ACRYLIC CLASS FALL 2013

Acrylic Class Project:

Water Lily Week 8

This was the last class in instruction for the water lily but if you feel like you want to do more to finish it up, that is up to you. I may work on mine to finish it the way I want I just need to be careful not to overwork my painting. There is a big difference in refining one’s work and overworking a painting but it is a very thin line that can easily be crossed over if you are not careful. It is better to leave it a bit unfinished than to overwork and ruin your painting.

I know that many of you are tired of me saying that if you want to be a better painter you need to learn to draw. Even if you could get the basics of drawing down – basic shapes, perspective, shading from light to dark – would go a long way to improve you painting. I say this because the biggest problem I saw in class was the foreshortened front petals on the lily, most were usually too small and/or too short. The petals in front are the same size and shape as the back petals but because they are coming towards you it distorts the shape. Another thing about the petals is they are slightly wider than the back petals because they are closer to us visually. Again, perspective.

As an experiment, take a ruler and look at it straight across your field of vision so you and see all the numbers and hash marks. Now turn one end away from you so you are looking at the ruler from one end, raise the end that is away from you so you can see down the length of the ruler. What has changed? Instinctively you know that the ruler is still a foot long so the ruler hasn’t changed but what shape is it now? Can you still see the hash marks and if so how to they look compared to when you could see the length of the ruler? Yes, this is a rather simple exercise on perspective but most of us usually just take it as a given in our everyday life but when we actually have to draw or paint it, it becomes problematic.

If your petals don’t look “right” it is probably the foreshortened perspective of the petals. Look at your reference photo and try to determine where the differences occur and figure out the fix. Learning how to fix a problem is as important as learning to paint and will go a long way to stopping problems in future paintings before they begin.

Another thing I saw a lot of when I walked around was that most of you had your petals too dark to start with or too purple. Remember that the purple is a very potent color and a little goes a long way, but rather than painting it totally out, use a series of dry brush glazes to bring up the value. I had to do that to mine in places but using dry brush glazes lets some of that dark color come through and becomes shadows and texture so it may take more than one coat of glaze but will be worth it in the end.

The last problem area I saw was the petals that were almost touching the water and the one that goes into the water. Those petals are much darker than the rest of the flower which are up in the sun, even the highlights on these petals is much darker than the highlights that get direct light. They are also just slightly green. As with all the other petals I did for this flower, I was using the base color I started out with 8 weeks ago: the blue, sienna and gesso/white. To that I have added more blue or gesso as needed to change the value or to add it to a color when I needed to gray it slightly, there is a reason for my messy palette it has things I may need. Most of you go back and mix each time you think there is a color change, these petals were no different. I saw many that were way too light and way too green. You need to start with your base color you used to under paint the petals which should be just a value or two lighter than the water but not as light as the petals above it. To that mix add a tiny amount of sap green to TINT the color, it should have a slight green cast to the paint, if it is too green add just a touch (very, very tiny touch) of purple to grey it so it is a dirty green/gray color. This will be the base color that you add other lighter colors to when you highlight these lower petals or darker colors if you need to add shadows. By adding gesso or white will lighten, adding blue and very tiny amounts of purple it will darken this base color so mix enough when you start.

A special note regarding the petal that goes into the water: Because of the refraction of the water when the petal goes under the water it slightly offsets a bit. Leave a small gap between the part that is above water and the part that is below water, this will be the waterline, just don’t make it straight across, remember that the petal has bumps and ridges that the water will fill in around.

Theshadow/reflection under the flower is very dark you base color for the shadows will be blue, Hooker’s green, an touch of purple and maybe a touch of sienna if needed. To that as you paint you may add touches of green (sap or Hooker’s) and even touches of the grey color you used in the petals but start out very dark.

I used 2 different brushes when I did the shadows: My #4 flat bristle brush to scrub the bigger areas of the  shadow and my small round sable to get into the smaller areas around the petals and in some cases, down at the bases of a couple of the petals (look at the photo).

I started in the deepest part of the shadow which is underneath the flower with my darkest color, where possible I was using the bristle brush on its side using a horizontal scrubbing stroke. This keeps the edges soft because even still water has movement. As I worked out from under the flower and more to the ends I picked up little amounts of either the green or the grey on my dirty brush (I did not clean the brush) and worked the new color into the shadow color (wet into wet) to create soft blends.

The shadow that is on the petal that goes under water requires a bit of special attention because you can see a bit of the petal through the shadow. Right at that gap you left for the waterline, it is at its darkest on the petal be sure to wipe you brush out and lightly scrub the shadow color across the petal so you can still see the light color under the shadow color, when it is over water the color gets darker again (look at the reference photo).

As I said, you should finish up your flowers to meet your needs, however, if you are staring at you painting looking for something to do, you are probably finished. Set it aside for a few days, put it where you can look at it in passing or turn it upside down, if there is something major, it will jump out at you if it doesn’t it is done. I will see you in class.

FALL 2013 ACRYLIC CLASS

ACRYLIC PROJECT: Water Lily Week 7

We are getting near the end of our project which usually means detail and the more detailed you want to be the slower the process which is why we haven’t made as much progress the past couple weeks. I don’t want to rush you and there are things that need to be understood to get right, I do hope that with the long break that most of you were able to get caught up so we can finish up in the next class.

I did add in the front petals to the flower again using that base color from my water and just adding a bit of gesso/white to it to lighten it and I used my #10 flat sable to paint them in. A word of caution here: These petals are what is called “foreshortened” what that means is all or parts of the petal are coming straight at you which gives you a challenge with the perspective. Look at the petals very carefully BEFORE you paint them. You might want to do what I did and that is using your charcoal, sketch them in then check it against the photo of the real thing. Some of you got them too short others got them too long, this is a trick of your brain. It knows that all the petals should be about the same length but because of the foreshortened perspective it over compensates one way or the other.

