Spring 2010 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Class – Borax Wagon Week 1

This week we started a project that will take until the end of the semester to finish so I don't want you to rush per say, I also don't want you to linger in one area and over work you painting, so if you get caught up in class you might want to work on something else until we pick it back up in class.

The only thing you need to draw at this point is the corner of the wagon, the distant mountain range and the sand hills in front of the mountains. DO NOT draw a detailed drawing at this point. No matter how often I say this, I don't think you believe me. We have a lot of painting to do before we ever get into detail, you are just going to be going over those areas and wiping out all that hard work so wait until you are to that point before doing more drawing than I suggest.

The reason is one I keep repeating: We need to get in what is behind first so the things in front don't look like they were cut out and stuck on. Please trust me on this, it will work out.

In the upper right corner is the only sky in the picture but we will treat it like a full sky. First I covered the area with gesso so that I had a nice base to work in to, I applied the gesso down into the distant mountain area so I knew that I had enough coverage. I then picked up blue and a touch of sienna and applied it to the top of the sky area, wiped my brush and worked it down about half way down the gessoed area using big "x's". I cleaned my brush and picked up a touch of sienna and a touch of red on my brush then starting just below the top of the mountain range, I applied these colors, wiped out my brush and again with big "x's" blended this pinkish color up almost to the blue. I wiped my brush out again to get all excess paint from it again using an "x" stroke (this is using a very light touch btw), blended the pink with the blue. Doesn't need to be perfect, variation in color will work for you.

Next I mixed a stronger pink color similar to the sky color – sienna and red – with just a touch of white added, it should be just slightly darker than the sky and using the edge of my brush and puling down created a soft edge for the distant mountains and then scumbled the color to fill in the rest of the mountains. Avoid making hard lines in the background, it is a distant mountain with lots of dust between it and you so it won't be sharp so don't outline and then fill in. Using the edge of the brush and pulling down creates a nice soft edge.

When painting both the mountains and the hills, be sure that you continue their shapes well into the area that will be wagon, you can paint over it, this makes sure that you have enough canvas covered with background stuff when you put your wagon in.

The sand hills are created using that same mountain color on your brush but adding white and maybe a tiny touch of yellow to make a pink color about the same color as the sky. Again, using the edge of your bristle brush, pull down to create the top edge of the hills, then scumble the color to fill in the bottom part of the hills. This area needs to dry.

The desert floor is a jumble of colors from browns, blues, yellows, oranges… you really can't go wrong with any or all the colors on your palette, another good reason to have all your paints out when you start, putting out what your think you will be using is going to limit you and if you think that you will put it out when you are painting, think again. It is very human to try and cut corners. If it isn't out on your palette when you start, you won't put it out even if you think you need it, you will try to work around not having the other colors and your painting will suffer.

Using my #12 flat bristle brush, I picked up color and occasionally gesso and applied it to my canvas using over lapping shallow "u" shaped strokes. While I used mostly sienna and blue along with the gesso – I used the gesso to keep it lighter – I did pick up all the colors on my palette and worked them into my ground area by "brush mixing" the paint on the canvas and covered the entire ground area. This is the under painting. I did not do any shadows yet, those will come later.

If the distant mountains are dry, you can add some faint shadows into the hills. I just found a grayish color on my palette and added a touch of white. These mountains are way off in the distance all the colors are going to be soft the gray should be just slightly darker in value than what is there and just add it where you want to suggest the terrain using a dry brush on the mountains.

Wipe your brush out so most of the paint is out of it and pick up some gesso or white and with the mud on your brush, add highlights to the hills below the mountains. These are quick simple strokes that and should be very dry brush suggest the tops and form of the hills. Don't belabor this, it is just a suggestion.

When you have highlighted the hills, wipe your brush and pick up some sap green and a touch of orange and with the lithe mud on your brush create a soft green color and just tap it on the very tops of the hills, not on all of it, just along the tops of some of the hills.

If you need to, re-sketch in the area that will be the wagon – NOT THE DETAIL – just the box of the wagon.

You will be brush mixing again, picking up sienna, blue purple and touches of white, but you can also throw in any other color your want the key here is to keep your strokes horizontal to follow the grain of the wood of the wagon. You should have a medium dark color with streaks of color showing, don't over mix. Also keep the edges of the wagon rough. This is an old beat up, weather worn, OLD wagon, there are no sharp, crisp lines on it, the rougher your edges the better it will look in the long run.

We will continue on this next week. Please download the photo from the picture page so you have something to look at.