Winter 2014 Acrylic Class

Exercise: Wet into Wet Blending.

As all of you found out wet into wet blending can be a challenge but it is a challenge you need to take up if you want your art to move on to the next level. It will bring a looseness that most artists crave as well as a more spontaneous look and feel to your art. Since all of my students this time are returning and you have a semester or more under your belt, it is time to step out of your comfort zone so you can grow as an artist.

We started with the basic sphere shape or more to the point, we started out with a circle and with shading we turned it into a sphere at least that was the goal. Many of you found it a bit harder than I made it look, remember, I am the teacher for a reason, I’ve been doing this for years and I understand what I have to do, for most of you, this is not the case. I can just paint because I know what I am doing, what my paints will do, what my brushes will do and how to use them, I don’t have to think, I just paint. As students you are thinking about EVERYTHING! The paint, the value, what brush, how much pressure to use, where is the light coming from? How much water do I use? What did she say again? All of these things are running through your head along with countless other worries and concerns, even a lot of second guessing, it makes it hard to paint. I know it is difficult but you need to shut the conversation down in your head. Look at your goal – the sphere – and break it down into workable pieces. The first thing you need to do is find a place to start.

I start with my circle. It does not need to be perfect, close enough will do. Next: Where is your light coming from and where will it hit on your circle? I had mine, for this demo. Coming in from the upper right, slightly forward, but practice this from different light angles because depending on what you are painting the light isn’t always going to be come from the same direction every time. You should also practice on different shapes circles get boring.

Now that you have your circle and know your light source, where do you start to paint? This comes down to a personal choice at some point so I will tell you my reasoning for starting this the way I did from dark to light. I can mix my dark (blue, burnt sienna or umber and a touch of purple) or, for this exercise, you can use black if you have it, and it will be pure dark with no contaminants from lighter colors, then into this dark I can add touches of white and blend to my lightest area and with planning and careful painting, I will have the complete value gradient from my darkest dark to my lightest light.

Each layer will be done exactly the same so I won’t repeat the description for each layer so just repeat as necessary. I was using a #6 bristle brush but I could use any brush, the #6 was a good size for the area I was working on. I do suggest that you use the biggest brush you can work comfortably with, put the small brushes away when you are working wet into wet, you want to work quickly, small brushes are for detail, we are not doing detail here.

I took the dark paint I mixed (see above, but you should know this by heart) and I started painting at the bottom of my circle and using strokes that followed the shape of the circle I painted about a third of the left hand side with the dark value almost to the top. I wiped my brush out, I DID NOT CLEAN IT and picked up some straight gesso (white will work as well), then starting just a little above my dark area, I added the white, which will turn a dark gray with the paint left from the dark in your brush and painted another quarter or so of the circle’s left side following the curve of the soon to be sphere. Wipe the brush out again to get out any excess paint, then go back to the space between the dark and the next value and work the two areas together: the dark into the gray, the gray into the dark, just be careful not to go all the way into the dark or all the way into the grey and watch the pressure you use on your brush, to get a nice blend you will need to use a very light pressure or even your finger so soften the two areas together.

Wipe your brush out well but you still don’t need to clean it, pick up some more white and repeat the process with your next layer. When you are at your lightest light area, then you can clean out your brush well then with straight white for the highlight, finish your sphere. If you have worked the paint and brushes correctly, there should be no real discernable line between each value change with a dark shadow and a light highlight and your circle should now look like a sphere. Start to finish should only take you 5 minutes or so. Practice.

The second exercise we did was using our 2” blending brushes. We haven’t use these much in the past but they are very handy brushes to have and can create skies and distant hills in a hurry so you can get on to the detail you all love J.