Another thing to be aware of is even though the front petals have a different perspective the one thing that doesn’t change is that they all grow out from the center, so once again, you strokes need to follow that growth pattern and lead back to the center.

There is also the petal that goes under the water and it is a slightly different petal as well. I

believe that it was one of the outer petals that covered the whole bud before it opened so it is a bit larger and a bit thicker than the others not to mention a bit greener and darker in color, you will want to take the color you have for the other petals and add touches of sap green and a bit more blue so it is a gray green color.

Still using the #10 flat sable brush, I started up near the body of the flower and pulled down to the waterline. Because of the refraction of light through water, I skipped a little space and moved the brush over just a bit and finished the stroke to the end of the petal. I repeated this process until I got the whole petal painted in. Skipping that little space is important, however, if you painted it in one stroke not to worry it can be fixed.

I have not painted in the shadows yet but I do hope to get to them during the next class. The reason I waited to paint in the shadow reflection is I wanted to know exactly where my flower was going to be so I could paint the shadows to match the flower above it and not the other way around. I did notice that many of you skipped on ahead and tried to paint in the shadows and from what I saw the shadows/reflection had too hard of lines so if you look at your painting and your shadow lines are hard (sharp edges) you might want to paint them out and try again.

The shadows/reflections and the final highlights should finish this painting up so I hope that everyone will be there at our next session, there will only be one more week after the next class before we break for the holidays. See you all soon.

FALL 2013 ACRYLIC CLASS

ACRYLIC CLASS PROJECT: Water Lily Week 6

When we get to this stage of our project I notice that the class is very scattered when it comes to where each student is in comparison to where I am. I try not to get too far ahead of where the majority of the class is so I don’t lose people along the way so it may not look like I did a whole lot last class but I didn’t want to leave the class in the dust.

I did paint in the center of the flower using my #6 flat SABLE brush (sable brushes are good when you get to detail and finishing), a mix of orange, and a touch of red or alizarin crimson for the under painting of the center. The paint should be creamy like soft butter so add water if you need to just don’t make it runny or it won’t cover. To load my brush I drug my brush through the paint on both sides to bring the flat edge to a sharp edge, then using my brush’s edge I pulled the center structures down and towards the center of the flower. Remember that all parts of the flower start from that center point so that is where your brush strokes need to end. Each time you reload your brush, reshape the sharp edge. Let this dry before adding highlights.

Using this same sable brush (you may need to use a smaller one or a round sable if you are

working on a smaller painting) I worked around my flower adding detail and shadow. When I say shadow in reference to this flower, with only a couple of exceptions we haven’t gotten to yet, these are not deep, dark black shadows, these are softer, slightly darker values of the original flower value. Flower petals are translucent so light can pass through them and add light into most shadows, the best way to avoid creating a color that is too dark is to have a pile of your base flower color (white/gesso, blue and a tiny touch of sienna to gray it slightly) then add touches of blue and or purple to slightly darken or you can add more white and touches of

yellow to lighten, this way you won’t stray too far from the original flower value (I am still using that base gray color I started with for the water, just added more white for the base flower color).

The highlights on the center of the flower are basically yellow but you will want to add a touch of gesso to it because yellow is very transparent and will disappear when it dries. Don’t cover up all the orange you put down because that is your shadow color and the lightest areas are on the top left-hand side and are done the same way as the orange color with the sharp edge of the sable brush. We still have the front petals of the flower to put in so some of this will be covered up, just paint them like those petals weren’t there.

I will go over more of this next class and I hope to get real close to finishing up this project. Do what you can at home if you have questions bring them to class I’m sure you are not the only one who will have questions. See you next class.

ACRYLIC CLASS PROJECT: Water Lily Week 5

The last class we finally got to add the actual water lily to our painting. While there wasn’t much instruction, it did take time and, for most of you, practice. While I really don’t want to say that something is “hard” because I do not want you to set up barriers before you even begin, getting the feel for creating the flower petals does take a certain skill, as many of you found out it isn’t as easy as I make it look but you must remember I’ve been doing this for a few years and, yes, I do practice it if I feel I need to refresh those skills.

The first thing I did was to add a bit of the sheen back on to the water that disappeared when I darkened the corners last week, again, this is a dry brush technique but this time I used the 2” haki/blending brush. I tried to keep most of the “sheen” near the center so I didn’t lighten my corners too much, however, notice I didn’t paint a visible ring around the center, it should just fade to the corners. I used the same color as before white/gesso with a touch of the gray color I still had from the water, I thinned it down with water, removed the excess water from my brush with a paper towel and lightly streaked it across my canvas. I had a damp paper towel handy to wipe the color off of areas where I didn’t want it, then let it dry for a few minutes.

For the flower, you do not need to draw on a detailed flower, if it makes you more comfortable then, yes, go ahead and do the detailed drawing with your charcoal but don’t be married to the drawing. With my photo in hand, I just did a simple shape where I needed my flower to be, keeping in mind that the flower is a slightly tilted cup shape, it faces back into the painting and that is important, you don’t want the flower looking out of the painting.

If you don’t have any of the gray from the water left you will need to mix up some more (gesso, blue and sienna keeping it to the blue side), if you still have some gray you will need to add more gesso/white and a touch more blue and enough water to make it a very creamy mixture but not runny. It should be a couple shades lighter than the water but not white, remember you need to have contrast so that white will look white and even though this is a white flower, if you look at it closely only the highlights are actually white all the rest of it is shades of gray.

