Fall 2018 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Class Project: Dancing Boots Week 5

This was the final week for this project, so if you have finished you will need to have something else to paint for the rest of the semester or if you haven't finished you can continue to work on the project.

I do want you to know that what I am doing with the painting now is finishing up my project, you do not need to do everything I do if you like your painting as it is, at this point it is up to you ow you finish your own painting.

I added some of the dead flowers around the blooming flowers because I wanted to, I thought they added to the character of the cactus. I was using a round sable brush, burnt umber and blue for the under painting and burnt sienna and orange for the highlights.
I also used the round sable brush to clean up the tips of the flowers using yellow and white and for the centers I used crimson and white.

Remember last time I said I wasn't happy with the dirt around the boots? Well I added some lighter color with my #4 flat bristle brush using white, a touch of yellow and burnt sienna and dry brushing it around the boots and the boot shadows then blending it into the darker dirt by lightening the pressure on the brush  to fade it out.

Next I used my tooth brush to splatter paint into the the dirt, keeping a wet paper towel handy if they went where I didn't want them. I used almost all the colors on my palette for the splatters, not just the browns. When the splatters were dry, I looked for some of the bigger splatters or made some of them bigger and touched the top with some white, the used some of the shadow color (blue,sienna and a touch of purple) and made little shadow coming off the back of some of these larger pebbles.I was using the small round sable again or you can use a liner brush.

I worked a bit more on the boots, putting in some of the seams and accent highlights. Be sure that if you add the seams that you don't make a straight line, the seams follow the bumps and dips that are in the boots, this is important.

Last but not least I gave the poor cactus some attitude by adding the thorns. I was using my liner brush and a mix of red (any red will work here) with a touch of burnt sienna and white. The thorns come out of those gray areas at the top of the ribs and you can't put too may in. Use this lighter color where you are working against a darker background...

...against the lighter background on the side of the cactus you use a darker mix (more red and sienna, no white). Remember that there will be thorns coming out of ribs you can't see as it goes around the cactus of from behind the boots. If your strokes over lap, that is a boot thing because the cactus needs a good defense. They are also longer than you think so don't make them too short.

I may work on this in class to clean up some things I think need work or to finish it a bit better but overall, this is basically done. Finish yours as you see fit and I will see you in class.










ADDENDUM:

I added some more detail and cleaned up a few edges as well as making the thorns look more intimidating. You can finish up your painting the way you want to, you don't need to d detail unless you want to, I just wanted to show you how I finished my painting to my needs as an artist.

I cleaned up the edges of the boots and added stitching to the seams. I also added a few more pebbles to the dirt. 

I made the thorns look more like cactus thorns with the same colors and a small round brush and using the paint a bit thicker and being a bit more precise because I was going over what was already there.

I used the same brush to clean up the edges of my flowers as well.

This is my finished "Dancing Boots" painting.

Fall 2018 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Project: Dancing Boots Weeks 3 & 4

As promised I will have 2 weeks worth of blogs here this time, now that things have settled down.

Week 3

 We did a lot during week three as we get closer to finishing up our project.We got the soles of the boots in, added more texture to the dirt as well as adding shadows for the boots and cactus on the ground. We also fleshed out our cactus so now it has ribs and places for the thorns to stick out.

I started with the cactus though you could do the dirt first, it really doesn't matter. 

The first thing you need to do is to get out the actual reference photo, not my step-by-step photos I post in my blogs because they do not have all the information you need, the photo does.

LOOK at the shadows and the highlights on the cactus and LOOK at how those lights and darks define the ribs of the cactus. Also look at how the tops of the ribs - where the thorns come out - shift from being almost in the middle of the rib looking straight on to being on the sides of the ribs as they go around the cactus, also notice how they get closer together visually as they go around the cactus. Last but not least, LOOK at how each of the ribs are scalloped, they are NOT a smooth straight line. Getting this correct will make your cactus look round and have dimension. The more you see BEFORE  you start the more sense it will make as you are painting.

I was using my #4 flat bristle brush because I will be scrubbing in the lights and darks.

