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WINTER 2013 – ACRYLIC CLASS

Project: Clay Pots and Chilies

I want to reassure the newer students in class that there is method to my madness. I heard comments to the effect that “It’s very dark!” Yes it is! And that is a good thing. In any painting you need to have dark to show light so with most mediums – with a couple of exceptions like watercolor – your under painting tends to be on the dark side for the first couple layers, this is true in oils and also pastels. You have to have that darkness so when you put lighter colors on it they will show up. Don’t panic, we will start to put the light into it next week.

That said, I finished under painting my bowl. I want you to notice that aside from the string of chilies, I have not painted the chilies in the bowl or on the table, also notice that on the inside of the bowl I painted it as if there were no chilies in there at all. I did not paint around the area of the chilies because I do not know where those chilies will be when I do put them in but I know the back of the bowl will need to be there when I get around to it.

When I painted the bowl, I needed it to be a different color, this bowl was probably closer to the fire where the smoke was (called a reduction fire) which added blackened streaks to the bowl and a grayer color to the natural clay. Burnt sienna is still my base but to it I added ultramarine blue, a touch of purple and a tiny amount of white. It should be a warm (color-wise) charcoal gray. (If you don’t understand color “temperature” here is an abridged version: visual warm colors are red, orange, yellow and all their variations such as brown [orange family], magenta [red family] ocher [yellow family]. The cool colors are purple, blue and green and all their variations such as lavender [purple], turquoise [blue], khaki [green]). If the color is too cool – to the blue side – add a touch more sienna.

Everything is now under painted.

Using my #4 flat SABLE brush (a sable will give you more control, just don’t scrub with it) and following the curves of the bowl, if you don’t have a flat sable use a flat bristle, it’s just not as springy as a sable. I filled in the inside of my bowl with the color I mixed. Down toward the bottom, inside of the bowl where the light will be blocked I kept it very dark, as I painted up into the area where light will fall, I added touches of white and orange or sienna to SLIGHTLY lighten the area, I am not up to the lightest lights yet but I can start the process. On the outside I used the same dark mixture I used on the inside of the bowl, same brush but I streaked it on following the curve of the bowl and picking up straight burnt sienna with the mud on my brush to add the streaks of natural clay color you see in the bowl.

Once I had the bowl under painted, I now had all of my elements under painted so I could proceed on to the first phase of bringing in the light. I started with the peppers, using the same sable brush and alizarin crimson. If you don’t have alizarin add a touch of your ultramarine blue to the napthol red to cool it down it should be a value or two lighter than what is there. Again, this is just under painting for the chilies but we will be a bit more specific, yet, the chilies are just shapes, the quicker you get them in the better they look. If you try to nitpick each individual chili, your chilies will look over worked and won’t fit in with the rest of the painting. You might want to practice before you do it on your painting, however, if you twist your brush in your fingers and lift as you make your shapes, you will get a more natural looking chili then trying to be too specific.

The chilies go in all directions, they are twisted, curled, turn up and down or both, they overlap each other, some come at you some point away, just be free with shapes  and be sure to get them down behind the  vase in front of them. The chilies near the bottom will be in shadow so add a touch of blue and/or purple but keep it just slightly lighter than your first layer of paint. When you are satisfied with that layer of alizarin, this time pick up either your napthol red or your cad red and do the same thing but keep this color more where the light might hit it, you can also pick up touches or orange to paint either new chilies or to highlight existing chilies. DO NOT COVER UP ALL THAT ORIGINAL DARK AREA that becomes the shadows on the inside of the chili string.

The last thing I did in class is to start the highlighting of the ground around my bowls. I am going to have my bowls sitting in the dirt, if you are doing something different and need help figuring it out, catch me in class and I will help you achieve the desired effect.

Back to my #10 flat bristle brush, I mixed burnt sienna with a touch of white and maybe a little orange for the area where light will be hitting, I will be adding color to my brush as I go but this will be what I start with. When I load my brush I wipe out any excess either on my palette or on my paper towel so I’m not dealing with a glob of paint, then with the flat end of the brush slightly on its side but entirely on the surface of the canvas I make a long, flat “u” stroke. The harder you push on your brush, the more paint will come off it, conversely, the lighter the pressure the less paint comes off so adjust the pressure of your brush to your needs.

I added the light color in over lapping strokes but still leaving some of the under painting show through, this gives texture and depth to the ground, that said, by using varying pressure on my brush, I did congest the area so it didn’t look like a Flat U convention. When I got to the corners and to areas where I wanted shadow, the stroke was the same but to my brush I added more straight sienna, along with blue, purple and a touch of red here and there and mixed the colors on the canvas and blended them into the lighter areas. This is only step one for highlighting the dirt but it is an important step.

We will continue the highlighting process next week, if you have questions specific to your painting please let me know, someone else might be having the same problem. You are all doing great, I hope you are having fun, I know I’m liking this painting. See you in class.