For best results, you will need to have your sable brush. I was working on a large canvas so used my #10 (wished I had a #12 but made do). The first thing I did was to load my brush by running it back and forth across my paint to not only load paint on both sides but also to bring the end to a fine chisel edge. You do not want globs of paint but the brush needs to be well loaded. Start the stroke on that chisel edge and as you start to pull it is a combination twist and push motion. Many of you got the twist part down but didn’t get the push down part and your strokes looked like snakes so remember to push. Twist back up to the edge and lift to complete the petal. Remember that all the petals go to a central point in the flower so whichever side you are working on be sure that the petal ends in the same place.

I painted in the very outside petals first then to do the next row of petals I added a bit more white/gesso to my color to make the paint a bit lighter before adding the next layer. I only did the back and the sides of the flower, I will do the front after I add the yellow center.

I did do some shading to my flower and if you feel confident you can do it also, I just wanted to get some busy work done so the painting could progress, I will show this in class next time. The shading was the base gray color and I added a touch more blue and a tiny amount of purple. Starting between the petals near the base, I separated the petals by painting the petal BEHIND the other. This is called negative painting and while it is the bread and butter of watercolorists, it is also very useful in other mediums. The darkest part of any flower is going to be near the center and will fade as it comes into the light, just keep this in mind and PLEASE have you reference photo right in front of you as you are painting this, all the information you need is in the photo.

Do not worry about the shadow, I have not started it yet, we may get to it next class. Try to get your painting to this point and I will see you all soon.

Acrylic Class Project: Water Lily Week 4

This week we continued shaping our lily pads, the places where water comes up on the pads and creating the water edges around the pads. We also worked on the shadows under the pads, however, the first thing I wanted to do was to correct something that had been bothering me and that was my background water just seemed to even in value all across my canvas so I wanted to darken the corners of my canvas before I got too much further. It would be a bit harder to do this once I had the flower on so now was the time to fix this before I moved on.

This technique is a good one to use whether you need to darken a large area or lighten an area, if your water was too dark for instance, instead of using darker colors like I was using you would add lighter versions of the colors and instead of working from the corners inward like I did you would start from the center and fade to the corners. The important thing to remember is this is a dry brush technique and you want to blend so you can’t tell where you stopped with your new color.

With a #10 bristle brush and some of that mix I started with for the water (yes, I still have that color on my palette, it is very useful) that is blue, gesso and a touch of sienna keeping it to the blue side, and to that I added blue, purple and sienna to darken it. Through most of this process I just picked up color on my brush and mixed on my canvas blending as I went. My darker colors were in the corners and to that I would add touches of the grey mix or greens or whatever color was there originally to create a soft mottled color as I moved closer to the center. This created a slight vignette around the edges of my canvas.

Another thing when you have to do something like this, don’t worry about what is there, just keep a wet paper towel handy and just skim over the edges with the color and wipe it off with the wet paper towel or just repaint it later because if you try to paint around an object you can create halos and outlines that will make the object look either cartoonish or cut and pasted on to your canvas. Many of you are still worried about painting over something that is already there or leaving a space for another object in front, with acrylics it is just easier and better to paint over something no one will be hurt in the process and your painting will be better for it.

The amount of detail you want to put in is going to be up to you. If you want a lot of detail you will have to look at the photo to see what you need to do, if you don’t want a lot of detail stop when you are happy with the way it looks. This is a personal thing for all artists and you need to figure this out for yourself. I’m a bit of a middle ground sort of person leaning slightly towards the detail side, how detailed depends on what I am painting usually, this painting so I can show those who want detail will be a bit more detailed than if I were doing it on my own.

The yellow pads that are partially under water are a fun detail. With just a bit of paint and a touch of a finger you can make them look like old, dying pads. I was using a #4 round sable but any small brush will do, and any dark color will do for the spots. I had added some mustard color (yellow with a touch of green and the mud on my brush or off the palette) and tapped in some lighter color than what was there. While this was wet I too a dark color, sienna and green I think and just added random dots and splotches to the pad and while everything was still wet I smeared it with a light touch of my finger. You do not need to be exact but the quicker you can do this the better.

The highlights on the bronze part of the pads are another dry brush area. Dry brush means you have very little paint or water on your brush and it is especially important for these highlights you just want to skim the surface nothing more, don’t get heavy handed with either the paint or the pressure on your brush and you will be fine.

I used my #4 flat bristle, some more of that gray mix, a bit more gesso/white and a little touch of red. It will be a pinkish color and it goes on the very top pars to the bronze color. Be sure to wipe you brush before you start and use the side of the brush and FOLLOW THE CONTURES OF WHAT YOU ARE PAINTING. Many of you had stripes of the same size on your pads and while it might appear to be a bit that way but the highlights follow the high points of the pads. They fade to the sides they fade to the ends. They taper or spread out, you need to look at the photo very carefully to see where you are going before you start this process.

Look around you painting to be sure you have all your shadows and detail (shadow color is blue, purple and sienna) we will start on the flower in our next class which brings us to the final thing we did in class and that was to practice making the flower petals. As most of you found out it was harder than I make it look, it does take some practice so it doesn’t look like worms and it is better to do this on a scrap canvas rather than you painting. You will also need a flat sable brush if you have one like at least a #10, watercolor brushes will work if you don’t have an acrylic/oil brush but it still needs to be a ¾” even for those on smaller canvases.

To practice, the color does not matter just whatever you have on your palette. This technique is good for petals and leaves and ribbon or anything else that that is long and twisty.

