Well, I want to talk about why the art medium that you use matters. And, yes, I’ll be talking about whole mediums – types of art supplies – rather than specific brands today. Because, whilst there might be some subtle differences in quality, consistency etc… between different brands, it is the actual type of art supply itself that matters the most.
But why? Simply put, different mediums are best for different types of art. A ballpoint pen or a fine-liner pen is brilliant for small fine details. A graphite pencil is better for subtle graduated shading (although you can sort of do this with ballpoint too). Oil paints are best for large dramatic canvases and/or for creating the impression of realistic detail. Watercolours are traditionally best for thin, transparent washes. Marker pens and/or gouache are best for bold dramatic opaque colours. I could go on for a while.
Whilst there are artists who are skilled in lots of different mediums, some artists will just focus on one. Personally, I’m somewhere in the middle and usually use a mixture of about three or four different mediums (eg: graphite/ink, watercolour pencil and digital). And, to show you the effect that this – along with my own “style”/sensibilities – has on my art, I’m going to make a small study of an old oil painting from the 1930s by Signe Munch Siebke. Here’s the painting I’ll be copying:
“Model In Red Skirt” (1933) by Signe Munch Siebke. Image via Wikimedia Commons
I chose this painting mostly because the model’s outfit reminded me of the historical costumes in a fun modern horror movie called “The Banishing” (2020) which I watched a couple of years ago. It was also good practice with drawing poses as well.
Anyway, I made my study in a small A6 watercolour sketchbook that I usually use for fan art. I started by making a sketch with a light 4H-grade graphite pencil before adding ink using a 0.2mm waterproof ink fine-liner pen and then erasing the pencil lines. As you can see, I’ve already had to add more detail – such as in the model’s eyes – because this medium doesn’t really “do” the sort of impressionistic brush-strokes used in the original oil painting. I also apologise in advance for misspelling Siebke’s surname in the attribution I wrote on the painting (don’t know how I made this mistake, but sorry).
Here’s the initial pencil/fine-liner sketch, with the materials used beside it. And I apologise again about the spelling error too. Still, at least it’s good old fashioned human error rather than modern artificial “intelligence”…
After this, I wanted to add some colour. Despite what I mentioned about gouache or marker pens being best for bold opaque colours, I don’t own either of these mediums. Not only that, I also want a bit more precision than they can offer. So, instead, I used watercolour pencils in a particular way.
I used a lot of heavy pressure when adding pigment to the page, then I used a waterbrush with a small amount of water on it to “activate” the paint in a fairly concentrated way. It doesn’t look as bold as markers or gouache, but it looks bolder than “traditional” watercolour and I can make it look bolder a bit later with other tools as well. And, yes, until I started this sketchbook, I often just used a limited palette of a few colours – but my range of pencils (everything from low-end student grade pencils to fancier name-brand ones) has increased a bit.
Adding barely-diluted watercolour paint using a waterbrush and a large selection of watercolour pencils (from five different brands). Even so, the picture still looks a bit “faded”. So, let’s move on to…
Finally, I scanned the painting and then edited it using digital tools. Whilst I also used a couple of old programs (eg: “Jasc Paint Shop Pro 6” and an old version of MS Paint) for small elements, the bulk of the digital editing I did was with a free open-source program called “GIMP” (GNU Image Manipulation Program).
With this free program, I really went to town on the painting. I boosted the colour saturation, I increased the “black level”, I used “selective gaussian blur” effects to smooth the picture out a bit, I adjusted the colours, I added extra shading using airbrushes.
Editing the scanned painting using version 2.10.30 of GIMP. In this screenshot, relatively early into the process, I had selected the model’s sweater and was using a low-opacity black airbrush to add extra shading to the edges of the sleeve.
Whilst editing, I also let more of my own style and sensibilities show through. Whilst Siebke went for a more muted palette in his painting, presumably to make it look more realistic, I prefer to use dramatic visual contrast and bolder lighting (mostly inspired by old movies like “Blade Runner”, “Suspiria” etc…).
I also usually like to separate the foreground and background too. So, during the later parts of editing the painting, I used a lot more artistic licence – such as adding a faint blue “halo” around one side of the model and stuff like that. And here’s the finished semi-digital painting:
Here’s my semi-digital study of Signe Munch Siebke’s “Model In Red Skirt” (1933).
Now compare this to the original oil painting at the beginning of the article and you’ll see how much difference the art medium can make. Yes, I added some of my personal “style” to this painting but, even without that, things like the level of detail and the general “texture” of my painting are different from the original because I was using different art mediums and had to play to their strengths. So, yes, your choice of art medium matters more than you might think.
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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂
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