Some of you still do not have a proper blending brush, if the bristles are stiff like your bristle brushes, it will not work for this technique, the bristles need to be very soft, I think they are goat hair, it feels like a blush brush, it is so soft when you blend with it, it looks like you did it with an air brush. It is also called a “haki” (hookey) brush. Stiff bristles will leave streaks and marks you will never get rid of so be sure you have a blending brush and feel it before you buy it. Some of the TV artists like Jerry Yarnell, Bob Ross and the Jenkins have great blending brushes, if you can’t find them in the store, you can go on-line check the links on the side, Jerry Yarnell’s you can call and they will send it right out and their prices are competitive with Cheap Joe’s or Dick Blick. Check the web sites.

 When every your wet or rinse you blending brush be sure to dry it well. I will squeegee it through my fingers to get rid of the excess water AND use a paper towel because they will hold a lot of water and that will cause you problems with your paint and/or gesso being too thin and running. You want a damp brush not a wet one.

I use my spray bottle to wet the canvas then take my blending brush and make sure the water is spread across the area I want wet, check your brush to be sure it isn’t dripping then pick up some straight gesso on your brush and apply it to your canvas so you have a nice thin layer of gesso across what will be our sky. You can wipe your brush or not before you pick up a bit of yellow on one corner and a bit of red or orange on the other, then streak this horizontally across the bottom of your sky. Remember we are working wet into wet so the gesso should still be wet when you add the yellow and orange.

When you have your color on you will start the blending process by using big, overlapping, long “x” strokes and very little pressure on your brush. As the late Bob Ross would say “Three hairs and some air” and that about sums it up. You may want to stand because you simply cannot get the freeness in your arm if you are sitting down. If you need to sit push your chair back from the table so you are at arm’s length to give yourself more freedom of movement and it will get you away from your canvas which is a good thing. Work quickly.

When you have these colors on your canvas, rinse your brush well, be sure to dry it, then pick up blue on one corner and a touch of purple and maybe a touch of sienna on the other – mostly blue – and streak these colors across the TOP of the sky. With the same “X” stroke as above, blend the blue colors down to almost where the warm colors are, then clean your brush again to get out all the blue and purple, with your clean, dry brush, start in the warmer area, again with the big “x’s” and lightly blend up into the blue area and back down. Don’t go too far up into the blue area or it could become too light (remember the problems with the sphere). You will need to wipe your brush out often so your colors don’t get too muddy, keep your paper towel handy.

I do need to mention if your sky turns green, you may be using the wrong blue. I use ultramarine blue because it is student friendly when it comes to mixing, if you are using Pthalo (thalo) blue, which tends to be a bit on the green side anyway, you will get this lovely shade of brilliant green in your sky, pick up some red and work it in, that should neutralize the green but a little bit of green won’t hurt.

This should only have taken you less than 3 or 4 minutes and everything should still be wet. No, I am not joking. If you have to lightly spray your sky to keep it wet and workable, be sure to blend in the water so it doesn’t leave spots.

Still using the blending brush, I mixed a color with blue, purple, a touch of sienna and white that was just a shade darker than my sky. It should be a purplish/gray color, then pull your blending brush through it on both sides to create an edge on the bristles of the brush. Using this edge, create the tops of your distant mountains, this will give you a nice soft edge combined with the wet sky, it will create distance in your painting.

The next layer is done much the same but this time add a touch more sienna and blue but only change it a value or two, this is still the background. The next layer, to the same color you have been working in, add some green and create yet another layer of hills or mountains, this is still wet into wet. The more layers you make the more distance you create in your painting, the more distant something is the lighter and grayer it will be.

For closer trees add more green, but this time turn your brush sideways and pull down and overlap your strokes, make an interesting edge, higher, lower, it isn’t a hedge. Nearer trees can have more detail, they are darker and have more color but will still be a bit on the gray side. Start to finish on this exercise should take less than 10 minutes, the sky should still be a bit damp.

Practice these wet into wet techniques and you will build up your speed as it becomes more familiar to you and it will open up a whole new world of possibilities for you. If you want to be more impressionistic, this is where you start. Have fun, don’t sweat the small stuff and if worse comes to worse – I’m sure it will for a while – there is always gesso.

Be ready to work when we come back from MLK break and I will see you all soon.