Fall 2017 Acrylic Class

Fall Acrylic Project: Fall Proposal Week 7

This week was all about finishing up the painting: Adding more color to leaves or deepening shadows or making the little fixes to your painting to your own satisfaction. If you are happy with the way your painting looks then stop and call it done, at least for now. I always put things I have been working on on an easel I can look at when I go into the computer room so I can glance at it to see if anything jumps out at me, if it doesn't, then I'm done. You need to learn to do the same because at some point in time you have to stop working on a painting. There are always the little things here or just a dab of paint their but if you aren't careful you can easily overwork your painting and ruin it. If your brush is circling over your canvas looking for a place to land, you are probably done. Live with it for a few days, if nothing jumps out at you sign it and stick it in a frame.

That is what I did in the last class: Look for the things I needed to finish then call it done. I added some more brightness around the ring box with the napthol and orange using a bristle brush and the dry brush technique to scrub in a bit more color to the box and to the fabric in front of it. I also added a bit more color to the tips of leaves and shadows around the bottle, just the little things I felt needed a bit of help.

I also finished the ring and added shadows on the box from the ring. I did notice when I looked at the photo I need to work a bit on the diamond and maybe tone down the ring part but that is a quick fix.

The last thing I did was take my liner brush and add the little squiggly things they always seem to stick in arrangements for some vertical elements to the arrangement, for us, it breaks up the dark area behind the bouquet making that large empty space a bit more interesting otherwise it is just a big,dark negative space that looks a bit odd.

I also used my liner to add some stems to the leaves and also to the roses .

As far as I am concerned, this painting is done. I think we learned a lot with this project because it is a challenge to deal with one color - in this case red - and make it different enough to separate elements out from each other by changing colors just a bit or by adding shadows behind, good practice and I am very happy with everyone's attempts at this challenging project.

Have a wonderful holiday season, don't forget to sign up for classes if you plan on coming back for the winter session, keep painting and I will see you in class.