4 Painting Tools for Artists to Help Simplify What You See

It is important to simplify while painting. First, you need to be able to simplify what you see to be able to translate it into painting. Unfortunately though, it can be very hard to do so!

When painting, you want to be able to clearly understand tonal values; what is a dark value, medium value and light value. It is difficult to have that kind of clarity when your eyes are distracted by unnecessary details and that is where these painting tools for artists come in to play.

We cannot paint without the sense of vision our eyes give us, but ironically, our eyes can sometimes get in the way when painting. I say so because we see too much. We notice details everywhere at the expense of not seeing the big picture. One can never attain a sense of clarity in their painting without simplifying first and foremost. Seeing clearly

Because the task of simplifying can be so difficult. I’ve outlined the following painting tools for artists which have been incredibly helpful to myself, as well as many others. You may even have some of these tools already!

Painting tool #1: Use your cellphone as a black mirror

Your cellphone screen can work as a perfect black mirror. Just simply put it up so that it reflects what is in front of you. It will help you to simplify while you paint if you reflect what you are working on.

Of course, the colors of your subject are different when you do this. However, your goal isn’t to use this as a color aid but rather to see values more clearly. This practice of better understanding the values of your painting, will in turn help you with color.

Artist tool #2: Box camera (for obscura effect)

I love looking through a box camera! You can find them quite easily at flea markets and antique shops. Also, out of all the painting tools for artists on the list here. A box camera also looks beautiful on the shelf in the studio when they are not being used.

The way a box camera is constructed is just like a camera obscura would be constructed but just in a different format. It is rumored that Vermeer possibly used a camera obscura as a visual aid. When looking at Vermeer’s work you can see his mastery of simplifying.

Take for example the detail below from Vermeer’s ‘Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid.’ There is a clear, crisp value structure and geometry. Through Vermeer’s painting techniques here, you can easily see where the darks and lights are. Using a camera obscura will help you in seeing and thinking in such a way as well.

Look at the image below of my own camera obscura. You can see here how the obscura simplifies and therefore it is very clear what areas are dark values (shadows), which are mid tones and what areas are brights. It is absolutely clear from first glance that the brightest area of the painting is more or less in the center. The darker shadow area takes over the lower front of the image.

Tool #3: Red transparent sheet (to see in monochrome)

Red plastic sheets help to simplify while you are painting whatever you look at through it becomes monochrome.

Monochrome means one color. When there is just one color, being able to tell values becomes much easier. You are no longer distracted by needing to figure out color combinations. Instead, you can focus all of your attention on figuring out the value structure which is so important in how to create a more realistic painting.

When the value structure becomes clearer for you then you can take away the red sheet and see it normally again. These are cheap and easy to find – so an easy visual aid to add to your studio!

Painting tool #4: Black and white photo

Here is another visual aid that helps you see in monochrome. This time it comes from taking a picture with your phone’s camera. Take an image of what you are going to paint or are thinking of painting and put a black and white filter on the image. When you do this, you can clearly see the value structure of what you are painting.

As an extra bonus, you can also use your phone’s ability as a composition tool. As you can crop, un-crop and even re-crop your images in your photos to find which composition works the best!

I hope this list of artist painting tools is helpful to you! What tools are you using currently or have used in the past, to help simplify while you paint? I would love to hear from you in the comments below!

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