Fall 2012 Acrylic Class – Scotty’s Truck Week 3

Once your truck is under painted you need to start the highlighting process. The problem most beginning students have is they want to go to the final highlight straight out of the gate when there are usually several more subtle layers before you get to the final highlight. On this truck there are shades of orange, yellow and red that need to be dry brushed on to get the truck a more rusted look, you can start with the base color you mixed up if you have any left, or just use burnt sienna with touches of the above mentioned colors, the key is to “dry brush” the highlights along with some of the darker areas and shadows.

The newer students in class may not have heard the term dry brush but it is exactly what it sounds like: A brush with little water and little paint on it. First, if you have washed or dipped you brush in water, it needs to be dried really well, if you need to add touches of water to your paint and you use your brush to add and mix the water into the paint, squeeze the bristles of the brush with a paper towel before loading your brush with color and again after you have loaded the color wipe the brush on the towel to remove any excess paint, there should be very little paint on your brush.

With you brush now loaded, start in the lightest areas with this color and work out. Use very little pressure on your brush when doing this technique, the harder you push the more paint will come off and you want the color of your under painting to come through. Also, use all sides of the brush and move it around in all directions like a scumbling stroke as you follow the form of the part you are painting. The size and type of your brush matters here, you may need to use a smaller bristle brush if you are working on a smaller sized painting. Be sure you are using a bristle brush because a soft sable not only won’t work very well, you will destroy the brush using it to dry brush.

Before you get too involved with details on the truck there are a couple of things you need to consider, the first is putting the shadows on the ground under the truck and the second is adding some things in the background like some rocksand or bushes in the background. If your truck fills up most of your canvas, this may not be necessary but if you have space around the truck like I have, you might need something to set the truck in its environment. I used a slightly darker version of the ground color which is yellow, white and touches of purple to give me a warm gray rock color. While it was still wet, I also added tiny touches of purple or orange or yellow or white, just to give it some life, mixing the color right on the canvas.

The wood frame in the cab has both shadows and highlights visible but just like the rusted parts of the truck it will look best if you dry brush color on but this time using a small bristle brush and making strokes that would follow the natural grain of the wood. The colors are similar to what you used for the under painting to make the color darker add more blue and purple maybe touches of sienna to grey it or touches of white to lighten the shadow color, to make a light color blue and white.

Depending on where the class is at the end of next session, we may finish this project in class this time. If you feel you are getting close to being done, please have another project of your own to start with you, I will do mini demos for specific needs. See you all in class.

FALL 2012 ACRYLIC CLASS – Scotty’s Truck Week 2

Thanks to Gary we found out that this is probably a 1928 Ford dump truck. Leave it to a guy to be curious about an old rusted out truck. Thanks Gary, I do appreciate your efforts.

In the last class we under painted the truck and the rock, as always, we start out with a mid-tone version of the final color to that we can add other colors to make it lighter or darker. My basic mix of color for the rusted parts of the truck was burnt sienna, orange and a touch of purple. That is a good basic rust color. If you need to make it darker you can add blue and purple to it if you want to change the sun lit color a bit you can add more orange, or yellow or red.

When you under paint the truck, use a brush that will fit the truck size you are working on. I’m on a 16 x 20 canvas and my truck is fairly large in the frame so I started out with a #6 flat sable and went down to a #2 flat sable for the finer detail, if you are working on a smaller canvas, your truck it going to be smaller as well. You may want to start with a #4 either a sable or a bristle and use a small round brush for the detail, don’t try to use a jack hammer when all you need is a tooth pick.

Be sure to have the reference photo IN FRONT OF YOU. That photo has all the information you need to finish this painting, not the photo of where I was in class, that only lets you know where I stopped for the day, the reference photo is where you are headed and helps you see where you are in relationship. Get it out and use it.

I know it is tempting to just put paint on the brush and follow along those long sweeping lines of the fenders and truck body but please resist the urge. Remember that you want to keep the edges soft for now. It may be hard in some areas but do the best you can. Using the flat edge or you brush, place it on the outside edge of what you are painting and pull in. Move down the entire edge of what you are painting in this manner to keep the edge soft. The inside can be scumbled – strokes going every which way – rather than smooth strokes, it will add texture to the area and this is an old, beat-up truck, it has lots of texture.

I had mixed up a pretty good sized amount of my base color to start out, when I got to lighter areas I added more red or yellow, to the darker areas I added touches of blue and/or purple depending on how dark the area was. You can mix the colors on your canvas or you can pre mix on your palette just using a corner of your base color to mix in saving the rest for other areas. For the real dark areas I added a lot of blue, mostly, and some purple, this dark can also be used to paint the tire. Some of my students who have been with me for a while need to start working a bit more wet into wet to blend colors, it will give you more variation.

Also notice that I wasn’t worried about what I was painting. I didn’t try to figure out all those parts and pieces yet, I just under painted them with the base color for now, I will pick them out later – if I feel so inclined.

The rock was under painted with a different type or gray mix than I usually use, this time I used yellow with touches of purple to get a warm gray color. These are complimentary colors and together they make a very nice gray. To make it darker I added more purple with touches of blue. Remember it is not a wall but a rough rock, dab and poke and scumble the color on, this is a good place to practice wet into wet, start with the warm gray color and – without cleaning your brush – pick up touches of purple and blue and work it into the shadowed areas under the truck.

The wood frame inside the cab is a bit on the blue side if you have cobalt or cerulean blue, you can use either of those with a touch of purple and sienna to darken and gray the color if you only have ultramarine blue, add a touch of green, purple, sienna and white to get a soft blue/green color, this is for the shadow areas of the frame and the whitewall of the tire. For the sunlit parts of the frame mix more white and blue with your dirty brush to get a lighter version.

You should have your whole truck under painted at this point; we will start on the highlighting and shadows next class. See you soon.

Fall 2012 Acrylic Class – Scotty’s Truck

We start off the truck just like we start most paintings by starting with what is furthest away and working our way forward. Since the sky is about as far as we can go visually, that is where we start before we ever put on any drawing on our canvas. This allows us to avoid a cut and paste look to our painting when we are done. Unlike oils, acrylics dry quickly so we cannot blend or soften edges whenever we want which is why we must start from furthest and work to closest.

