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.