Guidelines for Reproducing Artwork at the Denverart Museum

Guidelines for Art Reproduction. 06.13.07

Guidelines for Reproducing Artwork at the DenverArt Museum

General points. Go the DAM website ( for information on hours, parking, etc. Consider going on a free day. Carpool or take the bus (free with student ID). You do not have to look at every piece of artwork or visit every floor—but do try to visit at least three floors, and spend some time in some radically different galleries. Oil pastels cannot be used in the DAM, so when you have chosen the piece you wish to reproduce, either sketch it in pencil or use a digital camera to photograph it. Note that some work is copyrighted, though, so photography is not permitted!

Start with a pencil sketch. Number 2 lead is easy to use and to erase. An under-drawing captures the essence of the object, and disappears as you cover it with, in this case, oil pastels. A value-sketchreproduces the main dark and light areas of the artwork, and helps you see the underlying structure of the artwork; on a separate piece of paper, this reminds you of the big picture as you work.[1] Aperspective-sketchplaces objects into three-dimensional space—i.e., into a representation of three-dimensional space.In perspective drawing,use ahandy measuring device—

e.g., your pencil—to measure length and breadth. Thus you might find a house’s height to be—from your location—2.5 times your pencil’s length, and its width to be about 4 times your pencil’s length. In atmospheric perspective, represented below, as objects get more distant, they look smaller, of course, but also their color is less vivid, their outlines less definite, their details less pronounced, their shadows less dark, etc. Such details can help you create the illusion of depth.

About colors.Red, orange, and yellow are ‘warm’; green, blue, and violet are ‘cool.’Colors take on different appearances depending on their surroundings: warms and cools brighten each other; so do complements or ‘opposites’: red/green, orange/blue, and yellow/violet. You can make a bright color look darker by lightly covering it with its complement, or by laying down a complementary under-coat. In real life and in art, shadows are rarely black, and white is rarely truly white. (A white dress in a painting typically reflects nearby colors.)

About using oil pastels. As you work, check each crayon’s tip to remove flecks of other colors. Get solid colorwith heavy pressure; get flecks of white paper showing through(good for sea-scapes) with less pressure. Oil pastels need special blending techniques; e.g., for spring green, (1) alternate, without over-lapping, small patches or dots of yellow and light green, and let the viewer’s distance create the appearance of blending the colors; OR (2) scribble two colors successively in the same area, and then smear the results, using cotton swabs, rolled-up paper, or an eraser. Experiment with other techniques; try scratching and gouging for interesting results.

Guidelines for Art Reproduction. 06.13.07

[1] See a great value-study at