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.