The light color is sap green, with a little orange to dull it and yellow to lighten it. I scrubbed this color on with the little side of my brush so I would have more control and it was a very dry brush, meaning I had little paint or water. It should be brighter at the tops of the ribs than at the bottom so as you paint, follow the shape of what you are painting (the top of each rib is rounded so use an upside down "U" type stroke, it isn't a wall) and as you go down the side of the rib, lighten the pressure on your brush so the color fades out. 

Depending on how dark your under painting is and how well you do your dry brush, you may not need to add more shadows. However, If you need to add shadows like I did, it will be the same procedure except the colors will be Hooker's green, ultramarine blue and a touch of purple to make a dark green color, and a regular "U" type stroke starting at the very bottom between the ribs where it is darkest, using less pressure as you come up the sides of the rib. this is also the color for the boot's shadow on the cactus.

This is one of the rare occasions that I will tell you it is okay to use black and that is for the soles of the boots. They are a man made products and they use carbon black in the rubber (my dad worked for Goodyear as a rubber chemist and would come home covered in the stuff), also if you are doing fabric same rule applies for the same reason. 

That said, if you do not have black, to make a very dark color use ultramarine blue, burnt umber and purple. If it looks too warm, use more blue to cool it down. This is what I did for my boots adding tiny touches of white for the grayer  parts.

The dirt is a mix of many colors and is why I strongly suggest that you have ALL your colors out when you are painting because you will not want to stop to put them out when you need them, trust me on this because I do it myself.

I was using my #6 bristle brush this time and the stroke was more like a banana shape - a bit flat with curved up ends. This will give you the texture of dirt and I mixed my colors ON THE CANVAS, I didn't premix. By mixing on the canvas you get a more natural blend of the colors. Again, look at the dirt in the photo: It has warm yellow areas, cold gray areas, there are oranges, reds, blues and even a little green. Dirt isn't just brown.

Look to see where the light areas are and where the shadows are and adjust your colors accordingly. the only way you can go wrong is to paint it one color with flat strokes. 

Those strokes will come in handy next week. These are what I have in the background behind my cactus and I'm seeing potential rocks :-)

You should let the dirt dry a bit before scrubbing in the shadows of the cactus and the boots, so while it is drying, look at the shape of the shadows particularly the boots. Those shadows sit your boots down into the dirt if you do them right and yes, this is very important. I saw some shadows that were thrown on without first looking at the shape and the boots looked like they were floating because the person didn't notice that where the boots contact the ground is smaller than were the toe of the boot curves up. See it before you paint it!

Again you will be scrubbing the in with a dry brush using blue, burnt sienna and a little purple. It is darker directly under the boot or cactus and gets a bit lighter as it gets further away from what is blocking the light. Scrub in the shape and be sure you don't have any hard lines, the shadows should kinda fade out. Look at the boots above for reference.

Week 4

Week 4 was all about the boots, getting in more light colors and  adding the shadow of the boot on the second boot and just getting them to the point where they are almost finished.

Really look at the photo to see what you need or want to do. From this point on you need to decide what you want your finished painting to look like.

Here is a good look at the shadows under the boots, notice the shapes and the soft edges.

I was using my #4 flat bristle doing a lot of dry brush scrubbing, following the shape of what I was painting using variations of the thalo blue and white for the light areas and adding a little alizarin crimson for shadows.

I started adding touches of detail lie a highlight along the to edges of the boots. It is not white, I added a little bit of mud from my palette to my gesso so it wasn't stark white but looked like the soft leather from the inside. The dark color was the thalo and crimson. You can use a smaller sable brush, I used a #4 flat sable, or you can use a liner brush.

I have more detail I want to put on I will do that as I finish up my painting.

I did use my tooth brush to splatter color to make pebbles and rocks but when I was looking at it at home I realized I didn't get some lighter areas around the boots, so I will have to do the splattering again. Don't worry about it if you didn't get to it yet.

Finally, I added some lighter colors to those brush strokes I pointed out from week 3 to suggest bigger rocks laying behind the cactus. These aren't highlights just a color that is a little lighter than what is there. I also took my liner brush with some yellow and white to base in the flowers and some crimson and sienna for the centers.