To start, run your brush through the paint flipping it over a couple times to flatten the flat end of the brush into a nice chisel, this is an important step so don’t skip it. On your canvas put the end of the brush on the canvas, pull it a little then at the same time start to press down and twist. Pull it down a bit more then reverse the process. You should have a shape that is thin on the ends and fat in the middle. When you feel comfortable with that, try making a flower. All the petals curve in to a central point at the base of the flower, the key word is “curve”. Do not bring your petals in straight, it will not look natural. This does take practice. Don’t expect to do a couple of practice petals and think you have it down or you will be trying to fix your flower later and that will be much harder.

I will see you all in class.

ACRYLIC PROJECT: Water Lily Week 3

This will be a combined description of what we did in class for the past couple weeks so there will not be a separate blog for the week I miss posting due to the Studio Tour.

The first thing we did after getting our background in was to under paint the lily pads. Please note that we are looking at the pads from the side so they are not round circles but ellipses. The shape of your pads and the direction you put the veins and ridges are critical  to show the viewer that the pads are laying on the top of the water. If the pads are too round or if you bring the ridges too straight into the center vein, your pads will look like they are standing on edge. The direction of your brush strokes is very important and they give your viewer a lot of information about the subject.

I under painted the pads with a combination of burnt sienna and purple, keeping the mix to the sienna side, it is a fairly dark mix. I was using a #10 bristle brush but you need to use a brush that fits the size of the canvas you are working on but as always, use a large enough brush so you can work quickly at this stage, save the small brushes for detail.

Theselily pads have – for lack of a better term – a sail at the back end that forms a kind of tented structure at the back end of the pad. I don’t know what they are for but they do add some interest to the pad so don’t overlook them in the process. We will detail them out as we finish out the pads around them in watercolor we call this negative painting. Also be aware that there are ridges or ruffles in the pads so when you are drawing or painting the edges, don’t make the edges smooth give them some ups and downs (look at the reference photo).I also want to point out that many of you got right up to where the flower sits and stopped or tried to paint in between where you think the petals might be, this can cause you some problems when you do get to the flower it is better to just continue to paint as if the flower wasn’t there, the flower will cover over what is there but you will have color in the places between petals otherwise it can look very cut and past when you are done.

The yellow lily pads that are under water can be under painted with a bit of yellow, orange and the mud on your brush, you should have a dark mustard color, this is perfect.

When the pads are dry, now you are going to scumble in some green tones into the pads. Always have your reference photo in front of you when you are painting, while you don’t have to be exact in your rendering of the subject, the photo has a lot of information you need to paint a believable representation of the subject. I say this because I want you to see the green in the pads. It is not a solid green it is more of a variegation between the reddish color and the green. Also be aware of the ridges and their angles, draw them in with your charcoal or chalk if you need to, this is important to make the pad look flat on the water.

Still using my #10 bristle brush I used a mix of sap green and a bit of yellow and dry brushed it on the pads following the ridges and dips of the pad (this is not a wall it has shape so follow the shape). Refer to the photo often to see where it is the brightest, don’t forget the “sail” at the back, if you want or need to, add some of that sienna and purple back in you want soft edges

between the colors so you can’t tell where one starts and the other stops. If you need to lighten the color a bit, if you still have some of the blue gray we used for the water, use little touches of that rather than white (gesso) it will lighten a little not a lot like the white can and the white can make it look chalky.

When you are painting the ridges and dips on the pad, keep in mind your brush strokes. I know I sound like a broken record but most of you still have a problem with this and then wonder why you can’t get the right look you are going for. Your strokes need to follow the shape of the thing you are painting, if it is a ridge that is standing up your strokes should be like an inverted “U” shape if it is the dip between your strokes need to be a regular “U” shape. The taller/longer and skinner the “U” stroke the taller or narrower the ridge of dip. Shorter and flatter strokes will make the ridge or dip look flatter. You can practice this with a paper and pencil so you understand what is going on when you get to your canvas, the same goes with the direction of the angle of the ridges: If they stick straight in to the center vein all the way down, the pad will look like it is standing on edge, again try it on paper first.

You can see the dry brush and
all the different layers.

When you get this first layer of green down it will probably dry darker than you’d expect and you will most likely have to go back over it with a bit lighter green. Use the same color with a bit more yellow in it (sap green and cad yellow lt) but don’t go over all your green, usually just hitting the high spots like the tops of ridges will give those ridges more form. Let the sides of the “sail” stay dark because they are in shadow. We have a bit more to do on the pads to get some final highlights and detail then we will get to the flower.

The shadows and the areas where the water comes up on the pads is next, these you can do as you go as they are integrated with each other around the edges of the pads. The shadow color is going to be ultramarine blue and a touch of purple and the highlight color is going to be the water color (white with blue and sienna to gray it), if you have any of the water color left, just add a bit of white to lighten it. I was using a #2 round sable for this because it is detail.

Again,look at your photo. I have my photo taped just above my painting and my eyes are constantly going back and forth between the two before I ever put brush to canvas, I want to know what I am doing and why. I want you to notice that around the pad where the water

touches the pad or comes onto the pad there is a very dark shadow cast from the water, also notice that it varies in size and sometimes disappears altogether depending on how much water is covering the edge of the pad. I don’t want to see a solid outline of the same width all around the edge of the pad, this will make it look like a cartoon when what we are trying to do is create some depth and body of the edge of the water.

On the front edge of the pads not only do you have the edge of the water but there is also the shadows cast from the ridges that stand above the water and the shadow cast from the “sail”. The darkest part of the shadow is what is deepest under the pad so start you dark color there and work out. Look at the photo so see the shapes of these shadows BEFORE you paint them.

Now that you have your shadows for the water, you need the highlights to give it some depth. Using the light gray color and the same brush wherever you have a shadow for your water, there will be a bit of a highlight. Skip a sliver of the water color just above the shadow and add your highlight. Keep your strokes flat because water is flat and keep looking at that photo it gives you the best information.

