SPRING 2014 ACARYLIC CLASS

Week 1: Project – From My Garden

For my new students and for my returning students who forget, the best way to start an acrylic painting is from what is behind the subject and move forward so for this painting the background and the table the veggies sit on are behind everything that is where we start.

At this point in time you really don’t need to do any drawing other than maybe a horizon line about a third of the way up from the bottom and that is only to let you know when to change from background color to table colors. When we are done, our whole canvas will be covered. This will prevent the “cut and paste” look that can happen when you try to avoid painting where things are in your painting, this can be done even in oils where the oil paint scraped away where things will go or wait for it to get tacky, with acrylics, we just let it dry and then paint right over it. It creates a much smoother, coherent background.

This is the watercolor version

We haven’t used our blending brush too often though this is a great place to use it. The blending brush is the big, soft bristled brush we use to create almost airbrush-like backgrounds and is perfect for this background. However, I know that many of you have not found a blending brush yet so not to worry, you can use the largest bristle brush you have and while it may not be as smooth as using a blending brush, you can get a very nice “painterly” background following the same steps, and/or you can start off with the bristle brush then soften the brush marks with the blending brush, it all depends on what equipment you have or what look you are going for.

The background color here can be any color you want or need it to be, I just used green because everyone seemed to like the green version I did in watercolor but if you have an area where you think you might like to hang this when you finish or if you want to give it to a friend who has a certain color in their home, you can modify the color to fit your needs, the technique will be the same, the colors will very.

I will warn you now that you need to work quickly once you start because all of the following narrative only covers about 5 minutes worth of time, otherwise, the paint dries and it becomes a different technique.

The first thing I did was to wet my canvas. This will help the paint go on easier and will give you a bit more blending time. Keep your spray bottle handy just in case you need a bit more water to finish your blending. Next, IN THE AREA THAT WILL BE THE LIGHTEST I applied gesso to that area and just a bit beyond. The gesso will help make the area light as well as help blending but I don’t want it in the dark areas because it will make them too light then you will have to go back over with darker colors when this layer has dried. It isn’t a problem to fix, it just makes another step.

I start in the gessoed background area with yellow or a touch of the color you want to use, and blend it out from the center using crisscross strokes – big “x’s” – or scumbling, which is going every which direction with your brush whether you are using a bristle brush or a blender. The worst thing you can do here is to paint it like a wall with flat strokes, mix it up, put some life into it. This color should go down into the table area.

You don’t need to rinse your brush yet, just pick up a bit of sap or Hooker’s green or whatever color you are choosing , start on the outside of the light area and work your way in towards the center, blending and lightening the pressure on your brush as you get closer to the center. This is the tricky part because most of you over blend because you are either going over it too much or using too much pressure or both, you goal is to make a nice graded transition from the darker outside to a lighter inside so you don’t see where one starts and the other ends. This takes practice and trust in yourself. If you get the center too dark, wipe out your brush, pick up some gesso and start in the center and blend out to make it lighter. Everything can be fixed so don’t panic, just do your best.

Now rinse your brush out really good because you will want to get out all the white gesso. Be sure that you dry it completely so you don’t have any excess water in your brush or it will thin your paint too much.

I usually double or triple load my brush when I am doing this and you may want to as well, even if it seems a bit scary at first, it gives a much more interesting background when you blend colors on your canvas. for my painting I picked up Hooker’s green, a touch of blue and purple, if you are using a different color scheme, you will want to use the darkest version of the color you have and add blue and/or purple, then start in the corners away from the light area blending the color just up to the light area but not going into it yet, you want to get all the darker areas painted in first, then rinse your brush out good and dry it.

Starting at the edge of the lighter area, using crisscross strokes and a very light touch (no pressure on your brush) start blending into the dark area. Wipe off your brush often especially when you go back into the light area. You want a gradual transition of color but in the process you don’t want your light area to become dark or your dark area to become too light. Practice make perfect, this will come in time.

You will do a similar thing where the table will be but you will use some different colors. Once again, if you want it to be a table cloth instead of a wooden table, the choice is yours, I’m doing the wood because I like wood.

It has taken you longer to read all this than it should take you to get to this point, if your light area is a bit tacky lightly spritz the area with water then quickly blend it in. Depending on what you decide to make this area, you might want to add a bit of yellow or warm color into the light area to add a bit of sunlight, rinse your brush and starting on the outside edges of the table area and this time using long flat crisscross strokes (this CAN be painted like a wall) start in the dark area and blend across until you get to the light area and do just what you did above when blending the 2 areas together. I was using sienna and purple in the corner adding sienna as I got closer to the light area.

This will come easier each time you do this. If it is not perfect this time, don’t worry, mine isn’t either but I’m not worried about it. I know I am going to have things in front of it so no one will notice anyway. This is a great background technique for many things beyond still life such as portraits or when you want a vignette, even starting a landscape, I can see in mine coming out from a dark forest into a light meadow, the possibilities are limited only to your imagination. It is a good thing to learn.

For next class, if you can draw your veggies on with your charcoal or chalk that would be a good thing, be sure that you fill the canvas with the subject, if you have problems, wait for class and I will help you, I want to see your drawing before you start painting because I have been seeing a lot of 8 x 10 drawings on a 16 x 20 canvas. See you soon.