This is where I left off in our last class and this should get you caught up for the past couple of weeks. Maybe, no promises, we will finish up this week.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Fall 2018 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Project: Dancing Boots Week 2

  In our last class I worked on under painting the boots. I showed 2 ways of doing this: Wet into wet and just a straight under painting.

For both boots my basic starting color was a mix of thalo blue, a little touch of crimson and gesso (white) to lighten it to a middle value.

In the back boot as I painted and looking at my reference photo, I would pick up little touches of white when I was in an area that was lighter or had a highlight or more thalo and crimson where the boot looked darker. This isn't the final shading on this but it is a start and working wet into wet gives you a slightly different finished look.  The front boot was mostly just my original mix of color though I did add a little dark along the front top of the boot to remind me of the curve.

When I finished under painting the boots my painting looked like this.

Remember not to paint your boots like a wall. It is better to scrub and scumble as your brush follows the curves and dents of the boots because that will give them texture in the finished painting.

With my under painting dry, I went back to my original pile of paint and made a darker version with the thalo and crimson on one side and a lighter version adding white to the other so now I have three different values of the blue, I also added color as I painted right on the boots blending it in as I went (wet into wet).

You need to have the actual photo in front of you not my painting because mine can and will change as I go along the actual photo shows you exactly how the light was falling on the boots when I took the photo.

There are things you need to see when doing any shading, especially on material. There is the dark cast shadow, there is a middle tone or form shadow and a highlight. On the folds of the boots you will have all three and be sure that when you are doing these changes in value and your brush is also following the shape of what you are painting,if it is rounded, you should be making curved strokes as you are blending your colors. I have been using my #4 bristle brush for this part.

The interior of the boots is a light tan with a little darker tan as it goes down into the boot. Mix the darker color with white (gesso), sienna and a little blue, start where it is going down into the boot and as you come up, add white blending it into the darker color.

This is where I left off in class. I am guestimating that we have another couple of weeks before we finish this be sure to have your tooth brush with you for that part.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Fall 2018 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Class Project: Dancing Boots Week 1

This week we started our class project of the boots. This is something a bit different from what we have been doing and should be a lot of fun.

The first thing I did was to create the background. In acrylic we can start from the background and work our way forward because we can paint right over the top of of what we did before.

I am working on a 16 x 20 stretched canvas and for this part I used my 2" hake brush (blending brush).

The first thing I did was to lightly spray my canvas with water (you can use the hake brush to wet the canvas), then I applied a thin coat of gesso to the entire surface of the canvas so I could blend into the wet gesso. Gesso dries a bit slower so it gives you a bit more time to work, just remember that it is white and will change the value of your paint by making it lighter.

Still using the blending brush I picked up some yellow and a touch of orange and started working in the light areas. I did not premix on my palette, I went straight to the canvas to do what is called "brush blending". Working out from that light area I picked up, in not particular order, burnt sienna, blue, orange, a bit of red, more yellow and to darken the corners,more blue and some purple.

This is where your skills with the blending brush come into play: When you put it on your canvas, get it on quickly and get the area covered. It doesn't matter if it is a solid color, it is better if it isn't, this is called "mottling" and is a great background for many subjects.

To blend your colors is the tricky part, you need to use very little pressure on your brush and the brush is almost parallel to the surface of the canvas. Use long crisscross strokes to blend your colors. If you feel the brush start to drag, you may need to spritz your canvas with a little water but quickly work the water into the paint as you continue blending.

This doesn't have to be perfect and you should have a variety of colors, the more you practice this technique the easier it will be for you to create those soft blends. Let it dry.

When the background was dry, I taped my design over the canvas. My boots are slightly off center and that is on purpose, I want a bit of space in front of the boots so they are not "Dead Center". Subjects that are centered seem to be stagnate visually, there are always exceptions to all "rules" in art, but better to go with the rule of thirds in most cases.

I had used white chalk to go over the lines on the back of my design then used the end of a brush to go over the lines to transfer the design to the canvas. I also used the Poster 8 program to enlarge the design to fit my canvas. (see Lerri's Links" in the sidebar)

 The last thing I did in class was to under paint my cactus. I switched to a #6 flat bristle brush to fill in my cactus. the reason I use the bristle brushes for this step is because they are designed for a lot of abuse, the sable brushes just won't last long with all the scrubbing and scumbling we do when we under paint.