This is what we did the past couple weeks, try to be caught up to this point for class and learn to be observant of the world around you and you will become a better painter.

FALL 2013 ACRYLIC CLASS

ACRYLIC PROJECT: “Water Lily”

Before I started painting the project I showed how to “tone” the canvas. Many artists will not start a painting before they have toned their canvas whether it is personal choice or how they have been taught, it is an option you should be aware of and you can make your own choice whether to tone or not to tone. The theory of toning the canvas is even if you are very meticulous you will miss something on your canvas and the white of the canvas will show through, by toning the canvas first with very watered down wash of color, in the event that there are areas that are missed instead of white showing through you have color showing instead and this color can help harmonize the overall painting. The color is up to you and it may vary from painting to painting, I’ve seen artists who do a very elaborate “toning” of their canvas, the key is to use a lot of water so it gets into all the pore of your canvas and let it dry.

This is also a good thing to do if you are re-using a canvas, throw a bit of color into your gesso and it will cover better depending on how thick your gesso is, you might only need one coat to cover. I usually use a raw or burnt sienna or umber and blue which makes a nice gray, if I know what I am going to be painting over the top I may go with a complimentary color, for instance, if I were going to be doing something with a lot of green in it I may choose to add some form of red to my gesso to add a bit of warmth to my greens, You make your own choices.

When I start a painting in most cases – there are always exceptions to every rule – I start out my acrylic painting by painting the background. I do this so I get the background behind my subject and foreground. If you try to paint around something or leave the area where something goes unpainted in the end it can look like cookie cutter things pasted on your canvas. Acrylic dries very fast compared to oils so painting on top of it is not a problem so work from furthest away or underneath first then paint on top of it when that layer is dry. This is why I said do not do your drawing at this point in time because we have to do our background first.

My background color base was a medium dark, grayed blue/green made with gesso (for my white), ultramarine blue, Hooker’s green and tiny touches of burnt sienna and even less of purple. The purple is a very strong color and a little will go a long way so be careful when adding it, less is more. I will be adding other colors to this as I paint and I will be using this color later so make enough to cover your canvas and if you can save what is left over, we will probably be adding it to other things along the way.

I lightly sprayed my canvas with water from my spray bottle, this helps the paint slide on the canvas easier but don’t use too much water or you will dilute the paint and it will become too thin and your canvas will show through. Your paint should be the consistency of soft butter and you should be using the largest brush you have, I was using my #10 bristle brush but you can use your 2” blending brush if you are working on a larger canvas like a 16 x 20, I just wanted to 1, show that you can use a bristle brush to do this and 2, the bristle brush adds a bit of movement and texture to the paint.

Using a scumbling stroke (meaning a series of un-organized strokes not going in any particular direction) and starting in the upper corner with my base color I worked my way across and down my canvas. I occasionally picked up other colors and worked them into my base color, any color on your palette is fair game which is the main reason I ALWAYS put out ALL my colors because, just like everyone else, if the color I want is not on my palette, I won’t stop to put it out and my painting will suffer for it. If you store your acrylic like I mentioned in class, you won’t have any problem keeping them usable from week to week so get out those paints!

Working your colors together while they are wet and getting those soft blends is a great way to start many paintings, this is called wet into wet blending and it is a techniques oil painters use a lot but we acrylic painters can use it to our advantage as well, the key is to not over blend your color. It is okay if you add orange, for instance, and blend it into the gray base color, if that orange is still there after you have blended the colors, that is a good thing, you just want to tone down the orange with the gray not eliminate it.

Once your canvas is covered, let it dry. It should be completely covered, do not leave areas unpainted or they can cause you problems later.

When your painting is dry, using either your 2” blending brush or your largest bristle brush on your palette take a tiny amount of gesso, to it add a a little touch of your gray color just so it isn’t pure white and enough water to make it look like skim milk. This is called a glaze and it is very thin so in this instance it is better to have more water than less because you can always go over it again, it is harder to fix if it is too thick especially if it is dry. The water had a bit of a sheen on the surface, this glaze is that sheen.

Once you have you mix be sure that you have removed all the excess water from your brush. I use my fingers to squeegee my blending brush along with a paper towel squeezed up by the metal ferrule to get out any drippy water, this is basically a dry brush technique, if you are using a bristle brush, just squeeze the top of the bristles with a paper towel to get out the excess water.

Once your brush is ready LIGHTLY skim the surface of your canvas using long HORIZONTAL strokes. Water lays flat so you want to be sure that your strokes are parallel to the top and bottom of your canvas. This glaze should be slightly streaky but should not be too white or to outstanding, if it is, quickly take a wet paper towel and wipe it off and add more water to your glaze and try again. Glazes can add a lot to a painting so this is good practice for the future.

Sketch doesn't need to be detailed .

This is where we stopped, please try to have your painting to this point for class and if you have time you can sketch in the design of the water lily. A word of advice: You do not need to sketch in all the little detail of either the lily or the lily pads, just the general shape and location, most of the detail we will do with our brush and it will make it look a lot fresher than trying to follow the photo too exactly. Also be sure to have a spare canvas with you we may be doing some quick studies when we get to certain things that may take some extra focus so you understand what is going on.

See you all in class.

Acrylic Project: Moonlight Fishing

Week 6

We are now don’t to the final details of this painting and it is up to you do decide how much – if any – of the detail you want to put in, it is not a requirement, just suggestions.

The buildings on the Pier are light in color during the day so they will be a medium dark shadow color (purple, blue and a touch of white). Shadows have shadows as well where even the little amount of light available is blocked, this will give your buildings some shape such as the building on top of the closest pier. There are very dark shadows under the eaves and dark shadows on the side wall.

