Honey watercolor drawings for beginners. Acrylic Painting Technique: The Basics

Each of us is an artist at heart. Remember the golden moments of childhood, when we enthusiastically painted with paints “kalyaki-malaki”. The art of painting is the greatest mystery in the world. With the help of paints and brushes, real miracles appear on the canvas. Many mistakenly believe that they do not have artistic talent. In fact, anyone can learn to paint with paints. How to paint real works of art with watercolors? To do this, you only need to follow simple recommendations.

What will we need?

So, we decided to enter the world of art and become artists. How to paint with watercolor correctly? This will require the following tools:

• paints;
• brushes;
• palette;
• sheets of paper.

The choice of accessories should be taken very carefully. The final result - a work of art - depends on them.

Choosing colors

How to paint with watercolors yourself? First of all, you need to choose the right colors. On the shelves of art stores there are a huge number of watercolor paints. Which one is better to choose?

Do not look at the price category here. High cost is not always a guarantee of quality.

It is better to choose paints made on the basis of beeswax. On the cover should be the inscription "honey". They have the brightest color.

Paint brushes

The brushes are just as important. Which of them are most suitable for watercolor?

The brush should be soft and pick up paint well. Its tip must be pointed. The bristles of the brush should be well fixed on the base. Best Option there will be brushes made of squirrel wool. Their bristles correspond to the declared parameters.

How many brushes will you need? To paint small parts of the picture, you should purchase a thin brush (number 1 or 2). For the main part - a greater thickness (numbers 5-6 or 7).

Palette

The palette serves as a kind of “draft”, a place for mixing paints. Several paints of different colors are applied to the palette, they are mixed. The result is the desired shade.

You can purchase a ready-made plastic palette. You can also do it yourself. For this, a sheet of thick paper is suitable, which should be folded around the edges.

Choosing watercolor paper

The process of choosing paper should be treated with special attention. The fact is that watercolor is a translucent paint. It requires a lot of water to work. If you draw on plain paper, it can quickly get wet from water. It is better to purchase special paper for watercolor. It is denser and thicker. Its surface is rough. Water particles get stuck on the rough surface of the paper. This prevents spreading.

Let's start drawing

How to paint with watercolors yourself? Having studied the basic features of watercolor paint, we know that it requires a large amount of water. The drawing is translucent, airy, flying. This effect is due to the structure of the paint.

There are 2 main watercolor painting techniques:

1. Dry technology.
2. Raw paper technique.

Everyone is familiar with the basics of dry technique since childhood: we pick up paint on a brush and draw. Depending on the type of drawing, you can pre-draw its outline with a pencil.

To get the desired color, you need to dip the brush in water, then in the desired paint and apply it to the palette. After that, the brush is washed with water and lowered into the paint of a different color. The resulting colors are mixed on the palette. The result will be the desired shade.

What is the difference between watercolor painting on wet paper? This technique is quite interesting, because. it allows you to create an unusual effect. To do this, before you start drawing, you should moisten a sheet of paper well with water. Until it dries, watercolor paint is applied to the wet paper. When mixed with water, it spreads, leaving fancy patterns on paper.

Let's draw

So, we purchased materials for work. Learned basic drawing techniques. Now you can proceed directly to the creative process.

How to paint with watercolor for beginners? For starters, it is recommended to try to study the paint. What will be required for this? Consider the basic lessons of acquaintance with paints:

1. We study colors. Take a leaf watercolor paper. Pick up the color you like with the brush. Put it on paper. Look at the effect. Now increase the amount of pressure on the brush. See how the color has changed (it should darken). Now fill the brush with more water and dip it into the paint. Draw a wet brush over the paper - the drawing will be translucent.
2. We mix colors. Try mixing several colors. What shades are the result?
3. Apply yellow, orange, red to the sheet. Study them. What emotions do they evoke? Now apply blue, purple, black to the sheet. What are the feelings now?
4. We draw from nature. Now we need to learn how to display the objects around us. Put an apple in front of you. Study it carefully. See what color it is. Try to draw it.

Practical work

After learning the basic skills of the art of painting, you can move on to independent work.

Learning to paint objects around us in watercolor. Look around. What do you see? You can draw a still life. To do this, put in front of you a few items of utensils and any fruit. Try to picture them.