THE KEY to this is not to paint the cactus or any other subject like a wall. Everything has its own unique shape and you need to follow that shape. This cactus is rounded so all of my strokes with follow the roundness and the curves of the cactus.

As you can see, there is a lot of brush strokes and texture in my under painting of the cactus. I used Hooker's green, ultramarine blue, touches of sienna, some yellow to suggest the tops of ribs, and even a bit of purple in the darker areas. Look at the reference photo to see how the cactus gets darker near the bottom and as it goes around. Good reference is a must if you want to be a better painter because it has all the information you need to create a believable painting whether you are going for realistic or impressionistic paintings.. 

This stage may look messy but it is the foundation for our cactus.

Try to get your painting to this point because this is where I will be picking up the demos. Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Summer 2018 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Project: Marsh Madness Week 6

This was the official final week for out summer project, I did a bit of detail to mine that you may or may not want to do to yours, it is up to you how you want to finish your own project. You may want to look at the reference photo to decide what you want to do.

The branches on the right I highlighted with a lither version of the under painting: sienna, a touch of blue, white and I added just a touch of orange to warm it up. I used my #4 flat sable brush on the larger parts of the branches rather than paint a line, I touched the end of the brush to the edge of the branch, pulled down in a semicircle and lifted at the same time. This will give you a rougher look like it has bark. In the smaller areas, I just touched the edges of the brush along the twigs letting the canvas take what it wants, again to suggest a rough surface. I also made up a reflected light for some of the shadows on larger parts of the branches.

In the corner I used sienna and orange to suggest some dead leaves, but I also used a little of this color in the trees to the left and also added a touch of white to highlight the trunks of the small trees behind these branches.

I wanted to get just a bit brighter highlight in the small trees/bushes on the right as well as some intermediate greens on the sides that aren't quite in shadow. I started out with yellow and added some green for the brightest highlights, then added a little blue to slightly darken the color to the sides of these trees. You can also use these same colors up in the branches of the other trees on the left as well when you are done with this side. Again I was using my #4 flat sable, but used the corner of the brush to suggest the clumps of leaves.

You may need to practice making smaller individual leaves with your flat sable brush before you do the single leaves and small clumps but it is easy if you don't think about it too much, same goes if you are using a small round sable brush, practice first. Both brushes require you to touch, push and lift and do it quickly to get a reasonable facsimile of a leaf. No, the do not need to look perfect because the leaves are going in all directions so you will see blobs, fat ones, thin ones, curved ones etc, it just needs to look like it could be leaves. Don't clog up the area too much and try to get them coming off your branches and twigs.

On the left side I added more dark clumps of leaves then I used the same mix of light green (see above) to highlight some of those clumps. Even in the dark shadows there is a possibility that there is a hole in the canopy above that will let a little light come through, just don't get carried away, these are just touches. I used the slightly darker version to also add more leaves and to suggest the algae on the surface of the water, keep your strokes flat if you want it to look like it is floating on the surface.

I also added some dead branches in the trees and some more grasses at the bottom of the trees to set them into the water. 

Finally, in the water I did a very dry brush glaze over most of what is water using my #4 flat bristle brush. This was a very watery mix of white (gesso) and a very tiny touch of orange just to slightly tint the white, it should look like cream so it is a bit warmer than white alone.

Remember, after loading your brush to wipe most of it out (dry brush), then used the small side of the brush and lightly glaze over the water areas using horizontal strokes. You can go over the reflections with this glaze bout avoid actual things. The reeds can be tricky but try to get some of this glaze over some of the water. You can switch to your liner brush or a small round brush and around the bottoms of some of the reeds suggest ripples and also along some of the edges of the sand bars in the back and around the base of the small trees.

Do as much or as little as you feel comfortable with to finish up your project. I hope you learned about green and reflections and that no matter how complicated something looks, you can only paint it one stroke at a time so anything is possible to do.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Summer 2018 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Project: Marsh Madness Week 5

This week I started working on detail because we are nearing the finish line on this painting.

