Useful art tips and techniques of all sorts! The list keeps growing!

ART TIPS

and TECHNIQUES

As an artist I am always on the lookout for new art tips or for solutions to every day problems. In this section I will compile a list of the best techniques and tips I come across.

Feel free to send me some of your favourite art tips too!

PATTERN SIZING

Let's say you have a line drawing or a pattern or an image you need to resize. You want to make that line drawing fit onto a certain surface. But the line drawing is either too small or too large.

Now, I'm no math genius but I came across this very useful measuring tip. (Those of you who can balance cheque books and do math in your head can stop giggling now!)

EXAMPLE FOR REDUCING: Your pattern is 15-inches long and you need to make it 12-inches long. Simply take 12, divide by 15 which equals 0.8, then multiply that by 100 for a total of 80. Now you can set the copier or scanner to reduce at 80%.

EXAMPLE FOR ENLARGING: Your pattern is 12-inches long and you want to enlarge it to 15-inches. Take 15, divide it by 12 which equals 1.25, then multiply that by 100 for a total of 125. So now you can set the scanner or copier to enlarge by 125%.

GLAZING MEDIUM

Glazing Medium is a very handy artist's helper. I use it to paint over tape so that paint will not bleed under when one is trying to get that perfect edge.

Another handy use is to brush glazing medium over pen and ink drawings or signature first where one has used a permanent sharpie as the inking tool. The glazing medium will prevent the ink from smearing when varnishing.

HAND SANITIZER

Here's another great art tip!!

A very useful addition to the collection- is any kind of Hand Sanitizer. Make sure whichever brand is bought is:

a. a gel not cream

b. contains alcohol

Hand Sanitizer is wonderful for cleaning brushes and conditioning them- and also allows one to clean brushes and keep them 'dry' in between dry brushing.