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.