SUMMER 2016 ACRYLIC CLASS

ACRYLIC CLASS PROJECT: Work the Steps Week 5

We are winding down on this project and with any luck at all we should finish up in our next class, you should have your under painting complete and your first, even maybe your second layer of intermediate highlights. These intermediate highlights create the forms and shapes of the rocks and cliffs, they are not the bright final highlights we hope to get to in our next meeting.

I added another layer of these intermediate highlights to my cliffs using colors that were just a shade or two lighter than what was there, for instance: Near the outside edge I used a combination of sienna, white and little touches or either/or yellow orange with a dash of blue to gray the color slightly and using my #4 bristle brush I shaped the outside edge to the cliffs and worked my way in towards the dark cave, I was only using this color on the top and outside edges where the sun might be hitting, not on the underneath part of the rocks which will be in shadow.

The brightest of this color is on the outside where the light will be the strongest (the sun it overhead and slightly to the right of the painting). As I worked my way toward the cave I added more blue and purple even sienna and umber to darken the color though if I needed to lighten it slightly I would add tiny touches of white but only enough to make it just a bit lighter that the dark that is already there. By the time I got into the cave area my color was a very blue/gray to lavender/gray.

I do want to mention also that each time I add color and highlights to my rocks and cliff, I am leaving some of the previous colors. Those darker colors become the shadows and texture of the rocks. Another thing I do to create these textures is to lighten the pressure on my brush and use little color – dry brush – as I add shapes into the cliffs.

I am also looking at the brush marks in my paint as well as the reference photo to help me decide where to add the highlights to shape rocks and other features of the cliffs. I do not paint blindly. I have my reference photos to guide me: the photo of the scene to help me with the detail and my watercolor to help me with color.

One of the beauties of acrylic is you can paint over it if you need to adjust your shapes or your color. For instance: If you have gotten carried away with your highlighting until everything is all the same value, you can go back in with darker colors and put the shadows back in. I do this all the time. There are areas in this painting that I am going to need to add back some darker colors or to reshape some areas but it is no big deal, it is just part of the process. Learn to use this trait of acrylics to your advantage.

I will work back and forth between lights and darks at this stage of a painting as I refine the look I am going for and I will have several colors ready to go on my palette so I don’t have to stop and mix too much. I will have a larger pile of a mid-tone color then add blues and purple to one side for darker tones and white and warmer colors to another side for lighter colors and I can work back and forth between these colors.

At the bottom of the closer cliff, the rocks are grayer than they are higher up which are more ocher. I still had some of my original gray I mixed at the very beginning of this painting so that was my middle value for the bottom rocks. I added more blue and umber to make it darker and white to make it lighter. I also added touches of purple to create lavender colors for the more shadowy rocks and white and a touch of yellow for the rocks out in the sun. You really need to look at the reference photo to determine where your colors need to go but a rule of thumb is if something is in the sun it will have a warmer color (warm colors are red, orange and yellow) when they are in the shadows they need to be cool colors (mostly blues, purples and some blue/greens), keep this in mind as you are painting.

The other area that seems to be causing a lot of problems is the areas of rocks on the

beach. These are rocks that are partially in the sand and are all very close together. You really don’t see individual rocks, you see a mass of rocks which are basically just a bunch of overlapping shapes. I used a series of inverted “U” shapes – some bigger some smaller; some rounder some flatter – all overlapping to SUGGEST rocks. The under painting was dark which becomes the shadows between the rocks, I used a lighter gray for the mid-tone form of the rocks and I will later highlight the rocks but I am not going to necessarily make individual rocks because I still want it to look like a bunch of rocks. You may have to trust me on this one.

The sand and the eroded road on the left side was a mix of yellow, sienna, white and a touch of mud from my palette or brush, it just needs to be a bit lighter than what you have there already. Remember to follow the angles on the surface with your brush: If it is flat, your brush strokes should be flat, if rounded your strokes need to follow the curve. The sandy area on the beach angles down so your brush strokes also need to angle down.

We will work on the water and finishing this project up in our next class so you need to have your painting to this point.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.