2014 Fall Acrylic class Week 4

FALL ACRYLIC CLASS PROJECT: Cloud Study

We are getting close to the end of this project so we can start to be a bit more choosey about what we are doing. First we still need to brighten the cloud tops and get the final shapes to our clouds (remember: Nothing is done unless you think it is done. If you need to change something at any point, you are allowed) and to get our foreground under painted. I will finish mine up next week as many in the class are still working on getting their clouds in, I don’t want to be too much ahead of all of you.

If you don’t have any of the medium dark gray mixed you will need to mix some more gray, you are also going to need some more of the tinted white/gesso. I mixed my gesso about 2 tsp worth to a drop about the size of 3 grains of rice to get a soft warm white. I had started out with just about a tsp of gesso but even that small amount of orange made it too orange so I had to add more gesso. You just want a tint. I worked back and forth between these colors, if I wanted it lighter I used the white, if I wanted to blend into other parts of the clouds I added gray but these were not the only colors I used another reason to have a palette that you can put ALL your colors out on because you never know when you will want to use say a touch of red or green. Yes, these colors are in the clouds and yes, you can add them carefully.

I started out using my #4 flat bristle brush, I picked up some of the soft white I mixed and worked it into the bristles then slightly wiped the excess off, this will be a dry brush technique so be sure that all excess water is off your brush as well as excess paint. Starting near the top edge of the cloud using overlapping circular strokes, create the top sunlit tops of the clouds. Pressure on your brush will mean everything at this point: More pressure means more paint comes off your brush, lighter pressure will give you soft wispy edges and blends.

As you move back towards the darker parts of the cloud you can pick up some gray and lightly blend it into the white, just don’t blend so much you ruin the white top or you will have to do it again. Also, you need to know when to stop. I saw many of you continuing to blend until you lost all the dark and the light so you had a gray blob in your sky. Or you used too much white and lost all the shape. PLEASE. PLEASE. PLEASE, LOOK at your reference photo while you are doing this, understand what you are painting BEFORE you start painting, this will save you a lot of time and frustration correcting your painting later.

You can add colors while you are doing this part of the clouds but think about what you are doing first (I know, again with all the thinking), think about the colors you associate with the temperature of light. When you think of warm things you think red, orange and yellows when you think cool or cold you think blues, greens and purples this will help you decide what colors go where. We already know that blue and purple are our natural shadow colors but you can also add some Hooker’s green (it is a cooler green than sap), or some soft lavenders or pale blues in the grayer and darker tones of the clouds, even touches of crimson in the shadows might be present. In the sunlit areas more touches of orange or yellow or pink. When you add these colors it is very dry brush with very little pressure. You just want a hint of color to add more life to your clouds so they don’t look so monochromatic.

Take your time finishing your clouds and look at your reference photo often. Keep the lighter areas to the top and left sides of the clouds, vary the size of the lighter areas, I saw a lot of stripes around clouds and if you look at the photo you will see a different story. Good luck.

The last thing we did was to under paint out foreground mountain tops. I sketched in my mountain ranges with my soft vine charcoal and I had about 4 layers of ridges from back to front, these ridges just need to have an interesting shape, you do not need to copy what is there exactly because it is hard to see unless you are on a computer, if you have some other mountains you would rather put in that is fine, you may have to adjust your colors a bit but they will be painted just the same as I am doing on mine.

When I mixed my first color, again, I started with the gray I mixed on the first day. I used it as a base so to part of it I added more burnt sienna and a touch of orange because I wanted a softer, warmer gray for the first, most distantridge. Using my #10 flat bristle brush and using the length of the flat edge, I did a series of strokes by placing the end along the top edge of where I wanted to create my ridge top and pulled down. Using the end of the brush gives you a soft edge rather than outlining by running you brush along the ridge line, that can cause problems by leaving a visual hard line as well as an actual hard line in a ridge of paint both of which are hard to get rid of once they dry, best to avoid them in the first place. Below the ridge line I just I just scumbled and scrubbed to fill in the mountain and made sure that I went well below the charcoal lines of my sketch of the other closer ridges to be sure I got enough area covered so when I put in the next ridge I won’t have any white canvas behind it. If you need to, just re-draw your sketch if you need to.

The next ridge I went back to the same color I used for the previous ridge but this time I added Hooker’s green and a touch of blue to it. It is closer and will have more color and will be darker in value. The stroke I used was exactly the same as I used on the first ridge, just a different color.

On the right side of the canvas on the next ridge, I created a deep green color using more of the Hooker’s green with a touch or blue and purple mixed into the same pile of paint I started the first ridge with. The reason for this is I still want a grayed color and this “mud” pile I am making helps me keep my colors softer and grayer, buy adding more color and little or no gray, I create a new softer, more colorful color without being too much of a colorful color. I want a greenish color but I don’t what GREEN! All this is still in the distance so it still needs to be on the gray side. (Yes, I know it is a bit confusing, just trust me).

This time, using the same brush, I used it straight on end so I was using its length perpendicular to the top and bottom making a series of OVERLAPPING vertical strokes to fill up the area. This will give the illusion of trees off in the distance, remember to create an interesting top edge to the trees so you have a lot of ups and downs, tall against short, this is a ridge of wild trees not a perfectly groomed hedge.

The next ridge was like a mountain meadow that went into a bit of a cliff the top part I added some sap green and yellow to – yes – the same pile of paint. I wanted a bit greener green for the top and as it went down the side I mixed in some burnt sienna and orange to create a dirt color. The top part is grass so use the brush flat again with overlapping vertical strokes (think grass) and when you add the burnt sienna and orange it will be more of a scumble strokes – think cliff.

In the left corner of the painting is a clump of tree tops, this time you will mix in a new pile, your Hooker’s green, blue and a touch of purple to create a very dark green. You and use a scumbling stroke to fill in the trees but use the corner of the brush to create an interesting outside shape. That should have your canvas covered and we will start doing the highlighting of the clouds and mountains in our next class.

I hope you have learned a lot about how to use dry brush to create clouds and how to blend using acrylics. We will be done with this project in the next class so start looking for something new to paint for the rest of the semester. See you next time.