I did do a little sketching in that I wanted to know where my sky ended and my distant hills began then I took my gesso and applied a coating of it to the sky area and also down a bit into where the hills will be. I did this with my 2” soft blending brush and will continue to use this brush for the background, if your brush has hard bristles, this technique will not work. You need a soft goat hair blending brush which will make it look almost like air brush, any other type of brush will give you streaks.

Next, using the same soft blending brush, I first wipe out as much of the gesso as I can but I did not wash it. To one corner I picked up ultramarine blue, on the other corner I little burnt sienna and a touch of purple. You want the color to be mostly blue, the sienna grays it a bit and the purple intensifies it a bit but it will be mostly blue. Your gesso should still be wet when you add in your color, with your bristles parallel to the top and bottom of the starting at the top, just streak these colors across the top of your canvas and work it down an inch or two. Wipe out your brush a bit and straighten the bristles you will be using your brush to blend and move the paint down the canvas.

Using big “X” type strokes and very little pressure on your brush starting at the top of your canvas working across and down, move the blue from top to past where you hill will start. You should be painting “wet into wet” all of these words take a lot longer to write or to read than you should be taking with your sky. Each of these steps blend into each other so once you start this do not stop to read because your paint is drying. If it feels like your brush is dragging a bit you can spritz it with water from your spray bottle if you hold it back and use a fine mist and only a couple of sprays then quickly blend in the water into your paint and continue to paint. If you need to add more color start at the top with the added color and blend down.

If you want to add some clouds at this point, rinse your brush well and dry the bristles out as good as you can, I squeegee it between my fingers to get off the excess, then on the corner of your brush pick up a color you want for your clouds, I put in orange clouds but if you want some white or gray or pink, that is up to you. I am still using my blending brush, by-the-way, I still need those soft bristles.

I streaked the orange into the sky in the areas where I wanted clouds, and then I rinsed my brush, dried it out and blended the clouds into the sky using the same gentle stroke I used for the sky itself. Your sky should still be wet so as you blend your clouds they will soften into your sky. I still used the “X” stroke but it was a lot flatter than what I used in the sky to give my clouds a soft streaky look.

Be aware that I am still working wet into wet because I keep working, this is important so that you don’t over work your painting and you keep you paint wet for blending.

Next I added more gesso to the lower part of my painting where my hills will be. Work the gesso up to the bottom of the  sky area so you get full coverage. You can wipe out your brush but no need to clean if before you add burnt sienna, a touch of blue and an touch of cad yellow. You can blend this on your palette or on your canvas, it might work better for you if you use your palette so your mix is fairly even. Straighten out the bristles of your blending brush, you will be using the straight edge of your brush to form the edges of your hills. Start your hill a bit up into your sky by placing the edge of your brush where you want the edge of your hills and pull straight down and form the entire top edge of your hills in the same manner. What this does by using the edge of the brush rather than just painting the top of the hills in one long stroke, it keeps the edges soft. Hard lines can be very had to eliminate in an acrylic painting so we do our best to keep edges soft. The bottom part of the hills can be scumbled in and gently blended. Work quickly and when you have that area covered, give you brush a good rinse and dry, then using those soft big “X’s” soften the edges between sky and hills even more.

If you want to take a break at this point you can let your canvas dry before starting the next step or you can keep on going. You will need a toothbrush or a bristle brush and all your paints out and your water. You can use every color you own for this step and it won’t be wrong. Actually, the more the merrier too little doesn’t do what we need it to do. This technique is a great way to do sand and flowers and snow, your toothbrush can be a very handy piece of equipment.

Start by picking up some water on your toothbrush and forming a puddle in your palette, next pick up a color ANY COLOR, and mix it well with the water. You may need to add more water because you want this paint to flip off your brush. You might also want to cover your sky with paper towels because this can get messy especially if you are using a regular bristle brush. When your toothbrush is loaded, point the bristles down and towards your canvas and with your thumb, rake it along the end of the bristles. You should get splatters of all sizes and shapes and that is what you want. Continue this process using all the colors you have and cover the bottom third of your canvas with lots of splatters. This is where we ended the day.

Try to have your truck on your canvas for next class remember to use charcoal and not pencil. Also make the truck big enough that is covers a large area of your canvas, it is the focus of the painting not the hills, it will also make it easier for you to paint. See you in class.

https://picasaweb.google.com/110300529433736983967/Fall2012Classes

ACRYLIC CLASS SUMMER 2012 – P.V. Bunny

This week I basically finished up the bunny. My under painting was as far as I could take it on the rabbit and the background, all that was left was to under paint the rocks and foreground  add some highlights and weeds and I have a finished rabbit sitting in the rocks.

I know that sounds way to simple but really, that is all there is to it. It only seems like more when you make it out to be more. One of the pitfalls most beginning students fall into is making mountains out of mole hills. When you start a painting project you don’t envision an end to your journey and as that end starts coming into view, you want to take side trips and detours because you can’t imagine that the end is within grasp. You need to embrace this part of the process to work to a natural end of your painting, otherwise, if you keep making work for yourself, your paintings become overworked and uneven, the term “less is more” is very apropos in this case, it is better to feel that you painting could use just one more thing than to think “I should have stopped an hour ago”.

The first thing I needed to do was to under paint the rocks in front of the rabbit. These rocks are light so my under painting doesn’t need to be too dark but it does need to be a darker version of the final highlights. I used orange, with touches of sienna, white and yellow and in the shadowed side I also added touches of purple to gray the color and cool it down. I just scumbled in some rock shapes and I didn’t care if it looked like what was in the photo or not, I did try to get close at least in size. I also brushed mixed a lot of these colors on the canvas. That means I picked up the colors and either went directly to the canvas or only lightly mixed on my palette before applying it to the canvas, this allows for more variation in color and that is a good thing.

While I let that dry, I worked a bit more on the rabbit, brightening or intensifying a color to give it a sunlit look. I try to avoid white when I can and use it only when I’m up to my final highlights because white can make your colors look chalky. Add yellow to sienna to lighten and brighten the fur on the back. The same goes in the weeds at this point, pure color like yellow  or yellow mixed with a bit of orange or sienna for foreground weed highlights is a good thing.

