Summer 2019 Acrylic Class

Project: Apple Turnover Revisited Week 3

This week I finished under painting the green apples. One thing I want you to notice are my brush strokes. I was using a #6 flat sable brush to paint my apples. I was trying to follow the shape of the apple, so the sides were slightly curved strokes going around the apple but when I got to the top I switched my strokes so they curved over the top slightly angled towards the center of the apple.

Your eyes pick up on very subtle things like brush strokes and they do affect the overall final product. Brush strokes also add some texture to what you are painting as well.

I did a separate demo for the apple to make it large enough for people to see. My main color was sap green though if you only have Hooker's green you will have to add a bit of yellow to warm it up.

To darken the green I used the ultramarine blue, to lighten I added yellow and touches of white (gesso).

I started out in the darker parts of the apple and I was "brush blending". What that means was I was doing very little mixing on my pallet doing most of the mixing on the apple. While I did start out making a blend of sap and blue on my pallet, and added it to my apple, my next step was to pick up the green and blend it up a bit of the way up the apple. My goal is to make a smooth transition from the shadowed part of the apple to the light side of the apple. Look at your reference photo to see where the light is coming from  (upper right) and see how it falls and shapes the apple.

As I got into the lighter areas I didn't add any more of the darker color but added yellow and little touches of white to the green. Only in the center did I go back for a little of the darker color but used my strokes to blend into it so it isn't too dark at this point.

This is the base for our green apples, not the finished product that will come later.

Since I had several people who had missed a class or two, I didn't want to get too much ahead of them, I hate for people to get lost, however, there was still a lot to do like the table top.

I added several more layers to my table top trying to get the look I want. I was using my #6 flat bristle brush to dry brush color on and remembering to leave some of the previous layers of color. I added some light blue, light green and some light gray (white [gesso] blue, green and add burnt sienna to either to get gray), still I wasn't getting what I thought I wanted when it dawned on me I needed the slats in the table. The lines in this photo are just charcoal lines so I could see the look of the table I was going for, when I did that I could see I was near where I wanted it to be. Sometimes we keep trying to fix what is there when it is really something that isn't there yet we need to put in. By adding the charcoal lines I could finally visualize my table top. While I still have a ways to go on it I could leave it there because I do need to fix the lines to make them straight and get them spaced better.

Again, the lines in the photo are just charcoal so you do not need to add them in yet though you may want to bring a straight edge with you when you come to class.

When I get home and look at what I've done in class I see things I want to change and it is much better to see them now than when I'm almost finished. This is one of the advantages to acrylic is you can paint right over it, I will discuss the changes I want to make next time and my reasons why, you do not need to change a thing to yours if you don't want to but you need to see that you can and the World won't come to an end.

So keep painting and I will see you in class.