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5 warm ups to help you get the best from a painting session

Mythical Beasts artist Jordan Walker delivers five tips for getting the most out of a painting session...

Mythical Beasts artist Jordan Walker delivers five tips for getting the most out of a painting session...

Complex paintings are ambitious undertakings, and it can often be difficult to know where to start. A helpful way to charge your brain and get into the creative mode before a big day of painting is to spend a bit of time warming up with an exercise. In this article, Ill show you a few types of artistic exercises I went through while working on the painting above, and explain how they can help you to start your day and end up with a successful painting.

A finished prehistoric forest scene surrounded by the studies I did as warm-ups during its creation

A finished prehistoric forest scene surrounded by the studies I did as warm-ups during its creation

Tonal studies can be completed in graphite, pen, or any other grayscale medium. I often like to work in a sketchbook, but any piece of paper will do

Tonal studies can be completed in graphite, pen, or any other grayscale medium. I often like to work in a sketchbook, but any piece of paper will do

1. Tonal Variations

Sketching in pencil is always a good way to work through ideas, and in the upper left of this page you can see the original drawing I made that inspired this painting. This sketch alone didnt give me enough information to embark on a full scale scene though. Before you begin intense work on a big painting or drawing, it can be helpful to get good understanding of the major forms in your composition by simplifying the scene into three distinct values; light, mid tone, and dark.

Here you can see my photo study, with the original photo on the screen in the background. You could also print your photograph so you can hang it closer to your painting or in a more convenient area

Here you can see my photo study, with the original photo on the screen in the background. You could also print your photograph so you can hang it closer to your painting or in a more convenient area

You can see that I began to do this on the bottom left page. The principle is clearer on the sketches on the right-hand page, where I establish a dark tree shape in the foreground, a light dinosaur and forest floor in the middle ground, and mid-tone grey foliage in the background. This exercise organizes the scene into distinct areas, and allows you to figure out where your area of focus will be. I fleshed out the major elements of the scene in the bottommost sketch, and in this composition the light dinosaur against the darkish mid-tone trees in the background becomes the focus.

After I spent a couple hours on this tonal exercise, I went on to create the underdrawing for the final painting with this compositional information fresh in my mind.

The lighting and form of these trees were heavily influenced by what I learned in my photo study

The lighting and form of these trees were heavily influenced by what I learned in my photo study

This warm-up was very enjoyable, and after studying the lighting and color choices made by Ivan Shishkin I was excited to create a similar scenario in my own work

This warm-up was very enjoyable, and after studying the lighting and color choices made by Ivan Shishkin I was excited to create a similar scenario in my own work

2. Photo study

The world is full of inspiring reference for painting. I often hike through the wilderness with a camera in hand to capture imagery with interesting forms, lighting, and textures which I take back into my studio. Before I started painting this forest scene I decided to spend an hour or so doing a quick warm-up based on a photo I had taken a few days earlier.

For this study, I focused on my attention on the way the shadows fell over these young cedar trees, and the difference between the warm highlighted areas and cool shaded background.

Dont worry about making pretty paintings out of your warm-ups; no one ever needs to see them, and you should only render them to the point where youve learned what you wanted to and are excited to move onto your bigger scene.

This warm-up was very enjoyable, and after studying the lighting and color choices made by Ivan Shishkin I was excited to create a similar scenario in my own work

This warm-up was very enjoyable, and after studying the lighting and color choices made by Ivan Shishkin I was excited to create a similar scenario in my own work

This portion of my scene was heavily influenced by what I learned from the Master copy I made beforehand

This portion of my scene was heavily influenced by what I learned from the Master copy I made beforehand

3. Master copy

Just about every artistic problem you face has probably already been solved by someone else. By directly copying a painting created by a master in any given field, and paying close attention to the aspect of their work you want to learn from (be it composition, brush strokes, or color choices), you can discover solutions you might never have arrived at on your own.

In this warm-up, I copied a section of a painting by the incredible 19th century Russian artist Ivan Shishkin, who was a master of interior forest scenes. I wanted to understand how the warm light in this painting reflected across the ground and tree trunks, so I could apply some of that knowledge to my own forest scene. It can seem strange to directly copy the work of another artist, but remember that you are doing this to learn how to solve problems yourself, not to copy the masters literal painting into your own.

I painted this little piece as a warm-up to help me understand how to render a specific texture. If you are unsure of how to render a specific area of your painting, little studies like these can be the perfect place to work it out without the risk of ruining an area of your final piece.

I painted this little piece as a warm-up to help me understand how to render a specific texture. If you are unsure of how to render a specific area of your painting, little studies like these can be the perfect place to work it out without the risk of ruining an area of your final piece.

4. Texture study

Its useful to work out difficult painting problems in a warm-up before you attempt to render the final thing. In this warm-up, I decided to figure out how I was going to paint the quills on the tail of the pachycephalosaur running through the forest. I made a rough sketch of the dinosaurs pose on a small panel, and experimented with a few different ways to apply paint to get the desired effect. By spending about a couple hours making mistakes on the small study before figuring out the best solution, I set myself up for easy success in the final painting.

Although I traditionally paint in oil, all of these principles can be applied to digital work as well. It doesnt matter if you use Photoshop, ZBrush, or colored mud; the goal of a warm-up is to spend a short period of time working on a study that will inspire you to get to work on your larger piece.

After learning from my texture study, I was able to render this dinosaur with ease

After learning from my texture study, I was able to render this dinosaur with ease

When drawing from life, I like to have the object Im studying close at hand. This way, I can rotate it and observe it from many different angles to better understand its form.

When drawing from life, I like to have the object Im studying close at hand. This way, I can rotate it and observe it from many different angles to better understand its form.

5. Life drawing

By observing a form in 3D space you can get an understanding of its structure, and see much truer colors and values than you would in a photograph. In this warm-up, I spent a few minutes sketching the structure of a cedar frond I collected in the woods. I paid more attention to the overall form rather than tiny details, and rendered the drawing in a painterly way. This prepared me to paint similar structures in my larger scene.

The series of warmups I completed helped me to bring life into this painting of a pachycephalosaurus running through a Cretaceous cedar grove.

The series of warmups I completed helped me to bring life into this painting of a pachycephalosaurus running through a Cretaceous cedar grove.

Whether youre trying to learn a specific technique to apply to your ambitious project, or just need a way to get your creativity flowing, simple warm-ups like these can be a great start to your day. There are countless more exercises you can do that I havent touched on here, and it is important to seek out new solutions and ways to improve your work. If you take inspiration from the world around you and commit to a lifetime of learning, there is no limit to the things you can create.

The series of warmups I completed helped me to bring life into this painting of a pachycephalosaurus running through a Cretaceous cedar grove.

The series of warmups I completed helped me to bring life into this painting of a pachycephalosaurus running through a Cretaceous cedar grove.

Related lins

See more of Jordan Walkers amazing art at his site
Follow Jordan on Instagram
Follow Jordan on Facebook
Pick up a copy of Mythical Beasts, and read Jordans chapter on the Cockatrice

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