However, before you get to the foreground weeds be sure that you have enough weeds in the background. These can be weeds of all colors from browns to grays to blues and purples, these will be your shadowed weeds and the darker colors will allow the foreground weeds to stand out. I used both my ½” flat sable brush and my liner to make these weeds.

If your rocks are dry you can highlight them with a mix of white (or gesso) and touches of yellow, orange or sienna or a combination of these colors, this will be a very light color and remember that the sun is coming from the upper right hand side so the rocks will have their highlights on top and on the right. Don’t spend too much time making your rocks “perfect” because you don’t want them to detract from your rabbit plus you are going to be pulling weeds up in front of them and in between them, they are just there to put the bunny in his environment.

The foreground weeds can go in much the same way as you did the background weeds the only difference is they can be a bit lighter because they are in the sun – remember this is just under painting so not too light – and use colors like yellow and sienna as well as grays. Another thing to be careful of when doing any of the weeds is to make sure that they go all different directions, not just straight up lined up like a fence. They should bend, have breaks, some should be almost flat, some curled, some split…These are dried weeds and anything goes.

I also added some greener bushes in the corners and middle-ish to suggest other plants in his environment, but it wasn’t straight green. I used hooker’s green with touches of purple and/or sienna mixed in to gray the green so it wasn’t too different in color from the other weeds. With a liner brush I added some twigs to the green branches to give them some support.

At this point you might want to call it done and that is up to your, however, as I looked at my painting there were some things I really think – for me  - need to be done to finish it off the way I want it to look so I will be showing you how I would detail out the rabbit and to make changes when you need to. I will see you all in class.

ACRYLIC CLASS SUMMER 2012 – PV Bunny

This week I started to get some detail in the bunny. It is absolutely essential when you are trying to make something look reasonably real that you have your reference photo in front of you, many of you were looking at what I was doing and trying to follow along but that is not your best reference. I can show you technique but I don’t always get the subtle changes in color right, which doesn’t bother me because I will go back over an area but if you don’t see that step you can get lost in a hurry. That photo I provide is your map and you need to have it out so you can look at it and find your own way through the color and fur direction.

Basically, I mixed up blue, sienna and a touch of purple as my base color, to it I added more sienna, orange and/or yellow to lighten and make it browner, more blue and a touch of purple for a dark color or white if I needed gray. Those are the only colors I used.

Most of what I did was dry brush with a #4 flat bristle brush, what that means for the new students is after rinsing my brush, I dry it off to get out as much of the water as I can before loading it up with paint, and I also wipe off excess paint before I start to paint. Then when I actually do paint, it is with very little pressure and I want the bristles to separate to give me a “furry” look to my bunny. These are light quick strokes IN THEDIRECTION OF THE GROWTH OF THE FUR. I put emphasis on that because as I walked around I saw several people painting the fur on in one direction but even if it is part of the under painting, it is important to follow the way the fur is growing on the animal or you can and will have problems when you get close to finished, the eye will see those strokes unless you hide them well (read “repaint”) and it won’t look “right”. All our strokes have a purpose from beginning to end, if we try to cut corners it could come back to bite us in the end. Just so you know.

One thing I did after a layer or two of fur, I looked at what I was doing and compared it to my photo. What I was most interested in was making sure that I had enough contrast in places so that the rabbit would stand out from the background in the end. When I did this, I noticed that behind the back of the bunny, the rock was a bit lighter than the back of the bunny so I added some lighter gray to the area behind the bunny so its back would show. Under his chin and down his front the fur is very light from the back lighting of the sun so I needed to darken behind the rabbit around the mouth, under the chin and a bit on his chest, when I do the final highlights this dark area will help me make the rabbit stand out.

This was fairly repetitive and time consuming though there are some things you need to watch out for, one of them is the use of white at this point. If you are working in a gray area adding a bit of white is okay, just don’t go to your lightest lights just yet, still should be shades of gray. In the sunlit areas on the back and face, however, it is better to lighten with yellow or orange rather than white because white can make your color look chalky. You may eventually use a touch of white for the brightest highlights but we are not to that point yet, that will come at the very end and you need to have these other colors present for a more natural look.

I also want you to note that I added just a few touches of lavender gray into the darkest areas of the shadows on the bunny. There will be a lot of reflected light coming off the rocks that will reflect back into the fur but please, these are just “touches” don’t make you bunny butt purple, a little goes a very long way.

Depending on where everyone is and how much I get done, I may be able to finish up the bunny during the next class so start looking for your own project when we are done with the bunny. We will have a make-up class at the end, I do want to thank everyone for your support and understanding during this trying time in my life, it was a great comfort to get back to class.

Acrylic Class Summer 2012 –PV Bunny

I am just going to give a brief description of what we have done to this point, if you have questions please ask in class or email me I will try to answer.

The under painting was done mostly in earth tones which include yellow, orange, sienna, red, green blue and purple. To lighten a color I added gesso, if I needed the color darker I didn’t use gesso. I was just trying to get the overall feel of light and shadow, I wasn’t doing anything specific.

I used a #10 bristle brush and a scumbling stroke. When you scumble on your canvas, you brush is going in all different directions, I tend to use the small side of the brush or the flat of it, but my brush moves constantly and I am “brush mixing” my colors. That means I pick up a color or colors and mix them on the canvas. this is a good habit to get into because it creates a more interesting painting.

I didn’t worry about the rabbit, I just painted everything with these dry, weedy colors. I had done some preliminary weeds but that isn’t necessary at this point. That was week one.

Week Two: I sketched in the rabbit. Be sure he is big enough on your canvas that he is the focal point but give him some room in front so he can run. This is a “landscape” (horizontal) format, vertical or portrait would make him too small in the painting and give too much importance to the rocks and weeds. Be careful of proportions his body is about 2 and an 1/8^th length of his head from ears to nose.

To under paint the rabbit I mixed up a base gray color which consists of ultra marine blue, purple, burnt sienna and a touch of gesso or white. I want it pretty dark but not black. As I paint, I will add more sienna to make it warmer in some areas or more gesso to make it lighter in other areas, I am looking at the rabbit while I am painting so I know where I need to make slight changes to my colors.

I was using a #6 flat bristle brush and my strokes follow the direction of fur growth on the rabbit. It is not all one direction and changes as it covers the rabbit.

