Summer 2017 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Project: Summer Fun Week 2

In our last class I worked on several things: One was pushing the peninsula back a bit and working on the sand.

One of the things I discovered when I went to add the tower to my canvas was I didn't have the sand high enough on the right side so I did raise that as well as repeating some of the sky colors into the corners. Remember, I am just experimenting with this, if I don't like it I can change it, acrylic is very forgiving.

One of the things about acrylics that can be a bit annoying is that they dry darker. What looked to be the right value when you put it on looks much darker when you look at it later. This can cause problems when you are working on the background and you want it to stay in the back, the darker something is the closer it looks so there are times when you need to push your background back. You can do this with a dry brush wash. What that means is you used a very thin (watered down) lighter color - gesso with a tint of color, in this case purple - and after you load your brush, wipe it on a paper towel to get excess moisture out of the brush, then using very light pressure on your bristle brush make small circles over the area you want to lighten. this not only lightens and area but it also obscures any hard lines or shapes because it is it in the background you won't see hard lines or distinct shapes. I only went over this once but sometimes you may need to go over it again to get the desired effect. This can also be used to create fog and dust.

This is where I had to raise the level of my sand but instead of working on dry under paint, I did what is call "wet into wet" to save some time. The effect is similar to wet on dry you just have to be careful not to over blend because you want the light and dark to create texture.

I just started to add some of the sky colors into the corners using flat "U" strokes that over lapped. Will it stay this way? the jury is still out, I will decide as I get further along.

Try to have the drawing on your canvas for class on Monday. I want to get the tower under painted so we can start working on getting in some details.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.