What else can be painted with watercolors? There are no restrictions here. It all depends on the imagination of the artist. You can draw everything that surrounds us. You can draw your own invented world.

You can start learning the basic techniques of working with watercolors by painting flowers and trees.

How to draw a flower?

Draw a flower with watercolors yourself:

1. Think about what flower to draw.
2. Explore its primary colors.
3. With help simple pencil draw the main outline on the paper.
4. Choose a paint for the background and paint over it.
5. After the background is dry, you can start painting with watercolors.
6. Paint over the flower with translucent paint.
7. After the watercolor has dried, draw the outline with a darker paint.
8. After the drawing has dried, place accents on the flower. This will give it volume. To place accents, it is necessary to apply several dense strokes along the contour of the flower with contrasting paint. Our drawing is ready.

Painting with watercolors is a simple and very exciting activity. Each of us can feel like a real artist, creating whole works of art. You just have to listen to the suggested advice.

Today on the Internet you can find a lot of different information about how, Of course, the approach to work for each artist may differ from each other. And every way of drawing will be correct!

Nevertheless, I also decided to make my tiny contribution to the “web web”, as I work with this type of paint, along with traditional oil and stained glass lacquer paints. You can see my paintings in different execution techniques in

The whole complexity of writing with acrylic paints lies precisely in the details. General principles the application of these paints and their combinations differ little from oil. But nevertheless, mixing, applying them to the surface, as well as transparent glazing are somewhat specific. Previously, I wrote in painting.

For those who are just looking at acrylic and trying to draw for the first time, it is useful to take the first steps according to a well-established technique. That's why this article came up: I will tell you in it how to paint with acrylic paints so as to take into account their main features. This is of course not an absolute rule, since any painting is a whole living world and accordingly, improvisation in art is only welcome.

Two acrylic sketches

In the photo, I choose one of the acrylic sketches for further work on oil on canvas.
IN musical art most likely there would be no jazz if it were not for the virtuoso musical improvisation of the musicians. By the way, did you know that many musicians have shown talent in fine arts? Take an interest and see for yourself the talent

In the future, if you decide to continue working with them, you will already be able to experiment with certain subtleties, improvising and creating your own music on canvas! So let's go...

Getting started: preparing a palette, brushes and paints

You can paint with acrylic paints on cardboard, on thick paper designed for acrylic, but it’s better, of course, a suitable canvas is suitable for acrylic painting. Therefore, painting with acrylic paints on canvas will be the right decision!

If you're not ready to paint on canvas right now, start simple with acrylic paper, with canvas structure. You can later stick such work on thick cardboard, hardboard or canvas. And as they say, framed and on the wall!

Accessories before you start painting with acrylics

Already at the stage of preparation for work, it is necessary to take into account the main features of acrylic paints.

First feature: they dry very quickly, both on the palette and on the canvas. Therefore, to prepare paints, you must either use a special palette, or constantly keep them in a liquid state on the floor. If you decide to apply masks pasty or with a palette knife, then this feature will only help you.

How long does acrylic paint dry?

Everything directly depends on the thickness of the stroke, the thinner it is, the faster the acrylic dries! If in acrylic painting the drying speed confuses you, and you do not dare to try them in work because of this, then do not worry. Today on the Art space appeared special means - drying retarders.

Retarders for acrylic painting

They dilute acrylic paint and it will not dry for hours on the palette, remaining in the right consistency. On canvas it also dries with a noticeable slowdown.

Second feature: acrylic paints after drying slightly darken, fade by about a ton or two. Therefore, initially we select them so that in the working form they are a tone or two lighter than we need in the picture. This is especially important if you are finishing where a smear has already been placed. That is, one stroke over dry paint will be visible ... try it and you will understand for yourself.

Sketch with acrylic paints

The photo above shows an example of a previously made sketch with acrylic paints. This sketch was prepared before the main work - painting on the wall. The drawing must be clear and correctly written. Therefore, the image on the wall must match the sketch, as there will be an exact repetition, only on a larger scale.

Pay attention to the transition from light to dark in the arch opening .... This effect can be achieved by glazing, as if transparently overlapping with one paint from above.

Picturesque paint layer this is the main thing in painting, so we start work with the choice of colors and shades of your future composition. As a rule, novice artists simply take the colors of paints that they have in the kit, that is, in tubes. And if you need colors that are not in the tube? Here the ability to mix colors comes to the rescue, to get a new shade. After all, it is by mixing that we get new interesting color variations!

