Summer 2010 Acrylic Class

Glass and Metal – Acrylic Week 4

Now that we have practiced painting metal and glass, we are going to put what we have learned to practical use by organizing our elements and adding a simple third element into a pleasing simple composition. How ever, the first place we start is not by drawing on our design but with the background.

I know just how tempting it is to jump right in and get started on the things that matter most in a painting and worry about the background later, the thing is the background is like the stage set. Yes, you can act out the play without the set but it is very difficult to move the stage in or get the props on once the play has begun, I know, been there done that and had to be physically held back from running on stage with forgotten props =-O (I still have nightmares). While you may not have nightmares if you don't get the background in first, you are going to have trouble trying to get the background to look like it belongs as you try to paint around your subjects leaving halos and hard lines and odd colors you may never get rid of, so trust me when I say" Do the background first, it will make your painting a lot simpler.

If you come from an oil background you may have been taught a different way, the thing with oil is you can blend oil weeks after it has been applied and smooth out hard lines or blend edges. Acrylics dry so fast even with extenders that we don't have those kinds of options, we need to start with what is furthest away first and work forward. In this case it means the background.

The first thing I look for is my light source and which way the light will be traveling. In this case the light was in the front right so it will hit the upper left third of my background. I went over the "the rule of thirds" in class and if you do a search on the Internet, you will find a lot of sites that can give you more examples and explanations so I won't go into it here except to say that it is important to my composition to use the third lines when I am designing my painting and that includes the background.

Now that I have determined where my light source will be the brightest on my canvas, I can start painting. First I use some gesso in the brightest area getting it pretty well covered then, while the gesso is still wet, I pick up a little yellow to tint the area. A little yellow will go a long way so don't get too much on your brush (I was using a #12 flat bristle) and brush mix on the canvas using a scumbling or crisscross stroke to move it out from the center.

This moves pretty fast so don't stop between steps.

Next, pick up a bit of orange and gesso and on the outside edge of your pale yellow work the orange out a bit more making another ring of color. Blend the two areas together either with light strokes from your brush or with your finger, you want a nice gentle blend. Keep working.

Next, pick up red, sienna and gesso and repeat what you did with the orange. You may find that on the left side you have run out of room for a complete ring, that's okay, just get your canvas covered and be sure to blend the area where the two rings come together so you have a nice transition.

The lest step to the background will probably be mostly the corners and down the right side and bottom, use sienna and purple without using gesso to create a dark color in the corners. Again blend the touching areas so you don't have a hard dividing line. Now it must dry before you can put on your design.

Before you start drawing your still life, check your composition. First and foremost, you want to fill up your canvas with your subjects. If you are have something tall like my wine bottle and you go with a horizontal (landscape) placement of your canvas, you are probably going to have a lot of wasted space around your subjects when you get finished so a vertical format will probably be better for tall things. Also overlap your objects so they become a unit, not separate thing competing for attention.

Again, rule of thirds. I placed the bottle close to the left vertical third line as well as the candle and the bell of the snuffer very near the bottom third intersection and the handle running near the bottom horizontal third line. This I usually do in my head but if you need to, divide your canvas into thirds before you start drawing. You should be using soft vine charcoal or chalk because both of those will wipe off with a wet paper towel. Don't use a pencil at this point or you can leave marks in your under painting that won't go away.

Add as much information as you need or want to create the elements of your design just don't be so committed to them that you are afraid to improvise when you need to. I look at my subjects as my guide once I've gotten my basic drawing on my canvas.

I started with the wine bottle because it was the thing that was furthest back in my composition. I based it in with sap green and I overlapped the area where the candle will be to be sure that the bottle will look like it continues behind the candle. Looking at my bottle I added in yellow in the lighter areas, and sap with blue or just Hooker's green into the dark areas. I was using a #6 Filbert which is similar to a #6 flat bristle brush and I was basically scrubbing the color on. This is just the first layer of under painting for the bottle, there is some more work to be done next week.

Depending on how fast the class works – and I am by no means trying to rush you – we may get done with the painting next week and for sure the following week so please start looking for something you would like to paint. It can be any subject you want. Also, think about what you might like to do next semester so I can plan for something you want to learn or feel you need more instruction.

Summer 2010 Week 3 Acrylic Class

ACRYLIC CLASS – Glass and Metal

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There are similarities between glass and metal that will be apparent when you really look at the two, glass has the added element of being transparent for the most part, in both cases it is good to know where you are going with them and that requires a good road map.

You will hear me almost every time talking about drawing skills, my hope is to get a few of you to take it to heart. Like anything else you have to learn, the more practice you get the better you will become and if you concentrate on creating shapes rather than the thing you are drawing you will see improvement. Shapes are important in creating a road map for your glass or metal.

First, draw the basic shape of the glass or metal you want to paint. The outline and some basic "road signs" like a label or a corner is all you need to start. When that is done now look at your object and look for all the shapes that are reflected that are reflected. Don't worry about what is causing the reflection it is truly unimportant even if it is you that is reflected, just draw what you see. If it is glass you may see the shapes of things behind the glass such as the table and that will have its own shape. You may even see shapes within shapes, depending on how detailed you are going to make your drawing/painting will determine what you put in. Remember you do need to suggest enough of what you see to tell your viewer that it is glass or metal, beyond that is up to you as an artist.

If your subject is burnished metal or glass that is not as transparent you still to look at your subject carefully. Whether it is a tarnished copper pot or a ruby glass vase, it you look close, you will see that the things around them do reflect into them, maybe not as strong as something highly polished or transparent, but it is there and you need to be able to see it.