On the tree trunks on the left I added what is called a "reflected highlight". Light in out atmosphere bounces off of surfaces especially something like water and will bounce into shadow areas. This is not a bright light but a cool one. I mixed blue, purple, a little burnt sienna and white (gesso) to make a lavender blue color, with the chiseled edge of my flat sable brush, I touched along the edges of the trunks that were either in the shadows or over water all the time thinking about the texture of the tree trunks. I also mixed up gesso with a little touch of orange and sienna for the light highlight on the lighter trees then added more sienna and orange to create the highlight for the darker, redder trees.

Up in the trees after I had added the reflected light and highlights, I under painted clumps of leaves that are in front of parts of the trunks (look at the reference photo to locate the clumps). I was using my #6 flat bristle brush because I would be doing some scrubbing during the under painting but went back to my flat sable for the highlights.

The under painting was sap green or Hooker's plus (mine have sort of merged on my palette), blue and a very, tiny amount of purple. If you don't have purple add more blue and alizarin crimson, this will create a dark, cool green.  I scumbled and scrubbed dark shapes in the trees, covering some trunks and painting around others. This color even goes out over some of the outstretched branches and around the base of some of the trees (look at the reference photo).


Since some of the top leaves of these clumps are in partial sun and others in full sun, there are 2 variations of color: To the previous dark color I added more green and added some yellow to get a lighter but still cool green and using the corner of my flat sable brush (you can use a round brush), I added this color wherever I thought light might be getting through the canopy. DO NOT COVER UP ALL YOUR DARK COLOR! That dark is your deepest shadows, look at the photo, you will see these dark areas especially near the bottom of the tree.

The lighter highlight was green and yellow only to make a bright sunlit leaf color and it only goes in a few places where the sun is hitting the leaves directly. You can use a bit of your "artist's license" but do not get carried away with the highlights of you will lose the sense of light in your painting.

That same bright green can be used in the trees on the right and you will probably notice that I used some of the lavender color in these trees as well as the ones on the left. Just a few of those lavender leaves adds a bit of life to your painting. I have also used that color when detailing the trunks coming out of the water, the highlight color was the same as I used on the left with just a bit more sienna.

I did a couple of things down in the water, first, I added more dark reflections from the line of small trees into the water with the dark green from above. I used a #6 flat bristle brush and the dry brush technique, pulling the color straight down to suggest the reflections.

Next, I started adding some reeds and grasses with my liner brush using several variations of green from dark to light, play with the color, you won't be wrong. 

When that was dry, I added some of the branches that come in from the right with my liner brush and a dark brown (sienna, blue and a tiny touch of purple). I have marked what is branches and what is their reflection so you can find them on the photo, add just a touch more blue into the color for the reflection. I will highlight the branches next class.

I also used these same colors to add a few dead branches on the left and some reflections of branches in the water that may be hanging over the water but we can't see the branch that is reflected because it isn't in our painting but doesn't mean it isn't there. Remember that water reflects what is above it and I am sure there are a lot of branches we don't see that could be reflected in the water.

This is where I left off in our last class and we are getting very close to finishing up this painting. Try to have you painting as close to this as you can, we still have 3 weeks until the end of the semester so there is plenty of time to finish up.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Summer 2018 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Class Project: Marsh Madness Week 4

This week we really started getting into detail. Starting with the trees on the left, I made a highlight color of burnt sienna, a little blue to grey it and white (gesso) to make it lighter, then I took my #4 flat sable brush, so I would have more control, and using the very end edge created a series of marks going up the trunks to suggest the bark of the tree. Do not cover the whole trunk with this color, the darker previous color becomes shadow and texture so leave some of it. 

The big tree in the back as well as the smaller trees in the back are the same colors, same technique but I used very little gesso to keep the color more towards the sienna side. Look at the photo and adjust your colors accordingly.

Next we added smaller branches to the main branches with the liner brush. This liner brush is a fun little brush and it can do some amazing things but you do need to practice with it if you have not used it much.