Finished acrylic "Moonlight Fishing"

The roofs of the buildings are sienna and purple, you want a very cool brown color. Remember to follow the angles of the roof when you are painting.

The windows of the restaurant (building on the  close pier) could be reflecting the coast so use similar colors to what you used in the water but add a bit more blue and/or purple to the color so it is darker. Don’t try to make a mirror reflection it is too dark and the windows aren’t that good of glass, just scumble the color on before you paint the dividers in, the dividers may almost disappear if you got the value right for the glass.

You might want to draw the light posts in with your charcoal or chalk and please look at the photo, you will see that the light posts are above the tops of the roof line, don’t make them too short. Paint them in with a dark color, the mix doesn’t matter so long as it is dark.

The glow from the lights on the Pier.

To make the glow from the lights, it is the same as when we did the glow for the moon though this time our color will be a bit more yellow for the incandescent lights. Use white or gesso and a touch of yellow to make a soft light yellow color. Wipe your brush to get any excess off your brush and with a very light touch and the side of your brush, start where the light will be coming from and with small circular, dry brush strokes add the glow from the lights. This color needs to disappear about half way down the pole. Don’t worry about going over the pole that is a good thing. You want the light to look like it is all around the pole and in front of the pole, just be sure you are doing dry brush so you don’t completely cover the pole. You can use this color to go around the edges of the close building.

Highlights on the pier are white with a touch of your thalo blue. It isn’t the bright moon color but a shade or two more blue and it goes on some of the edges that are directly in the moonlight. Don’t get carried away, keep it minimal and mostly in the foreground.

This is watercolor but the idea is the same. They are just
shapes when people are in the distance.

The people I put in are just “dots and dashes” they are even less detailed than stick figures. Put them in or don’t, if you do use a small, round sable or your liner brush and any dark color with a touch of white in it, should be slightly gray and you might have a good color already on your palette that just needs a little white.

I took pure white and made a few of my stars brighter by putting the color on very thick with my liner brush. The shooting star was an accident, I found a dried spot of white in my moon glow and rather than going through a lot of extra work, I just put a tail on it and now I have a shooting start or comet. Sometimes what looks like a problem really isn’t if you don’t panic, it could work out to your advantage.

I am done with this painting and will be doing some short demos for the next couple weeks. If you are done with your painting, bring in something of your own to work on or if you are still working on this project that is good as well. We only have 3 more weeks until the end of class so if you need my help getting started on your own project please bring it in before the end of class. See you all soon.

ACRYLIC CLASS SUMMER 2013

Acrylic Class Project: Moonlight Fishing

We are getting close to the finish line on this project, I think one more class and I will have done all I can do but not to worry if you have missed classes you can finish it up if you want in the remaining classes for this semester and I will come around and help where it is needed.

The last class I demonstrated how to put a glow aroundthe moon, however, I do want to reiterate that if you don’t want to add the glow or anything else, you don’t have to, details are up to you. I show how to do something so in case you feel so inclined you will know the steps, same goes for the pier, if you don’t want to put in the pier or you want to put in something else, it is totally up to you. What I show you is part of my vision and I am sharing it with you, you need to decide if it is the direction you want to go.

That said, I started with the moon glow and final highlights on the water. You will want to mix a color very similar to the base moon color and that is white (gesso) and a tiny, tiny touch of thalo blue. You just want to slightly tint the white so sneak up on that thalo blue with caution. I had about a table spoon’s worth of gesso (what I use instead of white) and to that I added maybe a double pin’s head size of thalo and I ended up adding more white because the blue was so strong even that tiny amount was more than I needed so don’t go jabbing your brush into the thalo, just lightly touch a few bristles to it and check to see how much you actually picked up, you may need to wipe some off. Your color should look just slightly bluish.

Once you get your color mixed, this is going to be a dry brush technique so you will need to wipe most of the paint off your brush. I was using my #4 flat bristle and using the small side of it. My brush was very parallel to the canvas and I was using very little pressure, plus, I used and over-hand hold, not like a pencil, so I had more versatility when moving my brush.

 

Glow can go over clouds.

Glow fades out.

On my canvas, starting just inside the edge of the moon, I started making little, dry brush circles then working my way out into the sky creating the glow. The further away from the moon you are, the lighter the pressure should be on the brush so that the glow just fades into space. If you have clouds going over the moon, go over them as well with this dry brush color to soften them and give them a more transparent look. You can also use this same color and same technique to highlight a few of the clouds but just the top parts that face the moon. Do as much or as little as you want but make sure that you are doing dry brush, you may want to practice on a spare canvas if you are unsure of how to do this technique. The amount of paint and the pressure you apply to the brush are critical. It is also better to have to go over an area again to build up the density thant to try to do it in one step because you can get too much and that is a harder problem to fix rather than building up the color in the first place.

The bright highlight in mostly in the
center and on the top of waves

When you have the glow the way you want it, switch brushes to either your liner or a small sable – I used my #4 flat sable brush but a small round sable brush will also work – and starting right under the moon start adding dips and dabs or this color and apply it pretty thick. This color will stay mostly in the center of the light track from the moon but it is only going to be hitting the tops of waves. Just like the previous colors we added to the light track, you want the edges of this color to be very random, it shouldn’t look like you could draw a straight line from the moon to the shore on either side. In the distance the dips and dabs will be smaller and closer together and as you come to the foreground they will be a bit longer – though not all of them vary the size – and further apart. This color can also be used to add the final bright highlights on the ver tops of the foam and waves.

