Spring 2010 Acrylic Class

Week 2 – Acrylic Demo: White Houses, Distant Mountains

Because I had a number of new students in class, I did a quick demo on how to get a painting started, since I saw several with mountain scenes, I did a sky and mountains.

We always start with what is furthest away when we work in acrylics. With oils, we can come back weeks later and blend two areas together, in acrylics, we don't have that luxury which is why we have to paint in layers. The sky is always going to be the furthest thing in any painting, so we start there.

I started with gesso and covered the area of the canvas that was going to be sky, I use the gesso to blend my sky because it doesn't dry as fast as the paints and it is opaque so it will cover the area well. At the bottom of the gessoed area I added a bit of red with my blender brush (very soft bristles) and blended it up a bit, to the top, I added blue and a touch of purple and sienna then blended it down to almost the red. I then rinsed my brush and dried it well, then very lightly blended the two areas together with big crisscross stokes. This takes practice and a light touch but once mastered you get beautiful skies.

Next, using a #12 flat bristle brush, I created the first layer of mountains. Because of these mountains are in the distance, the color I used was similar to the sky: A soft grayed blue just slightly darker in value than the sky. Using the flat edge, I pulled down forming the out line of the tops of the mts. to keep the edges soft. Keep all edges soft in the distance if you want to create depth. I just filled in the bottom of the mts by scrubbing in color to fill in the space.

The next layer of mts was done in a similar way but the color I used was darker and a bit warmer, I used more sienna but it was still on the gray side. The highlights were created with gesso, a touch of yellow and orange and a bit of mud on my brush and scumbled on the sun lit side of the mts.

Each side will get darker in value and more intense in color as you come into the foreground but you are not limited to how may layers you want to put into your painting you just have to be aware of not getting too dark or too colorful too soon, save that for your foreground.

The house was suppose to be the demo for the day but a bit of review for my returning students is good.

I took my soft vine charcoal and sketched in the basic shape of my house. I really don't need to do details at this point because I am going to paint over everything to base in my house first, the details will come later.

Using my #12 flat bristle brush, I mixed a soft gray color to use for the first layer for my white house. The reason for this is I need to have some place to go with my color. If I start out white, yes, I suppose I can put in shadows but I won't get much texture in the light areas. Starting out with a darker middle value gives me two directions to go with my values: To the very dark and the brightest of highlights. This is true in any medium you paint in: you must have dark to show the light. If you look at some of the old masters like Rembrandt, you will see how effectively dark and light can be used, what you may not be aware of are the middle tones, they are the foundation of the painting without them there would be no depth, no "flavor", no richness. The middle tones are very important.

Once I had the whole house covered in this middle tone and had let it dry, I could then think about the direction of light. Because I had put the light coming from the right hand side on the mts in the background, I had to also have the light coming from the right on the house. This may sound obvious, but you would be surprised at how often it happens to have more than one light source especially if doing portraits where there may have been a window off to the side and a flash on the camera, one of them has got to go and I suggest the one on the camera so you can get better shadows.

Knowing my light source I can make the shadows on my old house across the porch and across the back part of the house. Use your charcoal if you need to draw the shadows if you need an idea where they need to go. It might help you if you have a picture of a house with shadows across it so you understand how the shadows fall, I've been doing shadows for so long, I have a pretty good idea of what they should be doing, but if you need references, by all means, get them out.

The shadows are the darkest just under the eves of the roof and the roof of the porch and get a bit lighter as they move away from what is blocking the light. The shadow color is blue, with a touch of purple and a little touch of sienna, scrub this color in under the eves, the porch and don't forget the roofline above the porch. As you move away from the darkest areas, add little touches of white or gesso to lighten just keep in mind that this color is always going to be darker by several shades than the first coat of under painting.

To start the highlighting process I created a color that was a couple of values lighter than the soft mid tone I under painted the house with. This is not the final highlight, just the first so I have some place to go with my final highlights. You can use a #4 flat sable if you want to create the look of boards, you can also use this color to show the molding around the windows in the sunlight and the porch supports . The boards and molding should be just a couple shades lighter than the shadow color but you can use the same technique and brush.

The final highlights to the white are done using the titanium white and a tiny touch of yellow, just enough to slightly tint the white. White can look chalky and the yellow will help warm it up a bit. Use this on the side of the house without the porch and on the supports and railing of the porch, leave the area under the porch roof slightly darker and the railing of the porch will stand out. Because acrylics dry darker you may have to go over it again with white but each time you touch an area, leave some of what was there to begin with and you can create texture.

The roof can be painted in any color you want, I chose a brown color. Using my flat bristle brush, my strokes followed the angle of the roof to create texture. Don't worry if the color varies, that is a good thing, be more concerned with angles. The highlights were done in a similar manner with yellow and orange, again, the key is follow the angle of the roof and use the dry brush technique (for the new students, your brush should be just barely damp and only a little paint, use a light touch).