First you want to dilute your paint until it is very ink-like then fill the bristles to the metal ferrule by wiggling it around in the ink-like paint. As you lift off your palette, roll the brush in your fingers so it comes to a point. Hold the brush at the very end and slightly down so the paint will flow from the bristles. If your paint is too thick it will not flow so you will need to add more water. If you press the bristles to the paper it will leave a fatter mark, as you drag your brush across your canvas gradually lift it up to the tip of the brush as you pull until it lifts off. You should have created a line that starts thick and tapers to nothing, that is your first branch. To create branches off your branch, if you loaded your brush correctly you should still have paint for several branches, start back in the fatter part of the branch you just painted and as you pull and lift, go off in a different direction. Yes, I make it look easy because I have been doing this for decades but I also did a lot of practice when I was learning how to use this brush and I watched others use this brush, it will come IF you take the time to practice.

I actually need to had more smaller branches, but for now, this is good. I want some of them to overlap the sky in the background because it was a big uninteresting negative shape, the branches and leaves will break it up in to smaller more interesting shapes. The dark color was a mix of sienna, blue and a tiny touch of purple.

I used that same dark color to add the twigs and branches to the bushes on the right side, I also used my liner brush to create some reeds and grasses coming up out of the water using various greens, light to dark, but as I looked at it I realized I need more reflection in the water from those bushes, so some of them may need to be redone next week.

Another thing I did was mix a color similar to the hazy sky just above the trees and dry brushed that in behind these bushes for a couple of reasons: One, to repeat the sky color in the water and two, to make the area behind the branches a bit lighter for the contrast.

On the left side I used the dark color to make some reflected branches in the water. I also started something in the water that I will do more of next week and that is to put a glaze over the water to create a sheen to it.

I also realized that I hadn't put in the dry areas in the back part of the water. I'm not sure what it is exactly, but I think it is where the water is receding and high spots are starting to show. I used a mix of sienna, a touch of blue to grey it and gesso to lighten, the with a very dry flat bristle brush I lightly scrubbed the dry areas in using flat strokes the keep them looking flat. I also reflected some of the lighter green from the tree line in the water between those dry areas.

This is where I left off in class. I may be able to finish this next week because I am really getting close to being done. I have some reflections to put in, some weeds, a few leaves and branches to add along with some final highlights and shadows but really, not that much - at least for me. We still have a month to go so don't feel rushed to finish, I will be doing demos as needed once I finish so there is still a ways to go before we can put this semester to bed. So keep painting and I will see you in class.

Summer 2018 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Project: Marsh Madness Week 3

This week I started out by under painting the tree trunks in. I will do more work on them later using the liner brush but because these are substantial trunks I used my #6 flat SABLE brush rather than the bristle brush because it stays together and I have more control over it.

Have your reference photo out - the actual photo or the marsh, not something I did in class - and look at it before you start painting. It might also be a good idea if you can bring it up on your computer and really look at it before you start enlarge areas so you can see what is really there, phones and photos don't always give you the whole picture. 

I did the darker trees first with a mix or burnt umber (burnt sienna will also work), and blue. When those trees were in, I added a little touch or gesso (white) and a little more sienna to warm it up slightly (should be a warm gray color) and under painted the closer, lighter tree trunks. Do not go for the final color of these trunks yet, we will get to that later, this color then becomes the shadows and texture of the tree trunks, it is important.

To the water, I added reflections of the brighter highlights of the background tree line. Reflections are a bit darker than what they are reflecting so I used sap green and yellow and used the side of my #4 flat bristle brush and pulled straight down and lightly went across after. This is a dry brush technique so you don't want to have too much paint or water on your brush and use very little pressure with your strokes.

I added the bushes on the right using Hooker's green and blue for the under painting,  added mid tones by adding yellow to that color,then highlights using a mix or yellow and sap green.  Each time I leave some of the previous color because that now becomes texture in the smaller bushes For this I was using my bristle brush. Then I used that dark mixture I used on the other trees to add the bases of the bushes going back to my sable brush. I have some things I need to do in the water behind these bushes so I will put in the branches later, I just needed to see where these went.

I also started some of the reflections from these small bushes and their bases with the same green, the same brown and same technique I used before, pulling down to create the reflections. There is more to do, but this is a start.

This is where I left off, try to have your paintings to this stage if you can because we will be working from there.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.