Fall 2019 Acrylic Class

Project: Alaskan Fishing Village Week 6

This is the last post for this project. We (I) finished the painting with all the necessary things then some added in some of the decorations to make the painting more to our individual liking. I will go over both.

Along the shore I pulled up some grasses using my #6 flat bristle brush. I used several shades of green using the sap green and adding yellow to make it lighter or a little orange to soften the color or a little blue to darken. I also used some orange and yellow with out the green. Grass is not just one color, it has many colors in it if you look closely to it and adding these colors makes your grass look more realistic.

The technique is a dry brush technique so after loading your brush with used your paper towel to squeeze by the metal ferrule to not only soak up some of the excess water in your brush but also to spread the bristles of your brush. Place the end of the brush where you want to start a clump of grass the "flip" it up with a quick snap of the wrist. Practice this before going to your painting if you are unsure and don't forget to over lap your strokes so it looks like a very grassy slope. Don't be afraid of pulling some of the grasses over the boat or the bottom of the posts of the building, this will settle them down into your painting.

On the other side of the painting I added a tree in front of the walkway so the straight line of the railing and walkway wouldn't take the viewer off the canvas. 

I used the same brush and it is a dry brush technique but when I loaded the brush I pushed straight down into the paint to load the brush, this will force the bristles out in an irregular pattern, then, starting from the outside of the tree, I pulled in making clumps of leaves  and giving the outside edge of the tree an interesting shape. It is not a Christmas tree, don't make it perfect.

First I used my  Hooker's green and blue to make a dark green for the under painting and shaped my tree. Then into that same color, I added some yellow and a little touch of white to highlight the top edges of the branches doing wet into wet. the key here is not to lose all of the dark under painting - that becomes shadows and texture. Again practice on something else if you are unsure.

Don't forget to add the grasses to this side as well.

Finally, for those who want to stop and consider the painting done, I put a glaze on the water to give it a shimmer. This is done using the 2" blending brush and a very thin glaze.

Mixing the glaze you need a little white (gesso) and a touch of blue with a lot of water, you want this to be very transparent like skim milk.

Load the blending brush with this glaze then use your paper towel to such out most of the water on your brush, this is also a dry brush technique. With very little pressure on your brush - 3 hairs and some air as the late Bob Ross might say - go straight across the water are of your painting, slightly wiggling as you go. I may take 2 or 3 passes to cover all of the area but once you have it covered, let it dry before having a heart attack. It should look milky at this point but you should still be able to see what is underneath the glaze, if the glaze you put on has obscured the reflections you may need to lightly wipe off some of the glaze but wipe it off going straight across with a slightly damp paper towel, this should be enough without having to do it over again.

When this glaze dries, it should look like a shimmer on the water just remember to use a lot of water when mixing the color and using a very light stroke when applying the color.

I also used a thicker mix of the white and blue to add some "dots and dashes" to the shoreline right where the land and water meet to make a sparkle like rocks and sticks  that pile up at the waterline.

This is where you can stop if you want the following is what I did to finish my painting.

I added the phone poles using similar colors I used in the house, a light gray for some of the fixtures on the poles and the wires and and even lighter gray for the smoke.

Dry brush again with the bristle brush, using little circles around the top of the smoke stack then little circles and less pressure as I made the smoke rise and  disappear into the sky. I repeated this in the water. I also added the ladder you can see in other photos above and the final image below.

This is the final post for this project, from what I heard in class everyone was having fun and learned a lot which is always my goal. Until next time Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Fall 2019 Acrylic Class

Project: Alaskan Fishing Village Week 5

We are getting closer to the details so we need to start finishing things 
like the boats. The little rowboat had some negative painting done on it. First I mixed a medium gray - burnt sienna and ultramarine blue and white (gesso) - This will be a base color that I add more blue and sienna for a darker color (keep the color on the blue side) or gesso to lighten it.

Use the darker gray to make the shadows under the front of the boat. Remember that the sides of the boat are curved so you brush strokes need to also curve as you do anything on the sides. Use a lighter gray for the seats, the top part of the bow and the back of the boat. A bit darker for the outside side of the boat and a lighter gray for the inside side of the boat. Remember to follow the curve of the boa especially on the inside.

I also want you so note as you follow along here that my strokes are basically one and done. Don't over think what you are doing just put down the color and leave it alone.

You can use that same shades of gray on the bigger boat on the side of the building to, again quick strokes, don't fuss. The blue was just blue, white and what mud (gray) was in my brush so it wasn't too bright a blue.

I also added some more posts under the house using yet again the gray I started out with.

I did brighten the mud color with sienna, a touch of orange and white and dry brushed on the highlight with the same comma strokes I used to under paint.

I added windows to the buildings first by under painting with a dark color (blue and burnt sienna) using my #4 sable brush. When it was dry and with the same brush, I first put in the curtains in the front windows. That was just some of the lighter gray I have been using and dry brushing it on to look like curtains. Leave some of the dark to make the curtains looks partially open.
Next, same brush and a light gray - again - I used the very end edge of the brush to add the frames around the windows and to suggest panes of glass by just touching the brush to the canvas to form the windows.

I also used the same technique to add some molding boards to the corners of the building using a slightly darker version of the gray.

I also added the smokestack with again - you guessed it - gray and the sable brush.

I used the same dark color for the window in the door of the red house and a very light gray for the corner molding and frame around the door and window.

