“A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.” - Michelangelo.
Sending an artist into an art store to pick out a paintbrush is like shoving a sweets-loving kid into a candy shop. Since there are a lot of choices out there, choosing the right paintbrush can be a tricky task for a new artist. What some beginners don’t realize is that the real art begins when you go “outside the box” to select your paintbrushes. If you allow yourself to be too strictly confined to picking the “right” brush, you may never paint in the way that’s right for you.
How does the new artist make a selection when they all look so good? First, it’s good to know some general background knowledge about paintbrushes. Most paintbrushes are either natural bristle brushes or synthetic bristle brushes. Although some may insist that the natural bristle brushes are better, it really depends on the artist’s preference and painting style.
There are certain things you will need for your studio. The first thing is a place to paint. Every beginning artist seems to think they can bring out everything and scatter it onto the kitchen table, set up an easel, and start painting. This is great for a day or two. If you want to continue pursuing an art career or hobby, you need a place to keep everything up and ready to go. This way, any time you feel inspired all you need to do is pick up a brush and start painting.
Traditional oil paints are bound with drying oils. This is what gives them their unique working properties and makes them much slower drying than water-based media.
A drying oil is a vegetable oil which dries by oxidation and there are many types including poppy seed oil and safflower oil among others. Linseed oil is the one used in the majority of oil paints because it dries to the most durable film.
What effects do drying times have on oil paintings?
The main effects are dependent on how you layer your paints. If done incorrectly, you could create damage to your artwork. For example when underpainting, if a faster-drying layer is applied over the top of oil underpainting, this will be pulled apart as the slower-drying colour contracts. This is also true of colours which only surface dry such as cobalt. For underpainting, we would recommend an underpainting white, alkyd white or flake white (in linseed oil) because of their quick and thorough drying time.
This is always the worst part in an artist's life. The need to clean up the palettes, brushes, easels, and other odds and ends in the studio. It is actually rather easy if you know what you are doing.
The brushes are the first thing to address. This is when coffee cans come in handy. Filling them half full of turpentine or other paint solvent will allow the brushes to soak until you are done with everything else. Just drop them in, bristle first, right into the turpentine. We will get back to these in a moment.
There are many places you can find your painting supplies. Local craft stores and art supply stores like ours here in Bridghampton have many of the art supplies you are looking for.
There are so many things you will want to get. It will be like a kid in a candy store to look at all the wonderful items for sale. It is best when you are first starting out to save some money and purchase student paints. This will allow you to become with the different mediums without breaking your wallet. You can build up your stock a little at a time. The paints actually go a long way. You just have to become familiar with your oil paints to understand thinning and liquefying. Very few times will you use a paint straight out of the tube without mixing it with another color and some turpentine, linseed oil, turpenoid or other medium.
We are going to cover styles and techniques in this chapter. You need to understand the different forms of painting. You may find yourself drawn to one form or another. This often happens when you start painting. As you become more familiar with techniques, you will generate your own style.
There have been many different art periods. Here is a list of the periods along with some of the artists which made it famous.
Printing on canvas is incredibly versatile and a great way to create a ready-to-hang image or artwork. Every canvas that we print is protected with a UV coated acrylic finish to guard the print from dust, moisture and fading. Do you want your canvas stretched on bars or non-stretched? Framed or unframed? Customize the work to make it truly your own.
Nowadays just about anyone can take a good quality photographs with a digital camera. Or take a few hundred pictures and the chances are few will be good, and even one or two outstanding.
Here are a few tips, tricks and techniques on how to make art print poster ready photographs and print ready digital files. Don’t get overwhelmed, there is a lot of information here, but a lot of it is just intuitive. Well, a bit of patience will always help.
First thing – Photo Size
If you taking a digital photo of you family or friend the largest size you would print is usually 5 by 7 inches, maybe 8 by 10 at the most. Even small size digital photographs (2MB or less) are ‘good enough’ to create a decent print. But if you want to create prints that are 16 by 20, 20 by 24 inches or larger you need more pixels (in pixels 20 by 24 inches photo is actually about 40 times larger than 3 by 4 inches photo assuming they have the same resolution).
Watercolor is an easy, fun medium for creating art. Color theory, composition and design can be explored freely with watercolor paint, paper, and brushes. Several techniques may be used with watercolors for varying effects including painting wet on wet, wet on dry, layering washes, and more.
Watercolor paper comes in cold press, hot press, and rough. Rough paper has the most texture, and its hills and valleys can result in interesting effects when paint is added. Hot press is the smoothest and has the finest texture. Cold press has a moderate amount of texture and is the paper most commonly chosen by watercolor artists.
Watercolor paper comes in several weights ranging from 90 lb. to 300 lb. based on the pounds per ream of paper. Most artists prefer to use at least 140 lb. paper. Papers vary somewhat between manufacturers, so sampling different papers is advisable. Paper can be purchased in pads, in blocks or in large sheets. The large sheets are usually the most economical and can be torn into whatever size is desired.
Photo and Art Information 
“A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.” - Michelangelo. 
There are certain things you will need for your studio. The first thing is a place to paint. Every beginning artist seems to think they can bring out everything and scatter it onto the kitchen table, set up an easel, and start painting. This is great for a day or two. If you want to continue pursuing an art career or hobby, you need a place to keep everything up and ready to go. This way, any time you feel inspired all you need to do is pick up a 
Traditional 
