Spring 2010 Week 6

Acrylic Class – Borax Wagon Week 2

You often hear me telling you and other students to get up and look at your painting from a distance – at least 6 feet. You cannot evaluate your painting when your nose if literally inches away from the canvas so it is a very good habit to get into to step away from your painting to assess your progress. I say this because more often than not, when I put my paintings up so I can write these blogs, I see things that I feel need correction. Such was the case when I looked at my wagon when I started last weeks blog but rather than fixing it at home, I saved my corrections for class. I think it is important for you to understand that things can be fixed without major upset.

First off, I thought that my sand hills just behind the wagon were a bit to big and therefore visually too close. All I did was mix a color similar to my desert floor color and with flat "u" shaped strokes extended the desert floor about half way up what I had for the sand hills. The color doesn't have to be exact to what was there, just similar. This helps push the mountains and hills back by creating more distance.

Another thing I did to create distance was to dry brush on a thin layer of "dust". This was a mix of my gesso and the mud on my brush and water to thin in, then after wiping my brush and making sure that I had all excess water removed from my brush, I very lightly dry brushed this color on using a small circular motion. Aside from using very little paint, the key to this is a light touch, the harder you press on your brush the more paint will come off so just barely touch the canvas. I used this mostly in the distant mountains but did over lap the sand hills down to the desert floor.

My next fix was the wagon. I felt that it wasn't quite long enough or deep enough so using my soft vine charcoal I sketched in where I thought I needed to make corrections. This was more for the visual confirmation so I could make other corrections without being committed by using paint.

When I had the additions to the wagon the way I liked them, I mixed paint similar in value to what was there. The color doesn't really concern me as much as the value does, any dark color will do. Keeping in mind that I was painting long boards, I filled in the areas where I was extending the wagon but I didn't stop where the new met the old, I dry brushed into the existing color that was there, not only does it blend the two areas together seamlessly, it also prevents any hard lines from being created. When it is done, it will look like it had always been there and no one will see your correction.

While the wagon was drying, I based in the shadows under the wagon and some of the structure I see under the wagon. Remember, I don't care about what all that stuff is because all it is to me as an artist are shapes. Using my blue, purple and touches of sienna, I made a very dark color. If you need to, sketch in these shapes before painting, just avoid detail for now. In some places I used a bit more sienna where I see some of the beams come out into the light, but any highlighting will be done later, this is under painting. Don't take too much time filling this in, a lot of it will be covered when we put in the wheel.

If your wagon is dry and it really needs to be dry for this next step, you will start making them look like old wood planks by using the dry brush technique and a bristle brush at least a #10 flat bristle. Look at the reference photo before you start. Notice that there are some darker areas that have yellows and oranges and well as sienna and some blues. The lighter areas are shades of gray to an almost white where the wood has been sun bleached. You don't have to exactly match the photo, just use it as a guide and work between your dark areas and your lighter ones. Keep your brush dry, your touch light and your strokes horizontal, the rougher this step looks the better the outcome. Use the side of your brush and/or the end of your brush just keep your strokes light and horizontal, let some of the under painting show through and each layer of color you add, this is what creates texture.

When you are satisfied with you wagon, you can sketch in where the planks actually are so you can paint them in next. I showed 3 ways of creating these separation lines, first I used my knife. I mixed a dark color of blue, purple and sienna and pulled some of it flat with my knife, then in that flat area, I cut across with the edge of my knife to create a little ridge of paint on the under side. On my canvas I cut across the line where I want the separation and moved the knife back and forth to create my line. It doesn't need to be perfectly straight or even so don't even try.

The next method I demonstrated was using the end of my brush. I loaded my brush with the same dark color making sure I ran both sides through the paint to bring the end to a cleaner edge. I used a flat bristle brush but you can use a flat sable if you want. Along the charcoal line I had drawn, I just touched the edge of the brush along the whole line moving down not quite a full brush length with each touch.

The third method I got out my liner brush and added enough water to that dark color to give it an ink like consistency then painted the next line with the liner brush. Experiment with your equipment because there are many ways to do similar things and you may find that you either like one over the other or you have more control, the choice is yours.

Next I sketched the support boards that run vertically on the wagon and the beam that comes out from under the wagon and part of it is in the light. I under painted these with sienna, blue and purple and when they were dry, I added the texture much like I did for the side of the wagon only using vertical dry brush strokes. They are much more bleached out than the wagon so they can be lighter just don't paint them solid.

That beam that sticks out is slightly rounded on the end so when you dry brush the end, use little "u" shapes and on it's side there is some reflected light just before it goes under the wagon. Use sienna and maybe a touch of red on the front part, thenif it isn't dark enough already, used a dark mix of sienna, blue and purple to finish.

Last I started putting in the shadows next to the upright boards on the wagon using a mix of blue, purple and a touch of sienna and a little water so it will flow and painted the shadows behind each.

Next week we will continue adding more detail and maybe get close to finishing though I do think we will be working on this on our last day. See you soon.