Once you have your "road map" – it could be a simple as a few basic shapes to note the most prominent things you see or it can be highly detailed, your choice – now you have to fill in the map. It doesn't matter where you start just hold off on your highlights until the very end. Even light shapes in a very reflective object aren't pure white so you will want to gray them down with a bit of mud from your palette or a touch of blue and sienna – teeny tiny touches – you just want to take the white down a bit.

If you are painting clear glass, really look at your glass. There is very little actual white, in the thickest parts it could be green or blue or gray and the overall color will be a very thin glaze of that color so start off with that color and keep it handy you will need it. Save the whites for the very last.

If you are painting a highly polished metal object, remember to soften the edges between your shapes with your finger or lightly with a clean sable brush. If you have a very soft small blender (an old blush brush works great) that is perfect, if not a sable brush or your finger will not leave brush marks.

Because these are suppose to be tests or "thumbnails" if you need to test a color before you add it, go right ahead and place a bit next to where you want to put it to see if it is what you want. Have your object where you can see it and check your color against what you see in the glass or metal. Don't be afraid to make mistakes because this is why we are doing thumbnails so we can work out our problem areas. There are times when what seems like a "mistake" turns out to be more what we want than what we had planned so don't be afraid to play or experiment with these practice paintings, that's what they were meant for.

If you are doing a highly reflective metal or transparent glass, after you have finished adding all the shapes you see in them to finish them off you can add some final glazes to add some overall color and to add some shadows or brightness before you add your final highlights. If you are working on silver or polished steel a light glaze of white will give it a sheen. Remember to follow the shape of your object, if it is round, your brush strokes should be either "U" shapes that go around the object or curvy lines that follow the vertical shape of the object. If you are painting brass add a touch of yellow to your glaze, if it is copper add a touch or red or orange or sienna the exact color may be a combination depending on how much patina it has.

Only when you are satisfied that the thing is as done as you would like it to be is when you will look for your final highlights. For that you can use pure white or white with a touch or yellow or orange if you are working on a colored metal. Look at your subject and look for the sparkles, that is where you will add your final touches. If you need to get out a smaller brush, now is the time.

We are going to put these objects all together this week and create a simple still life so you will need a fresh canvas (don't paint out the test canvas just yet, have it for reference) and bring in your glass and metal along with one other thing for your set-up. It can be a piece of fruit real or not, a silk flower but keep it simple, your glasses if you don't need them to paint, a book…What ever you think would go with the other two objects that isn't a project in itself. I want it simple for your sakes, this third item will help you compose your painting easier than with just two but it should be something you are familiar with painting-wise.

Acrylic Class Summer 2010

Getting into Our Right Mind. Glass and Metal

I know that most of my students thought that I had lost what little mind I had left with our first assignment of the semester, but as you later found out, there is method to my madness.

As a teacher it is my job to help you along your artistic journey. I watch as I see my students struggle with even simplified scenes, I know what they are going through because I've been there myself, but until they understand on their own, the struggle will continue.

Most of that struggle comes from how our brains work. Students who have been with me for a while will get tired of hearing me mentioning Betty Edwards' "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" but it is an excellent book on how we see things and how our brain processes the information dividing it up into the left and right sides of the brain. It is the right side we need to tap into as artists but more often than not, the left side just won't let go of the brush so we can get closer to our artistic goals. This is the struggle and we need to find ways to convince ourselves that it is okay to let that creative side take control, which was the purpose of the exercise.

The left side of your brain has a very short attention span, if you will. It wants to name things and move on. If it looks like a chair or a flower or a car or whatever, that is what it is now let's move on! It is your right side that sees the difference between a delicate rose bud and a wilting daisy; or a beat up old Vega and a hot new Porsche. It sees the beauty and nuance of the world around you but with the left brain in charge, it is like driving on the freeway with someone with a lead foot and you are trying to look at the scenery. You need to find a way to make it stop.

Fortunately, we do have ways to slow that side down and the more you feel that shift in your mind, the easier it will become. One of the best ways to slow your brain down is to turn your picture upside down adding the element of the opposite hand brings it to a stand still! What you are left with are shapes and color, the very thing that interests your creative side. When you get right down to it that is what all painting is about: Shapes and color.

You will hear me say quite often that it is just shapes: Shapes of the highlights, shapes of the shadows, shapes within shapes. If when you get done putting those shapes together and those shapes are similar to the original shapes you will have a painting that looks close to what you pictured in your minds eye, the picture will be there.

All in all, I think all of my classes did a great job. It was different and a challenge but in the end what we had surprised everyone and that is a good thing. It is also good to know that if you do have problems with a painting, turn it upside down. You don't have to paint it with your opposite hand unless you want to but it gives you that option to tap into your creative side.

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We started a bit on what we will be doing for the next couple of weeks and that is working to create glass and metal. I want to just do some studies to begin with because it is an important step to understanding how everything goes together.

As I mentioned in class, most beginning and intermediate artists want to get right to the business of painting their masterpiece but more often than not, there are elements in that masterpiece they are at a total loss as to how to proceed. Rather than stopping and doing a few studies to work out the problem, they will work and re-work the areas that cause them problems until the rest of the painting suffers and there goes the masterpiece.

I just did a quick demo on focusing in on certain areas of the subject like a glass bottle or polished metal vase, neither are as they seem. Glass in particular can be reflective, transparent and have its own color, things you need to deal with if you want a convincing piece of glass in your painting. Even if you are doing a more impressionistic rendering, you need to see what is going on in that glass so what you have will look transparent instead of solid. Glass and water have a lot in common so this is good practice for both.

Metal is much the same with out being transparent. Metal has its own color but it also picks up the color of things around it, even burnished metal or tarnished metal, they will still reflect the things around them.

We will work on this more in the next class so don't forget to bring something glass and something metal, I say this because it helps to have it in front of you rather than going by a photo alone.