Tag Archives: artistic

How to Use Dining Room Chandeliers

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There are not hard and fast rules about how to decorate a dining room with chandeliers but it is important to get one that you like because it is likely going to be a focal point of your room. One suggestion is that the circumference of the chandelier should be about a foot less than the width of the table at its widest point. This is so people do not bump their head on the light fixture when they get up from the table.

Another guideline is that the chandelier should not be closer than four feet from any wall or closer than 48 inches from any cabinet or other piece of furniture.It is important to get a chandelier that is big enough or it might get lost in the room.

When hanging the chandelier you should make sure that it is hung low enough to light up the eating area. However it should not be in the way of seeing people seeing each other while they are talking or eating at the table.

There are all kinds of different styles of chandeliers and the best one for you is going to have a lot to do with your décor. A simple crystal chandelier goes with just about anything. A lot of crystals make it more ornate which goes best with more formal dining room furniture. Simple candle styles go with about anything.

Rustic style dining rooms look good with a wagon wheel or wrought iron style of chandelier. Wooden or natural chandeliers, like those made from deer antlers, look great with older style furniture.
Stark wrought iron chandeliers in white or black look best with the plain lines of mission furniture. Wrought iron chandeliers also look fabulous with Goth décor and dining rooms done in a slightly distressed shabby chic fashion.

You can also get chandeliers that are in a starburst shape with offshoots that look like Christmas light bulbs. Sometimes these also look like orbs or circling planets. This type of chandelier best suits Fabulous Fifties type décor.
Faux metal shapes and artistic looking optic fibres are associated with chandeliers that suit a room from the sixties and seventies. Gold or copper metal chandelier arms are more late seventies in feel. Silver metal arms are more associated with the sixties, nineties and this decade.

Keep in mind too that if you are going to get a chandelier with crystals that you can get them in different colors. This can make a big difference in the look of the room.

How to Use Decorative Color to Create Artistic Realism

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If you are a beginner artist you might be curious as to how to use different colors so that your painting is represented accurately and realistically. Here are a few oil painting tips that can help you achieve the desired effect.

First of all you need to realize that color mixing is not an exact science. There are many different formulas and methods for applying paint. A lot of it is about what type of oil paint you use. The real keys to not over mix the colors. That is one of the first things you are taught when learning to paint as you can end up with a muddy looking result.

Yet another tip is to near ever take the painting direct from the tube. Mix it first and give it the proper tone, shade or tint by adding white, black or another color. Using as few colors as possible also helps create the appropriate effect.

The Flemish technique of painting is easy to follow. You can look it up on the internet or get a book on it. It is the classic way of oil painting. Seven layers of paint in total are applied to the canvas. However you may want to skip a few steps. Painting realism in this old fashioned way requires a time frame of seven weeks per painting. Once each layer of paint was dry the old masters used to wipe it with a layer of onion. Today we have lacquers and oils that are specially formulated to accomplish the same thing without the smell.

However many of us do not have the time to paint like the old masters. Many painters prime the canvas firs by mixing red ochre, yellow ochre light and ivory to give the canvas an olive hue. Shadows are usually created with burnt umber and lighter tones with colors like white lead, white ocher, red ocher and burnt bone.

Another key is to paint the shadows of objects with a color that is a complementary opposite. For instance, if you have a red apple tries and gives it a blue shadow.

Another trick is to try and keep the color temperature in your painting all warm or all cool. This helps produce a more pleasing effect in general. The old Masters also tended to have

Protecting this type of painting is also very important. The old Masters were experts at doing this. Many primed the canvas with linseed oil and then varnished it with lavender oil. This prevented the dimming of the colors or cracking in the varnish so the paintings would then last hundreds of years.