Acrylics 101 Apple Study

We are now putting together the techniques we have been learning to create an actual subject. I handed out some small apples so that you had something to look at and understand process of going from a blank canvas to the finished apple.

In most cases when you start an acrylic you start with what's in the background or what’s furthest away first because you can paint on top of acrylic. You don't need to worry about covering something up or the colors mixing so you start in the background and work forward.

I wanted a soft mottled green background to go with my red apple because green is the compliment (or opposite color on the color chart) to red and they go very well together. I first started by covering my canvas with a thin coat of gesso, the gesso is just to help the paint blend. I don't always use gesso to start a painting but I do quite often because it helps extend the time the paint is open or workable and that gives me time to blend. I was using my #10 flat bristle brush so I could work quickly and get the canvas covered.

Once I had the canvas covered with the gesso I started slightly to the right of center with yellow still using my #10 bristle brush. This is going to be my bright spot in the background to contrast with the shadowed side of the apple. My light source is coming from the front left upper side so as it travels it will hit on the right side of the canvas. You need to really look at things before you paint them including how light travels it goes in a straight line, so when you look at light coming in from a window look to see where it starts and were it hits and where the shadows are in relationship to the angle of the light.

While the gesso is still wet, I applied the yellow with my large number 10 flat bristle brush using small crisscross strokes (wet into wet blending) and I worked my way out to about 4 or 5 inch diameter. Without rinsing my brush I went into my hooker’s green and starting just outside the yellow I started to work the green into the gesso and then into the yellow. The more pressure you have on your brush the more paint you will get off so if you want to lightly blend you need to have less pressure on your brush otherwise when you blend into the yellow you will blend in too much green and lose your light spot.

I continued around the yellow spot with my green working wet into wet and I went out almost to the corners with the green when I got near the corners I picked up some ultramarine blue along with the hooker’s green then starting in the corners I blended those colors into the green already on my canvas. Remember you need to work quickly so that your paint does not dry out this is wet into wet blending, you can't take a half an hour to do this because the paint will dry and you will not be able to blend using the wet into wet technique. Always use crisscross strokes either little short ones or long flat ones but do not paint like it is a wall, brushstrokes tell your viewer a lot so be sure unless it is a specific reason you should use either crisscross strokes or a scumbling stroke to give your painting more interest.

Once I had all of my canvas covered I switched to my soft 2 inch blending brush this brush, it is very soft and feels like a blush brush, if you use it correctly you will get an almost airbrush effect with it remember pressure is everything in this one the lighter your pressure the lighter and more gradual your blending will become. I started in the lightest part of my canvas and lightly blended the colors together still using the crisscross stroke. It is better to blend from the light to the dark so your area stays light. I was barely skimming the surface of my painting as the later Bob Ross would say “Three hairs and some air”.

Before I finished with this brush and before the paint was dry I wanted to create the impression of a table top or some flat surface for my Apple to sit on, this is one of those times when you can use horizontal strokes to create the look of a flat surface so I was using just straight horizontal strokes with my blending brush with more green and blue on my brush,  I went across the bottom with horizontal strokes to create a flat looking surface then I let it dry completely.

Once your background is dry then you need to draw your apple on your canvas but before you do look at the apple note its shape its color and any other little detail before you start to draw it and especially before you start to paint it this will give you a better understanding of the apple and it will help you along as you are painting the apple.

Using either chock or your soft vine charcoal, sketch your apple onto your canvas. Be sure that you draw the apple large enough to fill the space, if you, for instance, have an 8 by 10 canvas you want to make sure that your Apple is a good 4 inches or so in diameter. Your apple is the subject not the background, so you want it big enough so that it is important in your picture. Also you do not want to center your apple, that light spot is off center for reason so when you are sketching your apple sketch it slightly off center so that at least part of it will be in front of the light spot and also be sure it is sitting on the flat surface that we painted in.

Once I had my sketch on my canvas I was ready to mix a base color for the apple and it's not red. Because the apple was a gala apple and it tends to be a green yellow apple with red streaks on it so my base color for the apple is going to be a medium yellowish color. I start with my gesso and my yellow add a little touch of Sienna and a very tiny touch of purple just to grey the color slightly. What I am looking for is an ochre color for the base color.

Note the brush strokes

You can use either a flat bristle brush or flat sable brush the sable brush may work better for you in this instance because it has more spring in it and the bristles stay together better than a bristle brush. Find size that is not too small but big enough to cover quickly, I was using my number 6 flat sable brush to show you that you can use a larger brush to fill in things quickly. Always save your small brushes for the detail work at the end.

Starting in the middle of the apple and using small crisscross strokes I applied the base color paint I have just mixed and working out towards and remembering that I'm working on a round subject so that I follow the curves of the apple. Just like when I started painting the yellow spot behind I painted the base color in in a small circle in the center of the apple and then added other colors like touches of green, orange or red into the base color as I painted.  I then mixed purple, a touch of blue and Sienna into a portion of my base color to create a shadow color. Using some of that shadow color I started just outside the base color on the apple and blended into the lighter color using very little pressure on my brush to blend the edges of the two colors together, then I wiped my brush out and picked up some more shadow color and worked out toward the edge of the shadowed side of the apple. When I got near the edge rather than trying to draw a line with my brush, for the outside edge I used the whole flat edge of the brush against the sketch line I pulled in with my color so that I didn't create a hard line of paint along the outside edge. This is important because once the paint dries if you have a little rim of paint the only way to get rid of it is to sand it so you're saving yourself some precious time and major reconstruction.