The windows I painted with blue and white and though I didn't have time to finish the house, you can still do a lot of detail or not, it just depends on what you want to do.

Next week I think we will do the cactus flower and go over some brush techniques. The reference photo is on the photo page for the cactus if you want to follow along.

Week 1 Spring 10

Acrylic Class Spring 2010

Here is our first official entry for our acrylic class blog. I am doing this to make it easier for everyone to find the right info for the class they are taking. If you have a comment, please feel free to email me or just click on the comment link at the bottom of this entry. Also, if you want to get notified anytime I update the blog, add your name to the "Follower" list on the side bar, it will let you know I've added something which would be a good back up in case I forget to email or I've gotten your e-address wrong. The highlighted underlined words are hyperlinks to the picture page.Thanks.

The first day of class is always hard to plan for with the new people coming in, I never know how long it will take to go over equipment so the quick demo on something I haven't done in a while but I think it is an important one. Adding figures into your landscapes or cityscapes can add a lot of interest into your painting because as humans, it helps us relate better to the rest of the painting seeing some signs of life rather than a barren landscape or empty streets. Even a lone figure can add a sense of scope to your painting.

What happens though is when you are new to painting adding "people" is frightening. Your brain goes through all sorts of worst case scenarios: "I don't know how to paint people!" "It's too hard to paint people!" well, I think you've all heard the internal arguments about adding a person or even an animal to your painting so you don't.

The thing is, most of the time you can get away with just some very simple shapes that will translate in the brain as "people" or "animals". Remember, as painters, we are illusionists we can make the viewer see what we want them to see and it will seem believable. Whether it is a lone figure or a crowded street, all you are dealing with are basic shapes, as Frank Clarke would call them – carrots.

A lone person in the distance is just roughly the shape of a carrot or long "V" shape with a dash on the top for a head NOT a dot. Heads are more believable if they are vertical rectangle or oval shapes than if you make a round shape for a head. A crowd of people is just a mass of shapes and/or color with a few lines below to suggest legs and rectangles of all sizes and shapes to indicate heads. That's it. No blood, sweat or tears involved, just simple shapes and you are done.

The one thing you do need to keep in mind is proportion of your figures compared to what they are standing by. For instance, if you have the figure of a man standing next to a tree that is suppose to be 30 feet tall, you need to keep in mind the size of the figure in proportion to the tree. If the base of the tree and the feet of the man are on the same plane (if you draw a horizontal line from one to the other and they both touch the same line) and you create a figure that is half as tall as the tree it is standing next to, figuring a 6' man the tree will only look like a 12' tree. It is an optical illusion but it is one that can create problems for the artist. To correct that illusion you can do one of two things: either make the base of the tree shorter – that changes the plane the tree's base is sitting on or you can make the legs of the person longer moving it down onto another plane. Don't take my word for it, practice this on a scrap canvas or piece of paper to see for your self.

The figures don't need to be static either. I was asked in one of my classes can you do dancers that way, the answer is "Yes". Dancers, runners, bicyclists, anything that you want to put in you can do with simple shapes (see picture page). You do need to look at a photo or another painting and get an idea of what you want or where you need to go, but you can add these things to your paintings with just a little effort and planning.

Animals are the same way. Animals in the distance are just rectangles with a few lines for legs a thicker line for the neck and a "V" shape for the head. Sheep are just little oblong balls with "V"s for heads and lines for legs. Very, very simple. DO NOT OVER THINK THESE FIGURES! They are just simple shapes, nothing more.

I had a couple of requests for how to paint white, so next Monday I will be doing a demo on painting white houses and snow.

I can't believe it, we actually have a waiting list! Good job and thanks to everyone who signed up for classes.

I will see everyone on Monday, if there are things that you would like to have a demo on, let me know.

Thanks again.

Spring 10 Acrylic Class

For those who have been in my classes before, the first day can be a mixed bag. If I have several new students who have never painted or are trying trying a new medium I may have to spend some time going over what they will need for the class and that can take up some time. I suggest that if you are returning, please bring something to work on in class while I am helping the new students.

Time is more an issue at Torrance, but if I have the time, I will do a short demo to get you started. What I need you to do as homework is to find pictures that have people in them, not portraits more like on the street or at a park or the pier, just general, background people I will post a couple of my own photos on the Spring picture page so you can see what I mean, the demo is going to be adding people into your landscapes or street scenes. It is a lot of fun and once you try it, you won't be so intimidated about adding people to your paintings.

See you next week.

This will be the new home for the acrylic class blog. Classes start April 12, 2010 at Torrance, https://www.tprd.torranceca.gov/RegistrationMain.sdi registration is now open and there are a few openings left.

See you soon.