When you have finished with the glow and the highlights NOW you can add the pier or whatever you were going to put in your painting. You may need to use white or light colored chalk to sketch in your pier because it might be too dark for charcoal to show up, either way be sure to blow off any excess dust when you are done.

You will need to mix a dark color for the under painting of the pier, to do this use all your dark colors: thalo blue, Hooker’s green, purple, burnt umber if you have it, burnt sienna if you don’t, even ultramarine blue, any two or three of these or all of them make a very dark color, the 3 I underlined will be good enough, the color will look black and that is what you want. You may also want to use the same small brush you used for the wave highlights for this part of the painting because it will give you more control than a bristle brush of similar size to get the pylons under the pier the right size and to add details.

The detail is just shapes.

A word about the details under the pier or on it for that matter: They are just shapes. The quicker you do the “details” the better it will be. Straight thicker lines will look like boards thinner lines will look like pipes or whatnot that hangs down under the pier, let the viewer do some of the work, your job is just to suggest that something is going on the person looking at your painting will fill in the blanks. Even the people are just going to be just dots and lines, they will be suggestions not portraits.

That is where we stopped in class; I think we can finish up in the next class. If you want to get something else started before the semester ends bring your reference material and canvas to class and I can help you get started if you need help. See you all soon.

ACRYLIC CLASS SUMMER 20013

Acrylic Class Project: Moonlight Fishing

Week 4

This week we added some highlights to the foam of the crashing waves, more highlights in the moon track and added some foam to the shore.

The highlights on the foam will be done in stages and that deep lavender blue that you have for the under painting will be the shadows in the foam. The next layer of color is going to be just slightly lighter using the same color (thalo, purple and white) just adding a bit more white to is to lighten the color. If you want it a bit bluer, add a bit more thalo just be sure that the value is lighter than what you have on your canvas.

Load your brush (I used my #4 flat bristle) by tapping it straight down in your palette to “fuzz” out the end to give it an interesting shape, then lightly tap or using the side of the brush, roll this color into your wave foam. When you are tapping on your color be sure to overlap your strokes to soften them as you go and when you reload you can pick up touches of white or blue or purple and tap them in to blend them together to create a soft blend. This is called wet into wet and it can create some beautiful effects. Keep lighter colors to the top darker colors to the bottom. I also want you to think about what you are painting: Bouncing, boiling, tumbling foam. Try to recreate that violent action with your brush strokes, use your fingers to blend if you have to, practice on a scrape canvas or piece of paper if you are uncertain, just don’t be timid. The worst thing that can happen is you have to paint it over again, no big deal. Every artist has to redo something in almost every painting if not a lot of somethings, it is the nature of the beast and with practice you will get better in time.

At this point if you feel more comfortable working on a dry canvas, you can wait for the foam to dry or you can start right into the bright highlight doing more wet into wet, choice is yours either way you will mix your highlight color which will be very similar to the color you used for your moon: Mostly white/gesso and a very tiny touch of thalo to slightly tint the white. Mix enough to have for later because we will use this for the base on the next layer of highlight on the water. Load you brush the way you did before for the foam so you have an interesting shape at the end of your brush, then lightly tap mostly along the top part of the wave. Create shapes of the top of the foam or create little pieces of foam that have broken off flying through the air be creative but be careful not to get too carried away, the highlight is just along the top where it might get hit by the moonlight. Less is more in the case of highlights here. Again, use your fingers to blend if you have to, this should be a soft looking area.

Once you are satisfied with your foam, if you have some shore line (sand and foam) and not all of you did and that is okay, but if you do, you can under paint that area now so it can be drying while you work on something else.

Wave and shore demo

The shoreline sand is sienna, purple and ultramarine blue, I prefer to mix this on my canvas but you can mix on your palette, just to mix to well, the variation in color is a good thing. I was still using my #4 flat bristle brush and just scumbled the color on go into the area where the water with foam will be (almost up to the wave) and be sure that where you end the color the edge is soft, you don’t want any hard lines. When you get the area covered you can use either the same brush or a bigger brush to LIGHTLY pull straight down, then LIGHTLY straight across, you don’t want to remove all the brush strokes just suggest others, this is starting the reflection process.

While that area is drying you can add some more highlights to the moon track. In the paint you mixed for the highlight on the foam add a bit more thalo and a touch of Hooker’s green, you want a color that is a shade or so lighter in value than the last layer of highlight you put on, however, you do not want it to be as bright as the moon just yet, that will be the next layer. 

Again, I used my #4 flat bristle but if you want you can use a flat sable brush as long as you keep your strokes reasonably flat and the edges of your light track uneven. And PLEASE do not cover up everything that is there already, the dark under painting is the shadows of incoming waves, the last highlight was water that is only catching a bit of light, this highlight is water that is catching a bit more light and the final highlight will be just the very tops or waves that are catching the moonlight. Think of it as a pyramid with the dark color at the bottom the first highlight about a third of the way up from the bottom, this next highlight is about 2/3s up and at the very top is the bright final highlight. Each time there is less paint leaving a bit of what you painted before showing, this is important especially in a night scene where light is limited you don’t want to flood an area with light.

Close-up of foam  and sand

Back to the shore to put some foam in. This is the residual foam that washes up to the shore, it is not clean and pristine like what is forming on the crashing wave, it is full of dirt and algae so you can add a lot of different colors into the foam and it will look right so if you still have any of that color you were just using for the highlight on the water, you can use that as a base but mix into it more Hooker’s, a touch of burnt sienna and a little touch of purple, you want sort of a grey green color. I was still using my #4 brush though this time when I loaded it I wanted to have the bristles more together so I pulled it through the paint on both sides to bring the bristles together. On my canvas with the end of the brush, I made a series of flat, overlapping strokes that were more or less parallel to the top and bottom of the canvas. I left some holes in this area so that the sand color showed through. I would occasionally pick up other colors like Hooker’s or sienna or blue or purple and work it into the foam area. When my strokes got back to the wave, I changed direction because the wave is building up and will drag the foam with it, just curve your strokes with the curve of the face of the wave (see picture page).

