Painted

The painting media, and the wording that gets each one out of a model.

Paint is the medium this catalogue had least of, and asking a model for a painting gets you an average of all of it: soft edges, full palette, faint brushwork, no decisions. Every entry here is one medium making one refusal. Watercolour cannot be opaque. Ink wash cannot be coloured. Impasto cannot be flat. Scratchboard cannot add, only remove. Name the refusal and the medium arrives, because what a paint will not do describes it better than what it will.

Thin and wet

3

Three media that sit in the paper rather than on it, where the water does half the drawing.

Watercolour Bleed: Transparent washes bleeding into wet paper, with the white of the sheet as the only light.

Watercolour Bleed

Transparent washes bleeding into wet paper, with the white of the sheet as the only light.

Ink Wash: One ink diluted to many strengths, so the whole picture is built from value alone.

One ink diluted to many strengths, so the whole picture is built from value alone.

Soft Pastel: Dry pigment dragged across textured paper, sitting on the surface and catching the tooth.

Dry pigment dragged across textured paper, sitting on the surface and catching the tooth.

Thick and opaque

3

Three media that sit on top of the surface, where the mark has physical height.

Limited Palette Dry Brush: Three or four colours only, laid with a nearly dry brush so every edge breaks up.

Limited Palette Dry Brush

Three or four colours only, laid with a nearly dry brush so every edge breaks up.

Oil Impasto: Paint thick enough to hold the mark, so the surface has real height and casts shadows.

Paint thick enough to hold the mark, so the surface has real height and casts shadows.

Gouache Flat: Opaque matte colour laid in flat even areas, with light painted over dark.

Opaque matte colour laid in flat even areas, with light painted over dark.

Taken away rather than added

1

One medium that works backwards, where every mark removes rather than deposits.

Scratchboard: White lines cut out of a solid black surface, so the drawing is made by removal.

White lines cut out of a solid black surface, so the drawing is made by removal.

Draw one of them

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Other style groups

Drawn traditionsHow a character is drawn by hand, and the wording that gets each tradition.9 drawn styles Anime and mangaThe looks from Japanese animation and comics, and the wording for each one.8 anime and manga styles Made by handStyles built from real material, and the wording that gets each one.10 handmade styles Rendered in 3DHow a computer model is made to look like something, and the wording.11 render styles Soft materialsThe surfaces that make a hard form soft, and the wording for each one.10 soft surfaces Gradient and noiseHow a colour transition is handled, and the wording for each one.5 gradient styles Applied overStyles that put one thing on top of another, and the wording for each.4 layered styles Character shapesHow a figure is built and finished, and the wording for each decision.12 character styles Studio looksThe looks asked for by studio name, described by what is on the screen.8 studio looks Technical drawingHow a thing is specified rather than depicted, and the wording for each.7 technical styles

Print stylesPrinting a sheet rather than drawing a character? The same reference, for ink on paper.

Because it averages every painting. Naming the medium, and particularly what that medium cannot do, is what produces a specific picture: watercolour cannot be opaque, impasto cannot be flat, scratchboard can only remove.