The richness of shades is obtained by mixing

Glazing with acrylic paints- a separate issue. If you are just learning acrylic, then paint with independent, dense tones, just get used to the colors and their features. Once you've mastered the basics, you'll be able to play around with creating translucent blister layers.

Below in the photo from left to right: the usual method of applying paint, the second option is the postose technique, the third is a light watercolor-lisser technique.

Examples of paintings in different techniques acrylic

Important feature: with each stroke, try to form those contours that you want to see in final version. Acrylic paints dry in just a few minutes and it may turn out that when you want to finalize the contour, it will already dry and fade, and the new layer on top will contrast with it and prevent you from correctly evaluating the intermediate version.

It is desirable, of course, to immediately outline the contours of objects with contrasting edges. This will make it easier to draw each individual one.

Another caveat: the brush needs to be washed frequently, especially when drawing very fine details. For example, animal hair, grass, small stones require very thin brush strokes. If a large amount of paint sticks to the brush and it dries out, then the hairs stick together and the strokes become thicker and rougher. They fail to create the desired structure.

In one day or evening, it is desirable to complete one complete independent element, at least one of its layers. Then, after drying the next day, you can start with a new element and not puzzle over whether the part completed today will contrast with the one you wrote yesterday.

Painting with acrylics on canvas

On a note

Remember that acrylic paints are practically not washed off clothes. Therefore, it is advisable to write with them in a durable apron or work robe.

This may be your first acrylic painting and it doesn't have to be perfect. Its task is to let you understand how to work with acrylic correctly, how it lays down on canvas or paper, how long it takes to dry, and what result you get when applying it.

When you write it, you will already understand what caused certain shortcomings, and in the next works you will be able to avoid these mistakes. That's why feel free to write, evaluate the result, draw conclusions and improve. Perhaps it is acrylic that will help you to fully reveal your creative potential!

For those who want to improve and want to go further, I offer a complete video course, a guide on the example of a painting in modern style. Video is the most convenient way to learn, in my opinion. Lesson announcement 📌

Friends, so that the article does not get lost among the many similar ones, save it to your bookmarks. It will always be at your fingertips at the right time.

Ask your questions below in the comments, I usually answer all questions quickly

Discover creative ideas watercolor painting on Craftsy!

Ready to learn painting? Here are 7 watercolor ideas for beginners and experienced painters alike..

1. Flowers

The translucent nature of flowers makes them a great subject for watercolor painting because watercolor paints allow you to start with very light tones and build up the hues and shadows as you go. Watercolor paints are also fluid. If you work on it, you can achieve a smooth texture that closely mimics the texture of the flower petals. Plus, who doesn't love flowers?

Learn how to draw realistic flowers with the Craftsy "Realistic Watercolors step by step" class or start with our free education in the blog.

2. Landscapes

Whether you want to try air painting or paint a complex, layered landscape, watercolor is the perfect tool for the job! Take advantage of the light properties of watercolor paints to depict the sky, clouds, water and snow.

Landscapes are a good solution for beginners. You don't have to be precise with shapes and lines. Landscapes will also help you depict consistently what you imagine in your mind! Want to try? Start with this step by step lesson landscape painting.

3. Fruit

Watercolors by nature have a refreshing quality, especially if you leave some highlights here and there. This makes painting fruit with watercolor perfect. The fruits also have simple shapes, allowing you to practice creating highlights and shadows in a simple, straightforward way. Light and shadows are all contained in one form.

Beginning artists can create fruit still life using the contents of a homemade fruit bowl. More advanced artists can paint from photographs of nature, including leaves and backgrounds.

4. Wildlife

It takes a little practice, but you can achieve many textures with watercolors. You can create soft, fuzzy strokes for the fur image; wide strokes for feathers; and stains of paint for scales. The possibilities here are endless. Draw your favorite animals, birds or insects using your texture arsenal and even create some new textures.

5. Architecture

Although complex, buildings lend themselves well to watercolor painting because they allow you to easily capture the textures of wood, stone, and brick with simple strokes. Even the clean structures of the buildings create an amazing contrast with the dirty organic forms of the landscapes around them.

