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Between Drawing and Painting – part 2

in between drawing and painting
Drawing / Painting / Step by step demonstrations

Between Drawing and Painting – part 2

In part 1 , we saw how you can paint over a drawing and how you could build an image with lines, loops, scribbles patterns or words. In part 2 we will talk more about using drawing medium on canvas and drawing with paint medium.

Line and wash

Line and wash is another technique where drawing and painting merge. I love the contrast between sharp lines and loose watery washes.

You can start with the washes and add lines after as in the following portrait, for a looser style.

Nice contrast between lines and wash

Line and wash merge for this dramatic portrait.

Or make a contour drawing first and then add washes for a bit more of precision.

washes with watercolor and lines with pen

See more details about this technique here: watercolor and pen figure drawing

Draw with pencil, charcoal or dry brush on canvas

You can use pencils on canvas, the only precaution is to fix the graphite with fixative before varnishing.

you can draw with pencils on canvas

You can even use a blending stump on canvasdrawing portraits with graphite on canvas

mixed media graphite and acrylic on canvas

Slice of Life II- Louise. Graphite and fluid acrylic on canvas

Only parts of this painting of my daughter Louise are done with pencil, the rest of the patterns are drawn and painted with fluid acrylic.

mixed media charcoal and acrylic on paper mounted on board

Slice of Life, beehive⠀- Charcoal, acrylic, pastel on paper mounted on board.

In this portrait on my daughter Charlotte, I worked on paper that was mounted on board. Parts of the portrait are done with charcoal and the rest is painted with fluid acrylics.

You can see how I made this painting on this post: Charcoal portrait on paper step by step : Beehive
drawing with charcoal powder and a brushSome of the charcoal has been applied and blended with a brush.

I am a Blick Art Materials affiliate and I receive a small compensation for sales. That does not effect in any way the cost of the purchaser’s order but it helps me keeping the content of this blog free.

 

General’s Powdered Charcoal

For all pattern work and pouncing. Superfine, 100% pure artist-quality charcoal. Willow-type, extra soft, intense black.



Dry brushing is another technique where you basically draw with a brush. That brush is very lightly covered with oil paint.

dry brushing with oil on canvas

Dry brushing is like drawing with a brush.

erasing dry brush oil with an eraser on canvas

You can even erase some of the paint with a regular eraser.

Read more about this technique here: Dry brushing for mixed media portraits

 Use a drawing medium as paint

There are some drawing medium that you can use as paint, one of them is charcoal, another a bit less known one is dry pastel.

You can add water to dry pastels and use them as paint. I like to do that with pan pastels as they come in round containers.

using pan pastels as paint

You can use pan pastels as paint.

erasing paint from pan pastels on paper

you can even erase areas when they had time to dry.

life drawing with pan pastels used as paint

Read more about this technique here: Paint that you can erase?

I am a Blick Art Materials affiliate and I receive a small compensation for sales. That does not effect in any way the cost of the purchaser’s order but it helps me keeping the content of this blog free.

PanPastel Artists’ Painting Pastels

Here are genuine artists’ quality pastels – the softest in the world – uniquely packaged in stacking and interlocking jars. PanPastels were specially developed so that artists could lift, apply, and control pastel color, just like true painting.

Drawing patterns on top of a painting.

Finally, one of my favourite technique is to add patterns on top of a painting. Sometimes there are so many patterns that the painting part takes second place in importance, like in these examples;

forest tree painting with patterns

Lace Forest(triptych) acrylic and Indian Ink on canvasadding patterns on top of trees

Detail of Lace Forest.

Embroidered Forest Watercolor, acrylic and markers on canvas

Embroidered Forest Watercolor, acrylic and markers on canvas

Feel free to share your ideas and pictures of your paintings/drawings in the comments.

4.5/5 - (2 votes)

Comments (2)

  1. Kerry Williams

    Thank you for sharing your videos. I have loads of inspiration now!

    1. Sandrine Pelissier

      Thanks Kerry 🙂

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A Mixed Media Treasury of Techniques and Ideas

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