I also mixed a dark shadow color for under the apple and for the cast shadow, this color was my ultramarine blue, a little touch of purple, and a little touch of Sienna to create a dark blueish shadow color, this color went on underneath the apple where it sitting on the table and to the right where is casting a shadow you will dry brush the shadow in.

Remember you need to work quickly because we are working wet into wet, so after I had the shadows on my apple I rinsed my brush well and dried it off to get all excess water out of the brush before I went back to my base color and added a little more white and started on the sunny side of the apple. Do the edge the same way as you did in the shadowed side by pulling in using the very end of your brush and working around the curve of the apple use crisscross strokes in the body of the apple but pulled in when you're around an edge and fill in the rest of your apple. At the top of the apple where the stem comes out, there is a shadow for the indent so you can put that in as well. Don't be afraid to pick up a little green while you're mixing on your apple or a little orange or a little blue this will give texture to your apple and make it look much more natural, the key word here is little.

Try to get your painting to this point. Don't be afraid to try this on your own with other fruit or cups so you can practice the wet into wet blending technique. We will continue working on the apple we started in our next class, unfortunately, the apples are gone so if you want to bring your own apple feel free. Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Acrylics Garden Fantasy Week 5

I have a couple of weeks’ worth of notes to give you so the first thing you need to know is that the previous week I filled in the pagoda and I started the highlighting process ofthe rocks I also worked a bit more on the ground cover and water.

The pagoda is a rather warm tone so I started with my gesso, yellow, a little touch of Sienna and some purple to gray the color. You want a warm ocher gray color for the bass tone of the pagoda you can pick up touches of blue and purple and mix in with it as you paint but don't mix to completely leave dark areas you can add touches of orange or red to it as well let those colors show it will make the rock look more natural. Look at your reference photo and you will see that the pagoda has both rounded surfaces and flat surfaces so watch how your brush strokes are going on in those different areas.

To start the highlighting process of the rocks you want to mix a soft gray color, this is going to be gesso, ultramarine blue, a touch of Sienna and purple but it will be lighter then what you already have so add white in it you want a light bluish grey for now we will get to the final highlights later. Look at how I started the highlighting process of my rocks. Rocks are a random type of thing and you need to think less like a human and more like a rock when painting rocks. I know that sounds silly but if you don't you'll end up with a herd of turtles: everything the same size, the same shape, the same everything. Rocks are not like that so you will have to make a conscious effort to vary the shape and size as you are creating your rocks don't be afraid to create little rocks from your big rocks it will make it look a lot more natural.

You may also want to have a dark color for the darker shadows of the rocks. You mix that color by using the three previous colors less the gesso, this is in case you need to add some shadows between or under rocks, this is what I did the following week to create some darker shadows in my rocks, in between the rocks, behind rocks  and under the rocks, there just a lot of places where you will need have some darker shadows.

What I did the following week was start adding some of my lighter highlights to my rocks I didn't add them to all of my rocks because some of those rocks are in shadows of the trees so they won't have bright highlights,  just select a few especially the ones in the foreground and in selected places going up the stream where there may be a break in the trees above them and the high lights are brighter. Your highlight color is going to be white with a touch orange to tint the white and a little bit of that mud color from the previous highlight you put on the rocks just to slightly gray the color it should be much lighter this only goes on in selected areas and only on the top where the Sun will be hitting directly it does not cover up everything else that you just did just little hints along top edges or where the Sun may be hitting it directly. You can use a small sable brush like a #4 to do these highlights.

I also used that light gray color I used as the mid tones of the rocks to base in the trunk of the pine tree it should be a bluish gray color about the same value as that first highlight you put on the rocks.

One of the things I did in the last class session was to make that one tree directly behind the pagoda extend a little bit out over the stream I didn't like the shape of it and I wanted it to be a little more over the stream and covering up some of that light area in the very back so I did make some changes using the same colors that I had when I made the tree before which started with my hookers green with some blue little touch of purple and as I went up to the top, I use sap green and then finally sap green and yellow for the highlight working wet into wet.

Also on the right side of my painting I added in some more suggestion of some bushes or trees along that side of the stream using reds and oranges along with my green I also worked in my ground cover in between a lot of my rocks to settle my rocks down and create more interest. Remember that ground cover will hide behind rock and then pop up at some other point so don't try to create little fingers all the way down the cracks of the rocks make it pop out and look more natural that is the goal here.

I also suggested that there was some moss growing on some of the rocks that were either in the stream or right next to the stream I just use little touches of sap green with yellow for the brighter suggestion of moss, a little bit of the hooker’s green for the most it might be in the shadows, just dry brush it on to the rocks and smooth it out with your fingers so that it doesn't have any start or stop to it. Other than that I didn't have many in class so I didn't work a whole lot on making this more complete I didn't want to get too far ahead of everybody so we will continue from there and maybe finish this up, not making any promises but we are getting close. Until next time keep painting and I will see you in class.