Sketching with AERO COLOR® Professional - with Tine Klein: Schmincke Künstlerfarben

Tine‘s motto is „La dolce vita“: Life consists of beautiful moments which one steals and thus, art material has to be spontaneous and quick to use. Actually, she thought that AERO COLOR® Professional is just an airbrush colour. Now she tells us her experiences: “In the beginning, I used the AERO COLOR® Professional just to pimp my watercolour paintings with vibrant pigments, but then, the colour strength convinced me completely. Acrylic colours have some practical painting opportunities and so I’ve tried them out. I love the luminosity and intensity of these finest-fluid AERO COLOR® acrylics.” Tine loves painting outside, on the road, and thus, she has a lot of practical experiences to share with you: „The trick is easy, uncomplicated material, I limit myself to seven colours.”

You will need:

I chose transparent AERO COLOR^® Professional colours, as I like their beautiful shine: Scarlet (28300), Gold ochre (28600), Burnt Siena (28604), Indian yellow (28203), Cobalt blue (28404), Primary cyan (28405), Neutral grey (28701)
Sketchbook Hahnemühle with watercolour paper or Sketchbook with mixed media paper
Brush: 12er Travel brush, da Vinci
Pen with water-resistant ink
A piece of white paper for mixing the colours

Tip No.1.: Keep it simple! The sketch consists of basic forms, that offers space for further development.

I make a quick sketch with a water-resistant pen. The content depends on who or what will walk along. Thus, the sketch remains loose and open. Before starting, I put a drop of each main colour onto the paper, which I'm going to use as mixing palette. I also prepare some mixtures to safe time before I get started. The advantage of mixing on the paper is that you directly see the colour impression.

Tip No.2: Do not colour all details painstakingly. You will feel more relaxed without doing so and you can fail. Moreover, shabby style belongs to the southern charm!

Therefore, I am not afraid of failing. I start with the yellow-red colours. At first, I put some Scarlet onto the tower. And add some Indian yellow. This looks a bit dazzling, but don't panic, this is important to get a center in your painting. Now I quickly add different red mixtures onto the remaining buildings. The scarlet colour, for example, will be darkened with a small amount of burnt Siena. Now I paint in a loose manner, let the colour have it on its own way. You will learn from the different effects how the colours react in different ways. Amongst others, the wet colours can mix spontaneously - the effects are amazing.

Tip No. 3: Separate the colours! For the most brilliant effect of the AERO COLOR^®colours I start painting only with the red and yellow colours. Then I'll have a cup of coffee, where as the colour can dry. Not until then I chose the green and blue shades. This is my license for extremely brilliant colours!

Here you can see clearly the effect of separated colours - an enormous luminosity and brilliance of AERO COLOR^® . The drying time in-between is essential. At this point, my working time was about only a few minutes, the biggest work is done by the brilliant colour which now forms great effects while drying and bleeding.

Tip No 4: Work quick!

With these quick sketches, you can catch the great atmosphere of your journey in your sketch book. The advantage of thes esimple drawings, which put the colours into the foreground is, that they are quickly finished. This is very important, because moaning non-painting partners/ children and a lack of time are the main reasons why sketching during the holiday fails. The last step is painting details. Not until the end I start painting smaller details. If I have time I love to integrate the daily life of my foreign surroundings into my sketches. Therefor I take again the water-resistant pen and add some loose and sketchy details, lines etc. which gives structure to the painting.

Tip No. 5: No fear of persons

You can paint them like small carrots. Have a look, the main forms are a triangle with a circle on the top - carrots with a head. The AERO COLOR^® is highly pigmented. For coloring the persons, I use only the half-dried rest of the AERO COLOR^®. Thus, I'm sure not to smudge the small persons and not to create unintended colour explosions in the ready painted picture.

The clear and highly pigmented colours do most of the work - they are perfectly suited for urban sketches! My eager fans while painting in southern countries are wild dogs. Thus, I love to integrate them in my paintings, too.

As I often work directly on the street, I sometimes have a transportation problem. For not always carrying all my AERO COLOR^® pipette bottles, I have a perfect solution:

Tip No. 6: For urban sketchers: The refillable Schmincke liners (markers) for AERO COLOR® Professional

The liners in 5 different sizes are ideal for sketching and can easily be re-filled with the colour. Enjoy!