On the inside of the front ear there is a touch of pink showing, without cleaning my brush I added a touch of red and gesso to make a dirty pink color. The dark mix for the eye, nose, and tip of the ear was the above mix for gray without the gesso or white.

At this point I needed to adjust the background colors around the rabbit so he will stand out when we are finished, His back is a bit darker that the rocks behind him so I added some gray to the rocks (one of the reasons I changed my mind about doing the weeds earlier) and there are some flattened weeds in front and behind him I used a mix or yellow, orange, sienna, some of the gray and just scumbled some shapes in front and behind him. This scumbling is still going all directions but is mostly horizontal.

That is the basic idea up to this point. There will be adjustments as we go along so don’t worry about anything right now, this is just under painting and it can look a bit sloppy and it will turn out great in the end. Be patient and don’t sweat the small stuff. 

Acrylic Class Spring 2012

ACRYLIC CLASS – Apple Turnover Finish

If you have gotten all your under painting finished, it is now time to start the detail work that will finish you painting.

I need to reiterate about under painting: Just because I call it "under painting" doesn't mean that you have to paint over it all. Quite the contrary, most of what has been called "under painting" will become the shadows or texture or what ever else depending on where it is in your painting, it is very important to the final look of your painting so PLEASE do not paint over all of this good under painting in the process of finishing your painting.

The apples need a highlighted area. This is more than just a white dot if it is too look like an apple. If you haven't already or if need to do more to make your highlighted area look bright enough, mix orange with your red (napthol or cadmium) to make a lighter color. If you mix in white, it will turn your red to pink and that's not the look we are going for this time. Even using touches of yellow will brighten the color. This color goes on the area that is getting direct sun the top "shoulders" of the apples or the sides that you think are facing the sun. this color changes to a darker red pretty quickly as it curves away from the light so blend it into the rest of the apple with your finger or by adding touches or red. If you have any doubts about how light plays on the surface of an apple, if you have an apple or use something rounded and place it near a single light source such as a bright window or a lamp and LOOK at how the light plays off the apple. See where the shadows are. I can talk until I run out of words but unless you learn to see these things for yourself, you will have difficulty painting them.

A problem I saw with many of you was not only using this highlight color on your whole apple but you also weren't getting the shadows down in between the apples. It is hard to get a pile of apples but the next time you are in the store, look at the fruit on display. You will see – even in that bad light – that in the spaces between the fruit is very dark. They are casting shadows on their neighbors and on the fruit underneath them so it is very dark, this is even more pronounced when you have only one light source. You must have dark to show the light, you also need that light to dark to show shape and contour. Look for it and understand it so you will know how to use it in the future.

The green apple gets a mix of yellow, sap green and white for its lightest area but the same rules apply this is only where the sun is hitting it the most, not for the entire apple.

While those are drying, if you put in a handle like I did, you can detail it out by putting  on a highlight and a shadow just remember that the shadowed side won't be as dark as the inside of the bucket because it is getting a lot of reflected light into its shadow. You can even throw in a touch or orange or sienna into the shadow as light might be reflecting off the bucket and onto the handle.

You can also block in the leaves at this point if you are putting them in. They need to be dark green so a mix or sap or Hooker's green with blue and/or purple make a dark green for their under painting. We will detail them out later.

If your apples are dry you can put on the brightest highlight. This is white with a very tiny touch of yellow in it just to slightly tint it, it should still look white but with some warmth. This just gets put where you are going to have the "glint" on the apple like the glint in the eye. Just tap it on in a very small area then either wipe out your brush to tap the edges or use your finger to spread it just slightly, then leave it. When it is dry in a minute or so a tiny touch of pure white right in the center of that spot and your apple sans leaves will be done.

To finish the leaves you will need an apple green color which is sort of a bluish/ gray green color. To get this add sap green, blue a touch of sienna to enough white to make it light enough to show against the dark color then paint only the parts of the leaf that will be in the light. That dark under painting becomes the form shadows of the leaf.

Now for the grasses: I used my #10 flat bristle brush to start pulling up grasses around my bucket and my apples. I will do more detail with my liner but this is to get the mass color and shapes in. I used a "flicking" type motion. Holding my brush back on the handle and using my lighter colors (yellows, greens, orange, just light colors because they are in the sun light), starting at the base of the bucket and pulling up the grasses in front of the bucket, you will see how the dark under the bucket works for you by giving contrast to the lighter grasses in front. PLEASE don't cover all of this dark, just pull up enough grass to get your point across nothing more. Work you way thru the apples though the brighter colors will be where the sun hits, use darker colors where it might be in shadow and give some texture to the grass.

Finally, get out your liner brush. If you haven't used this brush much, you might want to practice with it. First off your paint needs to be very inky in consistency. If you tip your palette it should run. To load your brush, wiggle the whole bristle end of the brush in the paint and as you lift it off your palette, roll it between your fingers to bring it to a point. Holding the brush and close to the end as you can, using your wrist to make it go in circles, get your brush moving BEFORE you touch your canvas and keep it going! Touch the canvas or the paper on the up stroke, then lift and move to the next place while you are still circling your brush. You can practice on paper with just water if you want, but learn how this brush works before you get to your canvas and it will do some amazing things for you. Big circles make tall grass, small circles make short grass. You can also dab and touch with this brush to make seed heads. Try making circles in both directions (not as easy as it sounds) and bend and break some of your grass.

You will use different colors for your grasses depending where you are and you will use this brush in both the foreground around the apples and in the background grasses. Use darker, cooler colors in the shadows, warmer, brighter colors in the sunnier areas. I put some darker weeds in the corners to vignette the painting but you will have to finish the painting the way you want it to look.

I may work a bit more on my painting before next week but am ending this part of the project here. I see some things I want to change in mine that may be okay on yours so if you see a bit of difference between now and then, this is only for aesthetic reasons not to "pull a fast one" on you. I am going to show how I got the glow in the original painting we are working from and maybe how to varnish it when it is done. You may continue to work on this painting if you haven't finished it or start on another project. We only have two more weeks before the end of the semester so there isn't any time to work on something else.

Torrance only has 2 more classes the classes will start up again on June 19^th so be sure to get signed up as soon as you can. If you have Google Chrome, I have started a Circle for my art classes if you want to comment or post a photo of things you are working on, it can be a bit more interactive than just a blog. You are all doing amazing work, keep it up and I will see you next week.

