Egyptian tombs.

That is why part of painting a still life is all about choosing objects that have some kind of importance to you. You can even do a portrait of someone by simply depicting their objects. The still life portrait is quite an interesting way of expressing the personality of someone without actually painting them.

Still life lighting is also important. It will figure into how atmospheric or moody your final result will appear on the canvas. Determining whether or not you are using natural or artificial light is also important. This will determine whether or into you are painting short or long shadows in your work. Painting these shadows properly is crucial to achieving realism in painting.

Still lifes can be in any style including realism, impressionism, expressionism and abstract expressionism. Some of the most famous still lifes in history, such as Van Gogh’s sunflowers, bordered on being abstractions.

If you don’t think you can control the lighting for your still life then you may want to take a picture of a still life and proceed from there. Many artists nowadays use this type of technique so that they can paint from an image where the light source is completely constant.

If you are just starting out as a still-life painter just make sure the still-life arrangement you are painting is very simple. Start out by painting a bowl with a couple of pieces of fruit or a simple plant. Then move on to paint more elaborate still lifes when you become better at mastering still life composition.

The art of painting still lifes has been around since the beginning of the art of painting and the popularity of this type of painting is still going strong today!