Acrylic Class Project: Working the Steps – Week 4

This week in class we started working on some of the elements that will help us finish this painting. Keep in mind that we work in layers, building on what is there with new colors and/or values that bring life to our paintings.

I want to keep emphasizing the word “Layers” because I want it to stick into your minds. Just because I call something “under painting” doesn’t mean that we are going to totally paint over it, no, under painting means it is the layer you need to put down first and in acrylics it is usually a medium dark color that we add other lighter AND darker layers to as we create the depth in our painting. Some of that under painting and parts of the next layers are going to show. They become the shadows and the form of your object, they are important to your final painting so learn to leave parts of each layer showing.

My entire painting has been under painted so last class I started adding lighter layers to start forming my rocks and cliffs. I was using my same basic colors – ultramarine blue, burnt sienna an little touches of purple and white – but to that base color (which was to the warm, sienna, side) I also added touches of orange and red when I was to the outside edge of the cliff where it might be getting a bit more sun, to greens, lavenders and blues where it goes into the dark cave. LOOK AT YOUR REFERENCE PHOTOS to see where the shadows are and what colors you should be using.These colors are just a shade or so lighter than what was there and a scumbled the colors on often times picking up color on my brush and mixing it in with what was there on my canvas, this is called brush mixing, and it leaves bits of unmixed color and that is a good thing especially with rocks where you might see several spots of color mixed in with the overall color of the dirt and rocks.

If you can, enlarge the images on the picture page to really look at my strokes. They are not neat, they are a bit haphazard but they do follow the idea that this is sedimentary rock, I was purposely going at angles with my strokes.

If you need to add more dark into the cave area, use that opportunity to shape the front side of the cliffs to give them a rougher shape – lots or ins and outs, rocks and divots – and use that dark color to make some shadows in the far cliff. Just be sure to soften those shadows in the cliff with either your brush or finger, you don’t want any hard lines.

I still have some of the original gray color I mixed in the first week, I took some of that gray and added a bit of yellow and a touch of white to create my next layer for the closer cliff, again, I was looking at my reference photos BEFORE I started painting. Using that same controlled, scumbling stroke, I created shapes that will become rocks. This IS NOT the final layer, just another of several as I start the shaping process for my rocks.

I also added more color to my water. Still not the final color and I have not started on the foam yet, this is just more underpainting for the water.

If you have other shades of blue such as pthalo blue, turquoise, cobalt or other blues, you can use these in your water as well as other greens, the colors I have on the equipment list is just a basic list to get you started, not a list to end all lists. Most artists find colors and brands they like or need to use occasionally and add them to their palette as needed, in this instance I had 2 colors I usually don’t have on my everyday palette but I had been doing something at home that required them, they are turquoise deep (a Liquitex color) and pthalo green. Both of these are very strong colors and hard to mix with other colors but adding a bit of white to them and using them that way on my painting brought some life to my water. That is not to say that I didn’t also add more of my ultramarine blue, purples greens and sienna, I just included these new colors to my painting.

Remember what you are painting when you are doing the water: It is moving water so use long, flat banana strokes, overlapping these strokes where the water is supposed to be flat and where it is bumping up against the rocks or forming a wave, follow the direction the wave would be going with your stroke with a little up turn at the end.

This is where we left off and we have a ways to go and only 3 classes to finish this in so please try to get your paintings to this point and we will continue the shaping and highlighting process next time.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.