Acrylic Class Spring 2012

ACRYLIC – Apple Turnover Week 4

This week we really start getting into detail on our bucket and apples. You should all have the main elements under painted and some of the highlighting started on your apples and bucket. This is the time for any adjustments you need to make in case your apples are too big or too small or maybe you need to adjust the size or shape of you bucket/basket ( mine looks more like a bucket now), while you can always make adjustments even if you are almost finished, it is easier on the psyche if you have not invested a lot of time into something that needs changing, if you have been working on the details which take more time and effort to do, you may be reluctant to make needed changes and you run the risk of over working the area or the areas around the trouble spot., so fix things now.

I wanted to get as much of my highlighting and wood grain on the bucket before I started on the details, slats and the metal bands around the bucket. This is done with dry brush. I started at the top with a mix of white a tiny touch or yellow and tiny touch or orange to make a warm creamy color I apply it a bit heavier near the top of the bucket and lighter as I go down the sides. This color can also go into the lighted area of the inside of the bucket. I add touches of orange and sienna as I more down the side, then sienna and purple to almost totally purple at the very bottom. I will be bringing grasses up over the bottom of the bucket so I need it dark to put light grasses in front of it.

Another thing you can do to add character to your bucket – and this goes for any time you are painting old wood – you can dry brush in touches of other colors, basically any color you have on your palette or color that you have used in your painting. It really makes the old wood look like you could get splinters from it even though from a distance you don't see the individual colors the effect is what you are going for. I used my liner brush and just streaked several different colors into my bucket trying to keep the warmer colors in the sun lit areas and cooler colors in the shaded areas but I did put some of each color in all areas of the bucket. If you have to give yourself permission to do this, make up stories like maybe it use to be a red bucket that got painted blue and then had moss growing on it, what ever it takes to feel "safe" adding these colors even thinking I'm crazy to suggest this but you need to trust me and try it.

When you get your highlights on the bucket done now you are ready to add the slats and detail that will make this bucket look lie old beat up wood. With my liner brush I mixed a dark color using my blue, purple and burnt sienna, this should almost look black and you will need to add enough water so that it has a very ink-like quality to it. Those of you who were having trouble with this step weren't getting your paint thin enough to flow off the liner brush so if it doesn't flow, add more water until it does then as you lift your brush off your palette, roll it between your fingers and you will get a nice point to your bristles.

If it makes you feel more confident, sketch in the slats with your charcoal before you start to you can get them going in the right direction. Remember that on the top edge of the bucket the line will have to change direction so it looks like there is some thickness to the slats. The lines do not and should not be straight. This is an old beat up bucket, nothing on it is straight, there will even be holes and cracks in the wood. There will be tiny cracks along the top and bottom edge of the slats where the wood is splintering the edge needs to be rough. Don't forget the inside of the bucket as well.

One of the characteristics of old wood is where you have a crack there will be a highlight because where it has cracked the wood may be lifting up so if you have any of the highlight color (see above) left over, add water to it and along SOME of the cracks or spaces between slats, highlight along the edges. This does not need to be a solid line, more along the line of "dots and dashes" to give the wood more character. You really need to do this along the cracks you made at the top and bottoms of the slats and while it is not as necessary in the shadowed area at the transition between light and dark add a bit of blue to your highlight color and highlight a few of the cracks. This goes for the inside as well.

When you feel you have gotten as many cracks as you want sketch in the bands on your bucket. These bands go slightly above the wood at the top this is to give them some depth. I started at the top with orange, yellow and sienna and maybe a bit of white which will dull it slightly at the top of the band, as I worked my way round the side, more sienna until it was all sienna then sienna and purple until it went into the shadows and became very dark. This is wet into wet brush blending but it doesn't need to be blended well just enough to make the transition from light to dark. Along the top of this band, using my liner and the dark color I used for the cracks, I added a dark line for a shadow on both top and bottom bands.

Now for the apples: I wanted to make the lighter side a bit lighter but as everyone should know that if you add white to red you get pink and I don't want pink apples. To avoid using white to my napthol red I added a bit of orange. This color goes on THE LIGHT SIDE put this where the sun is hitting your apple the with your brush or finger, blend it into the dark part of the apple. I saw may of you painting the entire apple with this color loosing the shadows that you worked so hard to establish. What had been under painting is now shadow, DON'T LOOSE IT or you will have to put it back in. This color is for the apples that are getting direct sun so be careful when you are near the bucket only a couple of apples will get this color and then only slight touches.

The highlight for the green apple is white, yellow and sap green to get a light greenish color but the same thing applies: this only goes where the sun is hitting the apple directly, don't loose your shadows..

Just a couple more things I did before I quit for the day, first: The leaves of the apple I just under painted with Hooker's and blue to make a dark green, I will detail them out later, I was just placing them at this point. I also put a bracket for a handle on the bucket just on the side on the band and then I sketched in the handle and bale. I tell you to make up stories and as I've painted this bucket each time, I've tried to think of a reason why it has spilled, so in this version I am making it look like the bracket finally gave way and the handle broke so on the back side of the bale I suggested the bracket still attached and hanging in the air. I under painted the handle with a mix of yellow a touch of purple (complimentary colors make grays) and white to get a yellow gray. The bale I added white to my dark color I used for my cracks and with my liner painted it in.

That is where I stopped, I am hoping that we can finish up next time we meet so be ready to work. Everyone is doing a great job, this has been a fun project. See you soon.

Spring 2012 Acrylic Class

Acrylic – Apple Turnover Week 3

(Sorry, I apparently didn't post this blog =-O )

By this time you should have all your under painting done for the basket and the apples, now we will be starting the finishing process, your under painting is important, it becomes shadow and texture so be careful not to loose it all as you finish up your painting.

I started on the top outside part of the basket with a mix of white (gesso), tiny touches of yellow, orange and sienna, it should be a soft peachy color. Using a #10 bristle brush and the dry brush technique, I followed the grain of the wood and lightly stroked this color on. The harder you press your brush to the canvas the more paint will come off so as you move down to the side of the basket, lighten your stroke so you leave less paint with each stroke. Come down about half way on the side of the basket with this color.

