Summer 2017 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Project: Summer Fun Week 3

This week I finally added the lifeguard tower. I was using my #6 flat sable brush this time because it is a lot easier to do the detail with the sable brushes than with a bristle brush. If you don't have a flat sable a round one will also work.

I mixed a dark blue gray using the ultramarine blue, a touch or purple (you can add alizarin crimson instead), a tiny touch of burnt sienna and white to lighten the value. If you notice in the picture here there are at least 3 values of this blue gray and I have not yet added the railings across the sides yet, that comes later.

The windows in the tower were done with just the blue and white and the mud on my brush. Use the white or gesso to lighten the color and add blue to darken it.

Notice I have not yet put the frames around the windows and I have just painted shapes of color. You are only suggesting that there are things inside the tower, you don't need to spell them out.

I also decided that I wanted to put in the tire tracks using a #4 flat bristle brush and using gesso, sienna and orange for the light color and adding blue for a darker color.

If you study this image you will see that the ruts are made with a series of comma strokes to create the illusion of depth. The comma stroke starts up then flattens out at the bottom, this helps the tracks look flat on the ground whereas just painting a curved line will not. 

Unfortunately, I am not happy with my tracks so I may paint them out or do something else with them but remember that we are experimenting with this project so don't be afraid to try things because you can always paint over them.

This is where I left off last class. I still have a lot to do and as I said, I want to change things as well. You will start to see this come together in the next week or so and I am hoping that I can finish this up in the next 2 weeks.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.