SPRING 2013 ACRYLIC CLASS – More Practice

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Creating distance in the landscape.

We are finishing up some of our practice studies for now but don’t leave your spare canvas at home it will be used again when we get into other areas of the project and it is always good to have when you need to test a color or to practice a brush stroke so it is handy to keep close. We have really only covered the background of our project and there is still a glazing I want to do on this before we start the project so be sure to bring your study to class.

I started with the highlights on the cliffs and while it is a brighter value than the shadows around it, the highlights are still slightly gray because they are in the distance. You don’t want to make them bright white or any bright color because it just wouldn’t look right. I still have the gray I mixed (Ultra marine blue, burnt sienna and white) on my palette so I added a touch of that gray to white (gesso) along with a touch of orange, it should look like a soft, warm gray color. I used my #4 flat bristle brush but you can use a #4 flat sable if you have one, the key to both brushes is very little paint, this will be a dry brush technique regardless of which brush you use. Mix enough paint so you don’t have to remix we will be adding to this color for other highlights.

Load your brush so that you have paint in the bristles, then lightly wipe off the excess from the outside. I turned my brush so the flat edge was vertical to my canvas to highlight the vertical rocks at the tops of the cliffs. Like everything else in painting, this takes practice, observation and trust. Practice because you need to get the right amount of paint and pressure on your brush; observation so you look at your reference before you start painting so you see exactly what you are painting and why, and trust that what I am instructing you to do is for your best interest.

The trust part is especially true so that practice and observation make sense. You need to trust that when I tell you that the quicker you do these strokes the better. They are just shapes. The more pressure you put on your brush the more paint come off and the area will look brighter, the lighter the pressure, the less paint comes off and more of the under painting comes through so the same color can look darker in value because it is visually mixing with the color underneath.

Shear rock cliffs give way to hills.

Observe in the reference photo (ALWAYS have your reference material out when you are painting) that the brightest area is on the right hand side of that rounded cliff. These are shear rock faces reflecting light, other areas are more subtle probably because they are made up or broken rocks. Also notice that the rock faces only come down so far before they change in to softer mounds or eroded rocks/dirt that have piled up at their bases. Where these two areas meet is where your brush strokes go from a vertical stroke to a more diagonal stroke. You want your brush to follow the shape of the thing you are painting. When it changes from solid rock to softer hill side the color also becomes softer and not as bright so less pressure more dry brush.

That rock face on the rounded cliffs is the brightest highlight on the ridge, the other highlights are done the same way with the same brush but I added a touch more orange and gray to my highlight color. There also some detail in the shadowed sides of the cliffs that are done in exactly the same way but with shadow colors. You can leave the original under painting as your brightest areas in your shadows and mix a color that is slightly darker than the under painting. Remember that this cliff is in the distance you will not see any really dark colors so this shadow color should still be a medium dark, blue gray. This color becomes the shadows and cracks between the rocks. Look at the reference photo to see where this color goes, it is done just like the highlights, very dry brush but now instead of painting the bright areas (positive painting) you are painting the shadows (negative painting).

 

You can always go back an improve your sky.

Several people in class asked about the sky. Some were not happy with it some just wanted to give it more clouds I showed how to change your sky by adding to what I had and not painting it out. I added some of that dark blue gray I used as my shadow color from the cliffs and using the same #4 bristle brush on its little side and making a circular, dry brush stroke I added some darker clouds to my left corner. While it was still wet I took some of my lighter gray color and added that into the darker gray to soften the edges and again with white this time softened the edges eve more blending wet into wet. I added some whiter clouds with what I had on my brush and just a touch or white along the tops. This added more drama to my sky and it was another good thing to practice.

The last thing we practiced was the tree line on the other side of the wash. Once again – and I will be saying this often – look at your reference photo. The trees on the other side of the wash form a pretty solid looking barrier from a distance but it is not a wall or a hedge. No one has come out and pruned those trees so they are one perfectly manicured, same height mass of trees, these trees are only pruned by Nature so they can be ripped out by the roots in a flood or have branches blown off in a wind, their height and spacing will vary greatly, when you sketch in your tree line, keep this in mind. There should be a lot of ups and downs, ins and outs as you sketch. There should be gaps, tall trees, short trees, missing trees just no hedge trees.

 

The highlights on the trees are subtle the  shadows
are a blue gray, not black.

Even those these trees are closer to us, there is still distance between the foreground and the trees across the wash, the color we will be using is going to be green but it is going to be a very gray green in color. If you need to mix more gray see the formula above (burn this in your brain) because we will be using this color as our base. To that gray color add sap green, a touch more blue and a touch of purple. You should have a dark khaki or military green color, this will be the base color for your trees.

I switched to a #10 bristle brush to cover the area quickly but keep your smaller brush handy. Just like I did when forming the mountain ridge, though this time I used my brush more vertically to create smaller shapes, starting near my sketch line, I pulled down to form the tops of my trees. You can scumble and scrub the color into the trees once you are away from the top shape of the trees to get the area covered as quickly as possible. While it isn’t necessary, if you want you can add a touch of orange and a little touch of white to make a highlight color this color should be more orange than white, most of you were using either white exclusively or predominately and the highlights looked too chalky, use your smaller brush and while the under painting is still wet, you can suggest highlights in your trees on the right hand side. Smudge with your finger so you don’t have hard lines. You can do this when it is dry but I like the wet into wet look. You can also add shadows the same way either wet into wet or dry brush but instead of lighter colors add more blue and purple to your base green to make shadows under the trees in between trees and limbs (look at your reference photo or go look at trees).

I want to show you how to glaze this before we start the project so bring your study to class and a blank canvas to start the project. PLEASE do not do any drawing or sketching, we will do that as we go and as needed. I will see you in class, be ready to get to work.