IN THE SAME PILE OF COLOR, add more sienna and a touch of orange, same brush same technique, start just below the color you just added and dry brush both down the basket and also lightly dry brush up to about the quarter area of the brush. If you do it right, you will not see a line of demarcation between the first color and the second. The third color is applied the same but this time add purple and/or blue to your sienna and dry brush it on just like you just did before, It need to get very dark under the basket as it goes into the shadow just be sure to feather out the color so there aren't any hard lines, you need soft edges as it disappears under the basket.

The inside of the basket is done EXACTLY the same way just be sure to locate the lightest area on the side of the basket, the darkest area will be on the inside of the basket.

At this point you might want to locate your apples, you may need to use chalk in the darker areas to see where your apples are in the basket. Inside the basket if you have alizarin crimson use it, if you don't have AC use your napthol with a touch of blue to purple it up be sure that the brush you are using doesn't have any white in it or it could turn you apples pink.

Here is the part you need to pay attention to because you can easily make more work for yourself if you don't pay attention to what you are doing. That dark under painting you did on the apples now becomes the shadows on and between your apples. DO NOT COVER IT ALL UP. I saw many of you when you got to the red apples, you painted the whole apple red both the light side and the shadowed side which made your apples look flat, to make them look rounded, you have to put the shadows back in that you just painted over. Learn to use your under painting, while we may need to go back and darken certain areas, most of the shadows will be you under painting, don't paint over all of it.

That said, using either the alizarin or the napthol with blue ON THE TOPS of the apples in the basket, following the shape of the apple you are painting, add the color and if you need to, use a brush or your finger to soften it into the dark part of the apple. Paint each apple individually so you get the shading right. You will build up speed as you learn, at this point, take your time.

You can use the same color on the apples that are out in the sun but it goes on the sides away from the light source: the back and the underneath. If you are putting in a green apple, the shadowed side is Hooker's green and a touch of purple. Go to the picture page and see where I have put the color for each apple so you have a clear idea what you need to do.

Where the sun might be hitting the apples in the basket and for those outside the basket, on the light side I used straight napthol red. Cad red will also work if you don't have the napthol. This is only the start of the highlight but it needs to be done before you can add the final touches.

Another thing I did to the apples inside of the basket and to some in front was to add a reflected highlight into the shadow areas. This is just a hint of color added lightly into the shadows. It is blue, purple and a touch of white to make a soft lavender color. This color is in many shadows if you look for it but it is not LAVENDAR on the back sides of things, it is a whisper not a shout.

We should be finishing up this painting in the next class, or more precisely, I will be finishing the painting up. If you need another week or more you can continue to work on the class project, however, if you are keeping up with me you will need to start looking for your own project to work on for the duration of the semester, I will do demos that will help those with problems and but it will also benefit the class as a whole. See you in class.

Spring 2012 Acrylic Class

Acrylic – Apple Turnover Week 2

By this time I hope that everyone has their under painting finished so we can add the basket, there are a few things that we need to do before we start painting in the basket and apples the key thing is to be sure that we have a good dark area behind the basket and the only way to find that out is to draw the basket in with the chalk or charcoal. Here's the thing: you want to make the dark grasses behind the basket fit the basket, not the other way around.

When you sketch in the basket and apples they should be dominant in the painting probably around 40% of the painting will be covered with the basket and apples. Keep the basket heavy to the left side and let the apples "spill" out in front and across to the right side to the painting. If you need to, extend the dark area behind the basket to it is slightly above the top of the basket. You need to have dark to show light. We will add back the highlights to the weeds later.

Next, in the area of grass that is behind and to the right of the basket is s sunny area, using yellow, orange and touches of white (gesso) and sienna I added some highlights using that same patting stroke I used the first time. I brush mixed my colors with this patting stroke to give more variation to the area.

Once these things are done, now we can start basing in the basket, re-draw it if you have to. The light is coming in from the upper left side so the top left of the outside of the basket will be light and the lower right side of the inside of the basket will be light, the apples on the inside will be mostly in shadow. I want to work wet into wet so I will keep moving down the outside of the basket, I started on the outside top of the basket with blue, sienna and white on my brush and following the grain for the wood I started filling in the top of the basket, thanking these colors down a little more than a third around the side, mixing on the canvas (brush mixing), it becomes a warm gray color. Without cleaning my brush, I picked up just the blue and the sienna on my brush and starting just below the first color and still following the grain of the wood, I applied these colors then first worked down a bit then worked up into the still wet previous paint to create a soft blend between the 2 areas. Wet into wet allows for these gentle transitions from one value to the next. The next section, I wiped out my brush but didn't clean it so there may still be some white in it but I picked up more blue and sienna and repeated what I just did, gently blending the colors together where one meets the other. The last and darkest color I first rinsed my brush to get out the white, then I picked up the blue and sienna but this time I added a touch of purple to make it very dark. You always follow the grain of the wood and remember to keep all your edges soft.

On the inside of the basket, I started with the dark – since it was on my brush – and with a similar technique, I worked to the light area. Please look at the reference photo and the painting from class if you are having trouble visualizing this, it will save a lot of repainting.

If you have alizarin crimson on your palette, you can use it or the napthol red will work for the apples with a touch of purple or blue, we are just basing in these things so don't try to be exact, just get in the mass color, next week we will start picking out the individual apples and start on some of the details. If you are going to put in one green apple, your Hooker's green and purple is a good color for the under painting just be sure that red or green, even though this is just the foundation color, you need to follow the shape of the apples with your strokes.

I may make some changes to my basket next week so you can see that changes are not difficult to make with acrylics. See you all soon.

Spring 2012 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Class – Apple Turnover

Be sure to have the reference photo and drawing before you start so you know where you are going. You do not need to draw the basket or apples just yet, all you need is a horizontal line about a third of the way up from the bottom – doesn't need to be exact – so you know just how far down you need to bring your background weeds. The drawing will come later.

Be sure that you have ALL your paints out and ready to go and PUT OUT PAINT! I do mean ALL YOUR paints and little dabs will not do ya, put out paint! I say this and still, I see tiny pea sized portions of 3 or 4 paints put out, that isn't even enough paint for a 3 x 5 at least an inch of each color.