6. Still life

Objects made of glass or porcelain are still life painting subjects because they reflect or transmit light. Watercolors are great at depicting light, so play with the reflections and have fun! Before you begin, read about the three main elements that every watercolor still life should include.

7. Portraits

For more advanced watercolorists, it is recommended to try your hand at watercolor portraits. They can be complex, but also very useful. The expressive nature of watercolor paints allows you to show the personality of your subjects. Get started with portraits along with the guides on our website.

The first and most obvious feature of watercolor is that it is transparent. It is applied to clean white paper. This means that you need to decide from the beginning where the white areas in your painting will be, and plan ahead to keep those areas intact.

The secret to successful watercolor painting is to avoid areas that should remain white and apply lighter layers of paint first, gradually adding darker layers. Try to cover large areas fairly lightly in the early stages of painting, adding heavier detail towards the end. There are a few things to remember here...

Small sketches allow you to distribute your objects and adjust the composition before you start painting. If you have a work plan, it will be much easier for you to avoid problems that primarily relate to tone (light and dark) and contrast. Break your sketch into about 4 tonal areas and shade them. This will allow you to control the shadow and light so that the maximum contrast is in the place where the main object in the composition is located.

Of all the watercolor tips, maintaining color harmony is one of the most important. There are a few simple tricks to maintain color harmony throughout your painting.

Limit your palette

Working with twenty different colors mixed in your palette sounds tempting, but it usually results in an inconsistent, messy result. Limit your colors to just two or three, especially in the early stages of work. Your site will determine which ones to choose. Buildings, landscapes, I start painting with solutions of Raw Sienna and Burnt Sienna, with the addition of a small amount of Ultramarine (Ultramarine) and Indigo (Indigo), depending on what kind of atmosphere I want to convey, this gives a harmonious atmosphere for further work. Brighter colors can be added later if needed.

The River Landscape project uses only 5 colors (four of which are blue) to create a simple, understated color harmony.

The picture below shows that a limited palette has a much stronger effect than a full color spectrum. Unlike grey, white and black charcoal(Grey, White, Black Charcoal), Intense and Ultramarine Blue (Phthalo and Ultramarine Blue) make up the majority of this picture. Small splashes of Pink (Permanent Rose) add warmth to the main areas of the picture.

How often do you look at a painting and see that the color doesn't match in one of the areas? A few trees in an unusual green, a discordant blue river, or a purple flower that seems to burst out of the bouquet. Solving this problem is simple by adding more conflicting colors to the rest of the picture.

Allowing the Pink (Permanent Rose), in the painting above, to spill over the surface connects this color with the painting. If this color was only on the main objects, it would look redundant.

A few thin calligraphic lines in a harmonizing color will help to connect different colors in composition.
Use a #1 or #2 fine brush, or an ink pen. It is important to use only one color for these lines, otherwise you may end up with a mess. If you're using ink, spraying water on your drawing right after applying it will help soften the lines and create an interesting feathering effect.

This painting shows the effect of spraying, the lines drawn in Burnt Sienna ink unite the work into a single whole.

Avoid neutral dark tones - the picture will more life And characteristic features if it has warm and cold dark tones. To create rich dark color, do not add matte yellow. Windsor & Newton's Quinacridone Gold or Rowney's Indian Yellow are ideal. Most other yellows make dirty dark tones. As with the transparent yellow, you will need a large amount of pigment and very little water. It will be useful to dip the brush in one color immediately after another, without rinsing. Rinsing the brush dilutes the solution, and de-saturates the dark color.

main focus or main object is the area where your painting grabs and holds the viewer's attention before they turn it to the rest of the painting. As well as interesting parts of the subject, the main focus should contain the maximum contrast of tones and the most saturated colors.

To make the picture interesting, the main focus must be clear and correctly located. Don't place the main objects in the center of the picture (both horizontally and vertically) unless you want your composition to be static and symmetrical.

Set the main focus at a different distance from each edge so you place your subject correctly. Separating the horizontal and vertical axes at a ratio of 1:2 will also help establish the main focus.

A painting filled with meticulous detail from one end to the other can be tricky to comprehend. If you enjoy working with fine details, try including raised areas in your painting.

In this painting, the viewer can see the details and textures in the area of ​​focus and the flat areas of the terrain caused by the river in the foreground.

In order for the pictures to turn out interesting, it is important to use pencil sketches.