The little man was just the dark color for the legs and head, those were just a line for the legs and a rectangular-kinda shape for the head. Don't make heads round or they won't look like people. The shirt was yellow and orange put on with a quick stroke. I used the #4 flat sable for the entire person and with a little luck, the way the bristles were shaped the guy looks like he has one hand on his hip, the other on the rail looking down at the blue boat. Sometimes you get lucky.

The railing was sienna, orange and white same brush, same technique as the molding.

Remember when you reflect the windows and the smokestack in the water to wiggle you vertical or horizontal strokes as you paint them in. It is moving water, nothing is straight.

Last but not least, I pulled up some dark right along the edges of where the grasses meet the mud. Notice it is not a solid line because some of the grass my be in front of the grass as it wanders around the mud.

I hope that we will finish up the project next week so please try to have yours to this point when we meet. We have some grasses to put in and some bushes along with some detail and we can call this done.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Fall 2019 Acrylic Class

Project: Alaskan Fishing Village Week 4

In our last class, I wanted to get the trees behind the buildings a bit more finished and/or defined before working on the buildings. 

The little deciduous tree behind the red house was done with a flat sable brush, sap green some yellow and orange for the brighter highlights and on the shadowed side I added some blue and a little gesso to make a cool green. 

I was using the very edge of the brush and lightly taping with it rather than drawing with it because the tapping will leave a mark that will be a bit fuzzy like the leaves on the branches. Don't paint over all of the dark because that is your shadow in the tree but do tap the brush in all directions to the branches look like they are coming out on all sides of the tree.

Once your trees are to your liking, it is time to work on the roofs. The first color I mixed was white (gesso) with a touch of burnt sienna, orange and a little mud (gray) that was on my pallet already to get a light dirty orange color. I was using my #6 flat sable again because I have a bit more control with it for edges but this was a dry brush technique so each time I picked up paint, I needed to use my paper towel to squeeze the back part of the bristles to dry them and separate the bristles before I went to the roof. This will give me streaks if I lightly skim the surface of my canvas. I followed the angle of the roof as I pulled my brush down the roof. Be careful you don't go straight down or across, while that is what we will do in the water, it will make your roof look very weird so follow the angle.

The rust stains can go on while the first color is still wet or you can wait if you are concerned you will blend too much, either is acceptable, I went over it while it was still wet and as long as you go over it lightly and leave it alone you should be okay.

The stains were one, straight burnt sienna, the darker stain was the sienna with blue, not white.

The second house, I used the same light color on the roof but with a bit more blue and white.

One thing I noticed when I got home was I think both roofs are a bit too light, I will show you how to correct that in class next time.

Most of the time when I am working on something of similar color, I will mix a bigger pile of it then add colors to parts of it  to make it lighter or darker, slightly different color etc., so on the front building I was working out of that first color I mixed for the roof, the light color. I also switched to a smaller, #4, flat sable so I could get into tighter areas. All of this is also dry brush to watch the water in your brush and spread the bristle before you paint.

To that light color I added more sienna and a touch more orange for the hanging door, it just needs to be a bit darker than the roof.

For the light gray on the side facing you, I added more blue and burnt sienna it is more on the blue side, add a little white if it is too dark. Watch the direction of your strokes, these boards were put on lengthwise.  

Some of that light gray color can be used on the vertical part of the front of the building at the bottom, you don't have to keep remixing colors unless you run out, many color in a painting will repeat or can repeat, it help unify your painting.

The dark gray on the peak of the building was just more blue and sienna I used it in that vertical panel below as well as straight burnt sienna and using a dry brush.

On the little red building a was still using the #4 flat sable brush but I mix the red (napthol or cad red light) with a little burnt sienna and dry brushed over the front of the building.

Notice I have not added in the windows or any of the detail to my buildings, this makes it a ton easier to get the building in first then just paint the detail later so you aren't trying to paint around all these little areas afraid to screw up your beautiful windows. Save 'em for later.

You can drag some of the colors you have been working with into the reflections and long as they aren't too light and you add them with either straight down or straight across strokes.

This is where we left off we will pick up here next time so try to get your paintings to this point we only have 3 weeks to finish this project.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Fall 2019 Acrylic Class

Project: Alaskan Fishing Village Week 3

In our last class, we started under painting some of what will be detail in our painting.

Be sure that you have a dark area under the buildings, that can bee green with blue and purple, before you add the posts. Nothing needs to be perfectly straight on these buildings.

I also added some shore line using burnt sienna a little blue and gesso (white) to make a warm mid-tone gray and right along some of the shoreline (look at the photo), I pulled down some muddy areas.This stroke is like a comma that starts down, the curves into the water. The direction of your strokes is important so it looks like sloping mud.

I also used the mud color with a bit more blue to make a gray and white to change the value to under paint the boats and the pilings, adding touches of the three colors to change either color or value. Also, look at the photo, you will see that the big boat by the side of the brown building can be seen through the pilings.

We spent a lot of our time adding the reflections of the building into the water. This is challenging because we want to paint it just like we did above but it isn't. It isn't as defined as the house above and the water's movement blurs the edges and any detail. Key thing to remember when painting reflections: Straight down and straight across.

The red house isn't straight red, mix either cad red or napthol with some burnt sienna to "muddy" the color for the under painting, it will still look red because of all the green around it but it won't look so bright. The other building is the same colors as you used to under paint the land version.

Our paintings are stating to take shape and we are entering the detail phase so get ready to watch this really change in the next couple of weeks.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.