We started by using our largest brush (this can be your 2" haki or blender or the largest bristle brush you have like a #12) and coating the upper 2/3s of the canvas with gesso. You will need to work quickly so the gesso stays wet for this part of the process and for the most part, you will not be cleaning your brush but keep a paper towel handy to wipe out your brush occasionally. You can wipe out your brush to get some of the gesso out if you feel you have too much on it otherwise, double or triple load your brush with colors such as burnt sienna, blue, purple, orange, yellow red, green (like I said ALL your paints), you double load by putting color on each corner, you will be using the chiseled end of your brush to paint with, not the sides.

Hold your brush near the back of the handle use long, overlapping, curving strokes (think grass when you are doing this), start working these colors into the gesso on your canvas. You should see streaks of these different colors as you paint your canvas but you do want to cover all your canvas with these colors and with this type of stroke. When you need more color, pick up at least 2 on your brush and work it into what is there as you work across. It needs to be darker at the bottom of this area and lighter at the top so plant on using your darker, cooler colors (blue, purple, sienna and darker greens) near the bottom and your warmer lighter colors such as yellow and orange with your sienna near the top. If you need to make it lighter pick up bits of gesso instead of white it will help opaque the colors.

One thing to watch out for is making stripes of color when you are doing this. You don't want a dark stripe and a light stripe, you want it to blend from one to the other. Another things that can happen is you make all your strokes exactly the same: Same size, same direction same ole same ole. Very the size and direction of your strokes, remember what you are painting: A field of uncut weeds and grasses, they will go every which way. Some will be straight, some will be slightly bent others maybe broken or almost on the ground, your strokes need to reflect this.

When you are done covering this area you should have a softly blended background that looks like out of focus grasses. If you have a lot of paint still on your brush, you can wipe it out on the bottom of the canvas if you want, or if you need to soften the bottom edge of the area you just painted. I will often just "clean" my brush in an unpainted area because it won't hurt anything and will actually work for you as part of your under painting.

In this bottom part of the painting we need to under paint for the grasses and apples that will be coming later, this is done with at least a #10 or #12 bristle brush, you will be double loading again but this time you will use the flat side of your brush in a scooping/patting type motion. The brush is held almost parallel to the canvas before you start then you pat down and push up quickly, this creates texture. this area is shorter grasses and the basket and apples are laying in a spot of sun so the area next to the darker area above it will be your lightest area, for this you will use yellow, orange and gesso (white) as your primary colors but to that you can work in red, green, sienna and near the bottom – especially in the corners - leave out the gesso and use your darker colors: green, sienna, blue and purple. Again, watch out for stripes of color these colors should blend from one to another so when you add an new color work the color in all directions as you move across and down to the bottom of you canvas.

This next part you will need to use either a sable (synthetic sable is fine) flat or angle brush or a # 6 – 8 round brush. These types of brushes will create a more definite stroke and make these next strokes look closer. If you are using either a flat or angle brush, the stroke will be the same as before using the chiseled end of the brush and just like before you will be making grass that has different angles. Its like scribbling out something with a pencil ((((((( only more slanted. This is tall grass so make big movements with your brush no matter what brush you are using. Get your arm going before you get to your canvas and hold it near the back of the brush. I don't mention this often enough but when you choke up on your brush, you limit your movement, save that for the detail, right now you need to go crazy with this grass. If you are using a round brush, it is like using a liner to make grass, make sure that the paint is creamy and will flow off your brush then hold the brush at the back and start making circles before you get to your canvas then when your motor is going, hit the canvas on the up swing and vary the size of your circles and occasionally switch directions.

Start with darker colors (sienna, blue, purple, Hooker's green) at the bottom, it need to be dark up far enough so that you can paint in your basket and have dark behind it so at least ¾ of that background needs to have these darker grasses. The tops of the grasses will be in sun light so you can add some of the lighter colors near the top. Just be sure that at the bottom of this area you have it well covered in dark, at the top, you can have spaces between the grasses as they come into the light. We will do more detail near the end so you don't need to finish it now.

We will be drawing in the basket and the apples next time and will probably get them all under painted as well. I will see you all on Monday.

Spring 2012 Acrylic class

Just a quick update: I finally managed to get the slide show up to date so if you click on it it will take you to the picture page. The drawing and reference photo are there for class, we probably won't start the project for another week. See you all soon.

Winter 2012 Acrylic Class

Winter 2012 Acrylic Class – Wave Study

I was looking at my blogs and realized that I haven't posted anything for the acrylic version of the wave! Sorry. I had it posted for the watercolor class because of PV and totally spaced out that the acrylic class might need some instruction. I will recap as best I can remember.

First is the drawing. Yes, even something as simple as a wave needs at least an idea of where it is going because for many of you, the problems started here.

A wave is not a straight line whether it is breaking or just a swell, be sure that when you draw your wave that you give it some shape. Look at waves. Take pictures of waves. Do what ever it takes so that you have the shapes of your wave more than just a straight line.

The foam is also a trouble spot for many of you, saw too many neatly trimmed wave foam. Again, go you your source. I know many of you print out my paintings as I do them in class, what you should be doing is downloading the actual photo and blowing it up to a size you can see, you get lost when you don't have a real map. The actual photo is like the difference between cryptic scratches on the back of an envelope and looking at a Google Satellite map, you may get there but you may have to wander around for a while. Use a real photo.

Under paint the water. The water behind the wave is bluer than the wave itself. Keep your strokes parallel to the top and bottom using long flat "u" shapes. The more pronounced the "u" shape the choppier the water will look. I used Ultra Marine blue, touches of green, purple and gesso to get a medium dark blue. There is a swell behind the crashing wave, to start that I just left out the white and added more blue and purple.

A breaking wave has 4 parts: the building part of the wave, the eye or transparency, the foam and the breaking part of the wave. I usually start with the eye of the wave and work out into the building part of the wave.

The eye is the thinnest part of the wave and also the lightest part of the wave because more sun light can shine through it. Depending on lighting conditions (morning, afternoon, sunset, storms etc) that eye can take on many colors but it will always be the lightest part of the wave. This wave is in the mid afternoon so I went with a yellow/green.