No matter what you draw, you first need to determine the place on the page where the object will be located. Small pencil sketches before you start drawing will help you make a good composition.

Start drawing by mentally dividing the object into several small shapes. Draw them lightly and neatly, and then continue to break them down into even smaller shapes. No need to start from one corner of the object, moving towards the opposite.

Your outline will look better if the most interesting parts (the main objects or the main focus) are not located on the center lines of the page. The strongest tonal (light/dark) contrast should be located in the main focus area.

Let some areas of the sketch be less detailed than others. Try to put more details in the main focus area.

For more confidence, practice sketching on large sheets of inexpensive paper with a soft (5B or 6B) pencil, charcoal, or pastel pencil. Work on a vertical surface while standing (or on a surface at the correct angle for your field of vision) and move your arm from your shoulder. Work, moving from large and embossed to small details. Only the final touches should be made with precise, short hand movements.

Practice - no matter what you draw - you need to practice so that you can determine the proportions at a glance and transfer it to paper. There are no easy ways here, a lot of pencils will be sharpened.

A list of watercolor tips for beginners would be incomplete without a description. necessary tools and materials.

One of good features watercolor painting- if you are just starting out, you need very few materials. A few paints, four or five brushes, some drawing paper, and that's it! An old white plate will serve as your palette, or you can buy an inexpensive plastic palette. best advice, which I can give here - buy professional quality paints and good paper. Here is my beginner shopping list.

Paints

• Ultramarine Blue (French is better, but also more expensive)
• Persistent Alizarin Red (Alizarin Crimson)
• Indian Yellow (Indian Yellow) or Golden Quinacridone (Quinacridone Gold)

brushes

• Long flat brush
• Liner #1 or #2
• Bristle brush (Long bristles)

Paper

Some medium quality paper to experiment with and a 300g (140 lb) piece of Arches or Saunders paper of medium texture. Cut the sheet into 4 pieces.

Folding plastic palette

This is enough to get started. You can add tools to this later, but take your time buying 20 different colors and a dozen brushes - it won't make you a good artist, just more confusing.

Once you've painted some pictures with these tools, you might want to add some more colors and brushes to them. I use very few tools.

This color circle only shows the colors listed above. It has a rather rich range of colors that can be mixed, but no more than two primary ones.

By mixing the primary colors, you can get composite shades (Brown, Khaki, Grey), which we often use in paintings.

Quinacridone Gold Clear Gold keeps colors from getting dirty. Read more about materials in Painting On Location.

Last but not least

Enjoy what you are doing!

Get a matte finish on your work, sit down with a glass of wine or a mug of coffee and look at all the good things you've accomplished. It's important to enjoy your work. Memories of mistakes and problems are frustrating and make it difficult to move on. I still see the picture without any positives. Focusing on the positive aspects of your work will give you confidence and enthusiasm, and bring you success.

• From the very beginning, leave white paper.
• Work out your composition with a sketch before you start.
• Limit your palette to create color harmony.
• Don't let the alien colors create a mess - tie them in with the rest of the painting.
• Try using a tie color to bring the painting together.
• Make your dark tones warm or cool to avoid neutral areas.
• Make your subject or main focus the main one.
• Don't overwork - leave areas for simple relief.
• Practice sketching - this is the main skill on which all your paintings will be built.
• Be conservative when choosing your drawing tools - you really don't need a lot.
• Enjoy success!

How to learn to paint with watercolor from scratch?

How to learn to paint with watercolor from scratch?

Watercolor painting is one of the most difficult in the world, but at the same time, it is the most delicate, fragile and attractive for beginners. What is so special about her? The whole secret is in the transparency of the lines, thanks to which even the most insignificant color transitions are visible. Watery pattern, which gives it volume. But how to comprehend this not a simple art? How to learn to paint with watercolor from scratch? Before we start drawing, we need to select auxiliary materials. Art school for adults and children in its courses offers professional training in drawing in any technique, but you can learn it yourself. Consider in the article the points that will help us in this.

On what paper and what brushes to paint with watercolors?

