Acrylic Project – PV Eucalyptus Week 2
The first thing we did was to add a few high clouds into our sky. While they are really necessary because out tree is going to take up a lot of our sky area, one, it is good practice, and two, it shows you how to "fix" little imperfections you may want to minimize like brush strokes or where the paint didn't cover well enough or if you have too hard a line between colors, clouds can soften and add interest as well.
The technique is called "dry brush" for my new students, it is how we blend using acrylics and it comes in very handy in a lot of situations and as the term sounds, the brush is only slightly damp – remember we have to wet the brush first before we go into our paint - it needs to be as dry and you can get it, then we load the brush with just a little paint, working it into the bristles of a flat bristle brush (you don't want to do this with a sable brush or you will ruin it), the lightly wipe the brush before going to the canvas. The things to remember are: Dry brush, little paint.
I picked up some white (or gesso will work) and a tiny touch of yellow or a tiny touch of red or orange, just something to tint the color, it should still look pretty white. Remember to wipe out any excess before starting these clouds because these are just feathery, high clouds not big puffy ones, we'll save those for another time. Using a circular motion, I started making my clouds. If you have loaded your brush correctly and if it is dry enough, you should be able to see the color under this new color. If it covers too well or if the paint looks "runny" you have either gotten too much paint on your brush or have too much water, respectively. If too much paint, wipe some out on your paper towel and try again, if too much water, use your paper towel to squeeze the bristles near the metal ferrule to get the water out before trying again. If your brush is loaded right you should be able to scrub pretty hard and still not get a lot of paint off at any one time.
I didn't spend too much time on the sky because it didn't need much, just enough to add some interest to the sky behind the tree we will eventually put in, for now, that is enough.
Next, I sketched in my house – or barn if you like – and the bushes just at the edge to the land area. These are in the distance so they don't need to be very detailed, but we do need them in now so we can start to highlight the field in front of them. If you don't want to put in a house, you can add more trees or a barn or a windmill, I'm just trying to keep this simple and only have one reference photo, if you want to put something else in, you will probably want to find your own reference photo for what ever it is.
When I sketched in my trees in, I kept in mind that they weren't well manicured trees so I varied the size and shape and gave them lots of "in's and out's". Remember that these are just sketches so you know where things are going and their basic shapes, you don't need to add a lot of detail, that – what there is of it – you will do with your brush. The palm trees can just be lines so you know where they need to go. Keep it simple so you don't overwhelm yourself with the drawing.
With my sketch drawn, I based in my house starting with the rood. As we do with everything, I started with a darker color, sienna and a touch of purple for my soon to be tile roof. I was using a smaller brush to fit the size of the area I was working in, a #4 works well here and my strokes followed the direction of my roof: Slanting down. Next I under painted the house itself with a mix of white, blue and sienna to give me a soft cool gray color. It is better to start with this cool grey than to start with white so you have some place to go with your color.
With my house based in, I switched to a #6 bristle brush and mixed a dark green color for the bushes and trees. It was a mis of Hooker's green, a touch of purple and a touch of sienna and to load my brush I was rather mean to it by smashing – for lack of a better term – it end first into my palette which does t a few things: One, it blends the colors together, two it loads the brush and three it splays the end of the bristles out so I can use the deformation to create my trees. Bristle brushes are designed to take abuse.
When my brush was loaded, using that smushed end of my brush, I tapped the shapes I wanted for my bushes and trees. I occasionally had to smash the brush into the palette to reform the end of the brush. The color should cover the area pretty solid near the base of the trees and have suggestions of leaves at the top so you will vary the pressure on your brush from heavy to light depending on where you are on the bush.
While the trees and house were drying, I under painted the road. I started on the left hand side and I wanted to suggest a little bit of an eroded drop off edge, still using a #6 bristle brush I mixed some burnt sienna with some purple to get a dark brown mix I applied the paint with an "L" shaped stroke. In other words, I was following the shape of the drop off which angled down from the grasses and when it got to where the flat of the road started, my stroke also flattened out. In the foreground the strokes were taller and wider and got smaller as they went into the distance but the always followed the shape to the ground I was painting. This darker color only went maybe a third to a quarter way across the road where I switched to a color that was more sienna than purple and added in touches of orange red and sometimes yellow. I was using the end of my brush and making small flat, overlapping "u" shapes. This color should run right up into the bushes on the other side.
Now we have most of our painting under painted so now we can start some highlighting. First the house. On the roof I used my #4 sable flat brush and mixed a bit of sienna, orange and white to make a sunshine color for the roof, then using the width of the brush made small strokes that followed the angle of the roof, leaving gaps of the under color to suggest the spaces between tiles. You just have to suggest this, your viewer's eyes will fill in the detail.
The sun in coming in from the left, so that is the side of the building that will be highlighted. I still had some of my white tinted with yellow from my sky on my palette, to that I added a touch more white and a bit of mud from my palette to slightly gray the color and applied this color where I thought the sun would be hitting. In the shadowed side, I mixed in some blue and purple to that color to get a darker color and painted in the shadows. Next I rinsed my brush and mixed a very dark color of blue, purple and a touch of sienna, this color I used directly under the eves of the roof and for the door and windows. The house is done.
Next, I put some highlight on the trees around the house and on the far side of the road. I used my #6 bristle brush again and loaded it just like I did when I was under painting but this time I used sap green, yellow and a touch of sienna or orange and just lightly tapped this color on the left hand side to create dimension and separate out limbs and other bushes/trees from the mass color. Don't get carried away or you will loose the dark and keep the lighter color to the top edges of the bushes/trees. Those are done.
I did a similar thing in the grassy field as I did with the trees, the technique it the same but this time I used yellow and white or yellow and sap green or orange and yellow, what ever bright colors I have on my palette to create some sunshine on the grassy field. Remember this is just highlighting so don't cover up all of your under painting, you need those darks and lights.
While we may still add a few more highlights to these areas, they are basically done, next week we will work on the road, maybe do a few rocks and maybe get started on the tree, in the mean time, I want you to look at eucalyptus in the area and be aware that they have a very unique look to their structure, to the way the leaves hand and to the color of the bark and leaves. The more you know about your subject the better off you will be when it comes to painting it. See you next time.
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