I started out applying gesso to the area where the eye will be and along the top part of the building wave and I applied the gesso to an area about twice the size that it will be when finished. I picked up on my flat bristle brush, yellow and a touch of sap green and with a circular motion worked it into the gesso where I wanted the eye to be. That part of the wave is like a tube as the water breaks over its self. Keep that in mind. You may need to add more gesso if it isn't light enough or more green if it is too yellow. As I worked out from the lightest area I added more sap and touches of blue (ultra marine or cobalt), making the water darker as it moves away from the eye so I get a graded look, no hard lines. Ideally, the eye should just be right under the foam, tapering out into the building part of the wave. It shouldn't be any more than a quarter or less (preferably) of the wave. Some of you took it too far down the wave and too far out into the building wave.

The building part of the wave is lighter at the top then at the bottom because some light manages to get through the very top while the bottom has the entire ocean behind it. Remember that this part of the wave is building up so your brush strokes need to follow the curved face of the wave. Brush blending from light to dark will give you a smooth transition of color because you are working wet into wet. It is sap green or hookers green with touches of yellow and white that blend into Hooker's green, UM blue and purple at the base of the wave. In the flat area in front of the strokes are flat again and a variety of colors from green to purple to blue, sienna and orange up near the shore line. This is just under painting and you need all those colors. Trust me.

The breaking part of the wave behind the foam is dark at the top and lighter close to the foam, not light like the eye, just lighter than the crest. Again, your strokes need to follow the direction of the wave. If the building part of the wave is a left parentheses then the breaking water will be the right parentheses. I used my bristle brush Hooker's green and UM blue at the top part of the wave and pulled down at the base I added white (gesso) and more blue and pulled up blending with the darker color. Add just enough white to lighten a value or two because you will need a darker background for your foam.

The foam is under painted in blues and lavenders. It is always a good plan to under paint anything white with blues, purples and grays. If you go directly to white you have no place to go with your values and what ever it is you are painting will look flat. With that in mind, I mixed a purple/blue color color with gesso, blue and purple if you have your value scale, it should be about 4 or 5 values darker than the white. As always, trust me on this. Before you apply this color to your canvas with a flat bristle brush, think about what you are painting: The foam is bubbling and boiling and frothing up, it is in a very chaotic state, your brush strokes also need to reflect that chaos. That said, I used the side of my brush in a circular motion, rolling and scumbling the color on making the top and bottom edges uneven and varying sizes (see picture page). There is even some foam around the eye and a little into the breaking part of the wave that can just be touches of color using the end of your brush. Each layer will be done exactly the same, each time leaving a bit of the previous color to be shadows. I think I had 3 or 4 layers of color, each time just a bit lighter until I got to white.

With your charcoal draw in where you want the receding waters to be. There are usually several "old waves" that are washing back to sea so look at a reference photo to see the patterns they make.

The foam patterns in the flat area in front of the wave and be a similar color and value but I think I added a touch of green to the mix. This foam is laying on the surface of the water so for the most part your strokes for the under paining will be long flat, over lapping "s" type strokes until they get to the bottom of the wave, just make sure that the base of the wave is dark enough before you add foam patterns, when you do that foam will curve up just like the water does and it is a very blue purple, my foam is at least 8 on a scale of 1 – 10 white being 1 black being 10, on my value scale so the water behind it is at least a 9.

The water behind the wave will take several different colors but all are done in the exact same manner with long flat "u" shapes. The swell in the back gets a bit of special attention to suggest it is building into a wave, first the colors you will use will be dark about an 8 on the value scale. I used Hooker's green, UM blue and purple together and separate and those strokes are still on the flat side because the swell hasn't quite built up enough to change the direction of the strokes. However, when you are painting with the lighter colors (add white to the above colors and cobalt if you have it), at the base of the swell the lighter colors need to turn up slightly as the get to the swell. The top of the swell is little short strokes of the lighter colors. Think about what you are painting before and as you are painting it.

The receding water in front of the flat foam closest to the shore is going to be dry brush, you will want that mottled under painting to show through so it looks like churning sand and whatnot when you are done so PLEASE don't cover up all that good under painting, it works for you not against you.

Still with my bristle brush, I mixed a bluish color with gesso (white) UM or cobalt blue and touches of green and the mud on my brush after wiping it off. This color is about a value of 6 on my value scale. Using the thin side of my brush and very little paint, I dry brushed the color into this receding water. Now this is different from the other areas of water because it is running back into the ocean so it is going slightly down hill, what that means is your strokes should angle back towards a central point, not a severe angle just a gentle one. Remember dry brush is a very light stroke and the water gets lighter (about a 5 on the value scale), and fades to almost nothing as it gets closer to the shore.

The foam along the edges of the receding waters is done just like the bigger foam, you can use a smaller brush or just tap it on but it always starts with a blues and purples for the under painting.

The wet sand in the near the water is a mix of sienna and purple and dry brushed into where the water and sand meet. When it is dry, you can take a bit of that light blue color from above on your brush (not too much this is still dry brush) and right under the edges of the edges of these receding waters, pull your brush straight down then quickly go straight across to form reflections in the wet sand.

Finishing touches: In the foam on the wave and foreground use white with a tiny, touch of yellow to slightly tint the white and stipple the color on using the end of your brush straight on. I like to smash my bristle brush down to "fuzz up" the end to create irregular patterns. LIGHTLY touch JUST THE TOPS of the foam where you think the direct sun would shine, those other layers of blues and purples are your shadows.

If you want you can put more foam patterns on the face of your wave but keep them dark, they are in the shadow of the wave, a mix of blue a touch of purple and white, remember they need to be curved with the wave and this same color is used in the eye because the foam is back lit.

Right under the foam of the crashing wave it is very dark to be sure to make it so using blue and purple and a touch of Hooker's green.

If you want, you can use your toothbrush and gesso to splatter some sea spray around your crashing wave, just don't over do it.

Upon request, I added rocks, first by scumbling some dark colors on and brush mixing ( UM blue, sienna, purple green, red?) then I came in and highlighted the tops of my rocks where I thought sum might hit using gesso, with touches of orange and sienna, in the shadow areas I added blue for reflected highlights and almost straight cobalt blue with mud from my brush to suggest water running off one of the rocks and I also created foam behind it just like I did in the main wave starting with purple and highlighting with white.

This is the basic game plan for the wave study. You can do as much or as little of this as you want it is up to you to decide what you like best.

We will start something new next semester, hope to see you all soon.