1. Paper. It is better to immediately purchase a watercolor, it is not expensive (about 40 rubles. Notepad). Its difference from the usual in the dense texture of the sheets. Such paper will not swell from water and warp.
2. Brushes. In the paint store, first we take two brushes. Small and big. Squirrel fur is well suited for watercolors.
3. Palette. The choice of palette is not fundamental, choose any. Some artists replace the palette with a small glass that is practical to use and easy to clean.
4. Paints. Children's honey paints with the addition of lemon and other things - immediately put aside. We won't need them. In the shop for artists we take any professional paints. Open them up and look at the colors, you should like them. It is not necessary to take the most expensive, it does not matter.

How to learn how to draw watercolor for beginners in stages?

How beautiful to paint with watercolors? In order for our watercolor drawings turned out to be of high quality, it is necessary to master a few basic techniques.
1. Uniform filling. Draw a square or rectangle on paper. It is better to choose a color darker, it will be better visible on it. Type it on the brush and stretch it from one corner to another. Pick up the paint again. Draw the next strip so that it overlaps the seam of the previous one. If the first strip does not completely flow into the second, then tilt the sheet of paper. Pick up paint and continue to draw stripes, keeping a uniform shade. Rinse the brush in water and wring out. Smooth out dark stripes with a brush. Let the drawing dry. If you end up with a rectangle filled with paint evenly, you're done.
2. Dependence of the shade of paint on the amount of water. We draw paint on the brush and draw the first line, then lower the brush into the water and draw the second one 1 cm from it. We continue to dip the brush in water and draw lines until they become as transparent as possible. This exercise helps you get a feel for how much water you need to add to get the desired shade.
3. Gradient. The goal of this exercise is to get a uniform transition from dark to light. Pick up paint with a brush and swipe vertical line, then dip the brush in water and draw the second one so that it goes a little behind the first and the paint begins to flow. We repeat the same thing again, adding water. We achieve a complete color transition. Swipe the last strip with just water. Dry the brush and run a roller of paint from the bottom of the fill.

Learn to paint watercolor in stages using various techniques for beginners

How to start painting with watercolor? It is necessary to comprehend the basics of art. These are certain exercises, performing which, you will master the first basics of drawing with watercolors.
1. Wet on wet. Wet a small piece of paper with water. The sheet must be evenly saturated with water. Now take the paints on the brush and swipe over the wet area. Watch how the paint spreads. Practice adding more or less paint to a piece of paper. This will be very useful to you.
2. Flowing from color to color. First, draw any shapes with water. We take on a brush, for example, Blue colour and put on the figure. Add some burgundy and yellow. You must achieve a smooth transition from one color to another. If it doesn't, add some water.
3. Overlay layers. Let's draw a background, as in the first exercise. Let's wait a bit, let it dry completely. We draw a couple of circles of different colors on the background and let it dry. Draw the third layer on the circles.
4. Reception using edible salt. We draw a background and fall asleep on top of a little ordinary table salt. We wait. Salt crystals gradually absorb the paint and become like stars. The effect is most noticeable in dark areas.
5. Clouds with a napkin. Fill the background and while the paint is still wet, begins to apply a napkin, giving shape. Thus, we get a texture that resembles clouds. This technique can be used to correct the mistakes you make while drawing. Just blot off excess paint.
6. Spray. We pick up the paint on the brush and run your finger along the brush over the paper or drip, forming uneven splashes over the entire surface. It is better to cover the table with a cloth to avoid contamination.

10 common mistakes beginner artists make

1. Love yourself. Too many artists begin to scold themselves and overly criticize their paintings. You don't need to do this. Drawn something - praise yourself. Everything you do is only for you and for the realization of your creative needs. The more you enjoy the process of drawing, the better you will get.
2. Use comfortable materials. Quality brushes, paper and paint. Then the drawing process will bring you only pleasure.
3. Copy stories famous artists. They will serve as the basis of your knowledge.
4. Show your pictures to all your friends, relatives and acquaintances. Submit your painting. Gather around you like-minded people who will support you.
5. Warm and cold colors. Use more cool colors in the distance and warm colors near. So you show aerial perspective in your painting.
6. Do not paint the entire background with one color. Change the tone, mix colors, create color in your picture. Made two or three strokes with one color, add another. The more shades you use, the more interesting your picture will be.
7. Let the painting dry. So you will make it more elaborate and deep.
8. Show volume up close. Apply more paint to nearby objects with a palette knife. Make them big.
9. The more colors you mix, the more picturesque your painting will be. Mix in halftones.
10. Decorate pictures with a baguette. It gives the picture extra volume.