Winter 2016 Acrylic Class

Winter 2016 Acrylic Class: Cozy Cottage Week 3

By this time you should all have the background of your painting in, that's the sky, the distant tree line in the back, and the closer forest of trees behind the cottage. This week we are going to be putting in the pine trees the deciduous trees and also base in our cottage.

If you need to do a light sketch so that you know where things are going to be when you put your pine trees in, the house sits on about the top third of the canvas and the front corner of it is about a third in from the right side. Remember, this cottage is in the distance so don't make it too big, just big enough to be inviting. Also don't be afraid to paint over the lines you sketched in they are just a suggestion of where the house is so you know where to put your trees if you need to make adjustments later you can.

First, I put in my pine trees with a mixture of Hookers green and ultramarine blue with a little touch of sienna in it to gray the color. You might also need a very little touch of white or any grey on your palette so that the green does not look black, it should not be the darkest color because of where it is in the painting.

I was using my number 6 flat bristle brush to create the pine trees, however, you can use a round brush or even a sable brush but any of them will require you to practice before you start on your painting. Using my flat bristle brush, when I loaded the paint onto the brush I drugged the brush through the paint on both sides this creates a fairly sharp edge at the end of the bristles. Using that sharp edge I created the top of the tree making a line by touching it to the canvas, after I came down about a half inch then using the corner of the brush, touching the canvas with the corner and making a quick flip of the brush, I started making the branches of my pine tree. This does take practice because if you stay on the canvas too long you will get a longer stroke so you have to learn how to lift as you flip to create the shorter branches, you also want to be sure that as you go down the tree you are creating an interesting shape and that you are bringing the branches in front of the tree as well as the sides, you don't want to have what looks like fish bones sticking up behind the house. Practice before you start on your painting.

Next using my liner brush I put in the two deciduous trees that are a little closer to the house. Again if you have never use the liner brush or are not comfortable with using your liner brush please practice this before you go to your painting a little bit of practice will go a long way.

As I stated last time, when we were putting in the forest of trees behind the house, loading the liner brush and learning how to push and lift it are critical to the success of this little brush. Remember that your paint should be like India ink it will run but it runs slowly and when you load your brush you want to really roll the bristles in the paint and as you lift off the palette, you roll it between your fingers to create a point, then practice your trees with a push, drag and slowly lift. Push, drag and lift. You can get some very fine lines with the liner brush if you practice. When you go in to make branches start in the tree trunk or in a fatter branch then push a little bit, start to drag and then lift and pull off in a different direction. This is a wonderful way to make trees and bushes but you do need to practice it so that you feel comfortable with the brush.

 

One thing I did do was mix up what will be part of my highlighting color for the snow and that was a good dollop of my gesso and a tiny touch of orange. You will be surprised at how strong the orange color is if you get too much of it you just want a little hint of color in the gesso, for the most part, I will be using this instead of pure white in most cases because white alone can look too  chalky.

Going back to my number 6 bristle brush and picking up some of that light orange/white color that I just mixed, using the dry brush technique I lightly glazed over the snow in the background behind where the house will be. I wanted it in between some of those trees in the background and around the trees that I just put in so I was using it on its small side and with kind of flat, banana-type strokes, put in little mounds of color to suggest the snow in the background. You want to see some of your under color because the underpainting that we did becomes shadows and texture from here out, we are not trying to cover it all up it is important to our painting so don't cover it entirely just glaze it on. Look at the photo from my work and you will see that you can see the gray underpainting underneath the white I put on.

Now you may want to sketch your cottage in a little better so that you know where you need to paint. Watch your perspective on this and watch that little side part of the house. there's a bigger main house and then a smaller room that juts out in front, they all have their own perspective to them so keep that in mind as you're sketching in.

We are going to under paint the house there is a sunny side (the front and tops of the building) since the Sun is coming in from the low left hand side of the painting. The front part of both of those buildings will be a softer warmer color and the sides will have a cool color. The warm color was made with burnt sienna, a bit of white and a little yellow and whatever mud is left on the brush. I painted this in in a scumbling motion (every which way), it doesn't need to be exact it can be a little bit off in its shape because this was a house made with stones and those stones are of different sizes and shapes. The front of the little building and then the front of the longer building are this color once you get those painted in, add a touch of purple and/or blue to the color and a little touch of white to create the shadow color for the building. Again, this doesn't have to be perfect because this was a hand built house with field stones.

The roof of the building is made of thatch and what that is, is long grass that they sewed on to the roof with wire or rope or heavy cord and it is in thick layers, when you are putting on your color for the roof you want to follow the angle of the roof as you are painting it. Don't worry about the snow right now just pretend it has no snow on it, that will come later, using the color you used for the house add in a little more white and touch of orange and yellow to it to warm it up a bit, use this color for the top of the longer house following the angle of the roof the top. The top and corners of the roof are not going to come to a sharp point because of the thatched roof, it will be rounded off as well as the corners at the bottom. When you are done with the sunlit part of the roof on the bigger house, add a little blue into your color for the shadowed side of the smaller house, again follow the angle of the roof as you put this color on your building.

This is where we left off so please try to get your painting to this point we have a lot to cover and we are reaching the halfway point to our semester and we have a lot to do so get ready to work be there on time and I will see you in class.