Acrylic Safe Harbor Week 3

You should have all of your water under painted and the buildings on pier in the back under painted as well.

I have said many times in class when I'm looking at my painting when I bring it home I see things I don't really care for and in this painting I was looking at the sky and I really didn't like the blue part of the sky so before I got started on painting in the boat or anything else, I wanted to correct the things that were bothering me.

I took some ultramarine blue, a little touch of white or gesso and a tiny touch of purple (should be a medium dark blue) and using my #4 flat bristle brush and the dry brush technique I scrubbed in the medium blue. Now this blue is not a light blue it's still dark but it is more blue than what was there and I liked it a lot better, I also went back over the tops of the red orange clouds and scumbled some color into the sky to soften any hard edges.

Another thing I wanted to do was to soften that horizon line. I thought what I had was too dark and rather than paint it out and do it again, instead, I used the dry brush technique with my bristle brush, I mixed a little white touch with a touch of yellow and a little mud from my palate with water to make a thin wash, then I worked this color into my brush but before going to my canvas, I wiped most of it out of my brush. Using the small side of my brush in a circular motion and lightly scrubbing this thin, light color across the horizon line, I covered the shapes that were there, softening them and lightening them as well. I also went down into the water to create a bit of atmosphere between the boat in front and the background, this is a very useful technique it creates dust, it creates mist, it can create fog or clouds so it is something you should learn and practice.

And yet another thing I had noticed was that my buildings were not straight so I needed to correct those before I got to the boat. When you are painting a building, the horizontal lines can be going in at angles but the vertical lines need to be parallel to the sides of your canvas otherwise your buildings look like they're falling down. This rule goes for any vertical lines such as windows, doors, poles, columns - anything that is going to be vertical.

Once I had all my corrections made then I wanted to paint in the under painting for the boat. I checked my drawing and with my number four bristle brush I mixed blue, sienna, a little touch purple and a tiny touch of white to create a very dark, gray color. I used this to under paint the hull of the boat. There were a couple of places - mostly at the back of the boat, where there is a space for that gray panel that is darker than the rest of the boat, so to that same dark color I added a little more blue, a little more sienna and a little tiny touch of purple to create a darker version of the color and that works as the shadow in that area.

While you have this dark color on your brush, very lightly with horizontal strokes go across the water with this color for the reflection. When I say lightly, you should be able to see bits and pieces of the underpainting show through and the edges are going to be very soft and uneven. Be sure that when you get to the ends of the boat where the bow, stern and top edge that the angles go in the same direction as the object above it. For example, bow of the boat goes to the right of the picture the reflection will also go to the right it just will have a soft, uneven edge. We will be doing more on the reflection to make the water look more like water, this is just a start. I'm also not worried that the bottom of my boat is not flat there could be waves and swells that come in and it is basically horizontal and that is all I need to suggest that the boat is sitting in the water.

The cabin of the boat is white but when we paint white first we need to under paint the area with a soft blue grey. This can be on the blue side or little on the lavender side but whenever you are painting white you need to start with a blue grey. I used white, a little touch of the ultramarine blue and tiny touch of the purple and the color I was looking for should be bit darker then the water behind the cabin. This color goes on the outside part of the cabin, for the inside of the cabin which is in shadow, add more blue more purple and make a color that is 1 to 2 values darker for the inside of the cabin.

These lighter colors you can also reflect into the water. One way to see how much will show is to measure the area with a brush or your fingers and measured top to bottom of the cabin area move the top measure down to the bottom of the cabin area and the bottom mark you measured where it comes to in the water is where the top will show in the water. It won't be much because the reflection in the water is looking up and part of the boat is going to be getting in the way but you can suggest some of that lighter color. Remember to keep your strokes horizontal when you're in the water.

The tarp on the back of the boat I don't know what it is or what its covering and that is unimportant all that matters is the color that is there and the shape of the color, Again use your blue, a touch of white and to that you can add little touches of green or purple you want it just a bit darker then the inside of the cabin.

I also took some of the dark boat color and put it under the dock because it will be very dark under there, however, again I got home and I'm not happy with it so I will probably change it first off when we meet again, remember we are not meeting next week because of Presidents Day so you have plenty of time to get caught up.

When you come to class please be sure to have the actual reference photo with you, that is what we are working from for the boat, the other images from the watercolor sample I made or the previous week's class are irrelevant. It’s okay to have them but please don't work from them and I will see you in a couple week's, keep painting.