Series Twenty-eight: Using Alternation

In visual composing, alternation means a sequence of repeated changes.  The two things alternating often are contrasted elements or technical maneuvers.  We use alternation to create a dynamic movement throughout our paintings. This series explores four types of alternating most commonly used by master painters.

Series Twenty-seven: Balancing Color

We balance color by how we distribute it throughout the canvas, whether by proportions, by repetition or a combination of the two.  Four major kinds of color balance are symmetrical, asymetrical, radial and mosaic.  This series explores four traditional uses of asymetical color balance.

Series Twenty-six: Preventing Muddy Color

No single color can be muddy.  Mud happens in relationship to surrounding colors.  If a vocalist sings a flat note or a guitar string is out of tune, the off note by itself would not be offensive.  The same is true for color. It requires a sour relationship to its neighbors to become muddy.  This series explores four ways to prevent color from becoming muddy.

Series Twenty-five: Working with Halftones

Series Twenty-four: Managing Edges

Series Twenty-three: Abstract to Realism

Abstract painting might be the most curious genre of painting there is.  People who don't like or understand abstraction often will deem it meaningless, yet almost the entire 20th Century was dominated by abstraction in visual arts.  Even today, many art schools still promote teachings that splinted off from the abstract era.  However, any good realistic painting has a sound abstract design within it.

Series Twenty-two: Low Key Light

Under an overcast sky the earth is thrown into shade.  Cloud cover diffuses the sunlight causing earth’s images to be lit by ambient light rather than direct light.  With light being dispersed evenly rather than shone directly, images underneath that light reflect it more uniformly. This series explores ways to ways to translate this ambient light for creating intriguing paintings where there is no strong light available.

Series Twenty-one: Translating Textures

Series Twenty: Working Value Shapes

Series Nineteen: Modulating Color

Series Eighteen: Balancing Angles

Balance is equilibrium of opposing forces.  If we are physically thrown off balance, we will fall.  If our psyche is thrown off balance, we become an emotional wreck.  It is a necessary force to facilitate out ability to comprehend and discern so that we can perceive and appreciate.  This series of tutorials focuses attention on ways to balance angles so that the visual movement in the painting is neither one-sided nor stuck in one place.

Series Seventeen: Beyond Studies

This series of tutorials focuses attention on ways to move beyond the study towards a finished piece. All these are taken from studies done in previous lessons. The same principle used to teach the lesson brings the study to a resolution.

Series Sixteen: Selecting & Placing

Selecting and placing are our first acts of creating. Selecting comes first and begins when something captures our attention and calls to be made a subject of painting. Some call this inspiration. For others, it’s called noticing or paying attention. Placing comes next when we begin to make decisions about how to align images for the most pleasing balance.

Series Fifteen: Translating Notan

Notan is a Japanese word meaning dark/light, a concept both philosophical and functional, centering on the unity of opposites. As a design principal this principle finds balance and unity between dark and light. In visual art, we can find notan in the shadow and light construct, a solid approach for forming the value design for composing paintings. This series explores ways to achieve this concept with value and hue variations.

Series Fourteen: Orchestrating Visual Paths

A visual path is a tool for leading the way through a composition, keeping the attention within the work. Among ways we create these paths are placement or repetition of images, the colors we select, and with value contrasts or the direction of strong linear elements. Often these paths are found in the subject matter, ready for us to use or even exploit–and if not, we create them.

Series Thirteen: Creative Focal Points

There are several ways to create focal points. Isolation, converging lines, contrasts, directional viewing, an image different from surrounding ones and placement are among the most common. But focal points are methods, not a must and when one exists in a subject, it might not be where we’d like it to be. This series explores four creative ways to change a focal point from its obvious location to another place as well as how to create a focal point where none exists.

Series Twelve: Perspective without Rules

These four lessons show you ways to find correct linear perspective without having to learn the rules of perspective.  Unique to teachings about linear perspective is Lesson Three, addressing the perspective of light rays.  Lessons One, Two and Four show how to find correct angles using the clock.

Series Eleven: Visual Rhythms

One of the most ignored composing principles is rhythm, even though it plays a huge role in the dynamics of any painting.  These four lessons address the four major rhythms available to the visual artist, showing in detail how each can work for the painter.

Series Ten: Transposing Color

To transpose means to exchange places.  To transpose color, we substitute a new color for the local color of our subject.  These four lessons address more methods for transposing a subject into a new color scheme.

Series Nine: Exploring Value Patterns

The pattern of light and dark forms the structure of any two dimensional artwork.  These four lessons show how to locate a light/dark (or value) pattern, and demonstrate how three traditional value patterns can work to influence the expression of a painting.

Series Eight: Working with Values

Of all the visual elements, values are the most important. In this series, Dianne takes you through in depth explorations of how to decipher values, how to find and use value relationships, and how to use value gradations. Once you've done the exercises of each of these lessons, you should have a working knowledge of values that can deeply enhance your paintings.

Series Seven: Brush as Communicator

How we use the brush is as important to our composing of paintings as the way we arrange shapes, colors and values. In this series, we explore how to use the brush to communicate whatever we are expressing or translating.

Series Six: Decoding Harmony

Visual harmony in painting is all about keeping a painting in tune with itself. In this series, we explore several methods for achieving harmony in our art work.

Series Five: Creating Aerial Perspective

Learning to see and express aerial perspective need not be daunting. In these lessons, Dianne shows you how to look and translate things moving into distance, as well as how to use aerial perspective creatively.

Series Four: Reading & Mixing Colors

Seeing and mixing the right color can be a challenge for the painter. In this Series, Dianne breaks down the four components of color--value, hue, intensity and temperature--and demonstrates the science of how each works. Without the science we cannot have full freedom to express the art.

Series Three: Power of the Lost Edge

In this series, Dianne explores four different methods for creating a lost edge in painting.

Series Two: Guiding the Eye

Series One: Composing Matters

Drawing Tutorials and Features

Our Drawing Tutorials are each about an hour long and devoted to a single important approach to drawing.  Dianne explains each concept clearly and demonstrates how you can confidently build your drawing skills to make drawing fun and rewarding. Our Fifth Friday Feature is a full length (about 2 hours) video in which Dianne takes a painting from conception to finish (well mostly) . Whereas in the regular lessons, she does vignettes and studies to illustrate a single principle, she brings together in the Fifth Friday Feature principles taught in previous lessons. As she is painting, she refers to the lessons and explains how that particular principle is working in the painting.

Notan: How & Why

This video now available free on YouTube gives you a feeling for Dianne's method of teaching. Here she demonstrates how to do a notan and shows its value for creating a foundation for a painting. Download the free Value Scale as a supplement to this lesson.

Free Video Supplements

These free PDF downloads serve as supplementary materials to some of the video lessons.