Fall 2010 Acrylic Class

Fall 2010 Acrylic Project – PV Eucalyptus Tree

We are winding down on this painting which means that we are up to the details so you can bring out your smaller brushes and your sable brushes. This is the time for those brushes unless you have been working on a very small canvas you want to save your smaller brushes and your sable brushes for the detail, using your larger bristle brushes as your work horses.

First thing is to work on the dirt path. I was using my #4 flat sable brush a lot at this point along with a smaller flat bristle brush later. With the sable brush, I mixed a very dark color using my blue, purple and sienna, I need to make a very dark shadow right under the bottom edge of the bushes on the left side of the road. This color will only be on the sides of the dirt that faces the viewer but it is important to give more depth to the bushes and settle them down into the dirt.

Many of you have problems making a very dark color and the problem can be two-fold. One, you have too much water on your brush and you are thinning the paint too much and it won't cover very well. The second problem could be that you are just trying to spread your paint too thin or a combination of both. After you rinse your brush and really you only need to rinse it when you are changing from dark to light paint, dry your brush COMPLETELY using your paper towel to squeeze out the water that hides up near the metal ferrule before you go into you paint. Another thing to be aware of is you can pick up water off your palette without even knowing it. If you pick up paint near the wet paper towels, your brush can act like a wick and suck up water as well as pick up paint so if you need the paint to be a thicker consistency, take if from the top of the pile and not the bottom. And please, put out paint! I know that we are all trying to save a buck by not throwing away perfectly good paint but if you keep your paints moist between uses, they will last a long time so put out enough so that you can cover your canvas and not stretch your paint so thin it is more like a watercolor wash than the technique we are using which is more like oils.

That is not to say you can't use your acrylics like watercolor but if you do, you will have to build up layers just like I do in watercolor applying wash after wash until I get the depth of color I'm looking for. Just be aware of this problem so you can work accordingly.

Back to the shadows. I pulled this dark color down starting at the bottom of the bushes and pulling down the eroded edge. This not only gives the weeds some depth but it creates some more texture in the edge. Remember – and this is always important – make you strokes go in the direction of the thing you are painting, in this case, the slightly curved edge of the path. When you get near the back, all you have to do is just touch the area under the bushes to suggest the shadow. I also just touched a bit of this dark color on the other side of the path but only where I thought there might be shadows, like the at the very base of some clumps.

Next I under painted some small rocks in the path. I don't know why, but rocks seem to intimidate people, I find them interesting and challenging. An important thing to remember when painting rocks is to vary the size and shape. As always, when you are painting something that is new to you, you might want to find photos or take your own or even go out and look at rocks and do some sketches so you understand the rocks. I've been doing rocks for a long time so I can visualize them enough that I can paint convincing rocks but I did have examples when I started and if I'm painting something specific, I use reference photos to get what I want. You need to do this as well, build up your reference files so you can find examples when you need them.

The rocks in the path are just small details so I didn't need to much in way of reference, I just made small blobs in varying sizes and shapes to fit my path. These aren't boulders these are those annoying rocks you stub your toe on when you are on a dirt path. I added some sienna and a touch more blue into that dark mix I was using to paint these shapes and that is all they are at this point – shapes. Some are flat some are rounded, some are big some are in groups some are along the edges of the path others are in the middle. The ones in the foreground are bigger than the ones in the background. But they are JUST SHAPES. Be careful not to make all the same size and shape or lining them up in rows or you will have what Jerry Yarnell calls "a herd of turtles". I let them dry before adding highlights.

While I was waiting for the rocks to dry, I started the highlighting of the trunk of the tree. The left side is where the sun will hit so the left side is going to be the brightest. Some eucalyptus have very light trunks that can be almost white to others that look like gold in the sun, if you have a favorite, you might want to get pictures to make it your own. I mixed white with touches of yellow and orange to make a golden color, using my #4 sable brush on its edge I pulled in from the edge of the trunk a bit then made short choppy strokes following the direction of growth down the length of the tree trunk and some of the major branches. As I got to the sides of the tree, I lightened the pressure on my brush so it was more like dry brush and leaving more of the under painting. On the back of the tree, I mixed in some blue and purple to make a medium light lavender color, this will be reflected light on the shadowed side of the trunk and parts of the main branches. Always follow the direction of the thing you are painting, it makes all the difference in the world to your finished painting.

Back to the rocks. Still in that lavender color and still using my #4 flat sable, I added more blue and sienna to the color to get a gray color. It needs to be lighter than the blobs you painted before but not so light that it looks like a bright highlight, this is mostly a form color or the base color of the rocks. Again, the light is coming from the left, I used quick strokes to suggest my rocks. You can make several small rocks out of a big blob or a big rock and several small ones, just keep your strokes quick and varied. This is a good color for the rocks in the shadows, but in all cases, don't cover up all of your dark under painting, you need it for shadows, cracks, texture and separation between other rocks. This color goes on all the rocks whether they are in the shade or sun.

For a brighter highlight for the rocks in the sun, you can use a similar color to what you used on the tree, mixing white with tiny touches of yellow and or orange. This color goes on only the rocks that might be getting sun in the middle of the path or on the sunny side of the path. Please do not paint over everything you just did, this color is just tiny touches on the very tops of the rocks, not the whole sunlit side.

Once you have your rocks highlighted, we need to put some more highlights on the path and to settle the rocks down into the dirt. Add some sienna and orange to your light color – same brush – "drift" some of this color up against the rocks that are in the sun and even up against the roots of the tree. This stroke is like a "u" on its side, you start at the rock or root, pull down a little then straighten out your stroke, this will settle things down into the dirt and make them look like they belong and not just sitting on top. In the shadowed side of the road mix in some sienna and purple to the mix, even some red and do a similar thing in the shadows.

I ended the days lesson with the first highlights of the tree leaves, this time I used my #4 flat bristle brush and just like I did when I was doing the under painting for the leaves mixing sap green with yellow and or orange, sometimes sienna to create a light highlight color for the sunny side of the tree. While I want to highlight, I don't want to cover up all of my under painting, this will give depth to the clumps of leaves. One problem I was still seeing was that a lot of you were still painting dots of color. LOOK at trees. Notice how parts overlap or combine clumps. Unless the tree guys have been there and just butchered the tree, the leaves and branches are going to connect visually and the eucalyptus is kind of like a willow in that it has long leaves that hang and droop so pull down with your stroke to give that droopy effect.

I still have some finishing touches to do to this painting however, you might want to think about something you want to paint and bring in a new canvas to get started.