If you want, you can put a few dark shadows under the edge of the foam where it hits the sand and in a few places where it is floating in the water, this will give it depth also, you can take a bit of cobalt blue (or ultramarine with a touch of white) and dry brush it horizontally across the sand area, it is just a soft glaze, then quickly pull the color straight down with the end of your brush, it will look like a glaze of water.

Next week we will be adding a few highlights to the foam and the glow of the moon and maybe get the pier based in so please try to be caught up to this point so we can move forward. See you all soon.

ACRYLIC CLASS SUMMER 2013

Acrylic Project: Moonlight Fishing

Week 3

During the last class I concentrated on the wave by doing a larger demo so the class could see what I was painting because on the actual painting the wave is small and near the bottom making it very hard to see even when you are close. This would be considered a study and when you are unsure of what you are doing it is always good to practice on an old canvas you’ve painted out or smaller canvases or even heavy paper or acrylic paper so you can figure out exactly what you need to do before you start on your painting and get lost, it lessens the possibility of having to paint something out several times, adding to your frustration. Studies are good.

Often times in art the simplest looking thing turns out to be a lot more complicated than you ever imaged it to be, such is the case with waves. It is one thing to watch the waves crash against the shore, it is another to try and recreate a frozen version of that wave crashing so you need to break the parts of the wave down to understand what you are painting even harder to write about it, but I will try.

 

A piece of duct tubing as a model.

A wave is like a tube with a slice out of it. You see both the inside “face” of the wave and the back side of the wave as it breaks over the face. I took a piece of duct tubing and cut  part of it to illustrate a breaking wave, the red representing the face or inside of the wave/tube and the green the breaking part of the wave as the back side of the wave falls over the front. If you have a piece of duct tubing you might want to look at it the coils in it make a great visual to see a close representation of the action of the water. That combined with watching actual wave breaking will give you a better understanding of the dynamics that are going on in a wave.

The other parts of a wave that also show are the eye or transparency and the base. If you look close you will see that it is much lighter at the top of the wave than it is at the bottom because of the thickness of the water at the base. As the water peaks it becomes thinner and thinner allowing more light to come through until it becomes so thin it can’t support its weight and falls over. All of this is what we as artists are trying to represent on our canvases when we are painting, it is a lot simpler to do than it is to explain here put simply a wave is darker at the bottom than it is at the top.

Using my thalo blue, with touches of purple and Hooker’s green I started at the base of the wave with my flat bristle brush, at the very base my strokes are mostly flat but as I start up the face of the wave, I curl the stroke to follow the curl of the wave. It is always important to follow the shape of the object you are painting to give visual clues to whoever is looking at your painting no matter what it is you are painting. As I move up the face of the wave I add touches of cobalt blue along with the thalo and Hooker’s but leave out the purple, using more of the cobalt and less of the thalo until I get almost to the top when I add touches of white (gesso) to suggest the eye. You can also start from the eye and work down the wave, just reverse the process.

The breaking part of the wave has a similar process it is light along the top edge and gets darker where it turns into foam but you need to note the your brush strokes are going to be  going in a different direction. Where  the inside face may have curved to your right, the outside breaking water curves to the left (green stripes on the tube) and is very important to make the wave look like it is breaking.

I do want to remind you here that we are painting nighttime waves. You don’t want to get the water too yellow green or it won’t look like night time, stay in your cool blues for night, however, when you do daytime waves your light parts of the wave will almost look yellow because of the colors available in the sunlight.

One of the most common mistakes when you are learning to paint is when you want to paint white. Many beginner starts out painting white with white then wonders why they can’t make it look right. The reason is: White is not white. This is especially true in this painting, the only things that are white are the stars all other objects that might seem white are some form of blue or purple because it is night. Again, you need to observe white in both bright sunlight and in shadow and where they transition into shadow. Look at white objects so you can see that there may be very little, if any, pure white on it except maybe a bright highlight the rest may be greys or blues. Look at white houses at night, are they actually white? Whenever you want to paint white you always start out with a cool grey or blue or purple under painting, this will become the shadows and texture of the white.

For the under painting of the foam I used thalo, purple and gesso (white) to make a dark lavender blue. I loaded my flat bristle brush by tapping it straight down onto my palette which not only loaded my brush but also “fuzzed up” the end so it was very irregular. I tapped the color on where I wanted the foam always thinking about what foam does during this part of a wave break. It is a very violent motion with bubbling and churning, even in fairly calm ocean waves you will see a lot of motion, so be sure your foam has an interesting shape with lots of variation around the edges. If you want while the paint is still wet and at the top of the foam, you can pick up little touches of white or cobalt and tap it in as you form the tops of the foam. This is still going to be a dark color, we are nowhere near the final highlights, but this will give you just a bit of variation in value so you can start to see the waves take shape.

 

Added waves and a few stars

The only other thing we did in class was to add a few stars in with our tooth brush and white (gesso). Keep a wet paper towel handy so if they get too big or look more like comets or have fallen into your ocean, you can wipe them up before they dry. We may do some more individual types stars but this may be all you want, it will be up to you.

Next class we will be putting in the glow from the moon and more sparkle on the water. I want to get all of the water and sky finished so the following week we can put in our pier or whatever you want to put in (or nothing at all). I hope that everyone can get caught up to this point. See you in class.