Winter 2020 Acrylic Class

Project: Desert Refuge Week 1

Surprisingly, we had all returning students this time so we were able to start the project on the first day. I did have to prepare a canvas because I left mine sitting on the floor, but that was okay, some of you don't know what to do with canvases you have with paintings you don't want and you think you have to throw them away - don't. Gesso and a little color can wipe that unwanted painting away and give you a new surface to work on.

If you have an old canvas that has a surface with a unwanted bumpy brush strokes, you can take a sanding block to it and smooth it down before you gesso over it, or leave them for the texture, your call.

I like to work on a toned canvas, many artists do. It kills that stark white of the gessoed canvas you buy and it can give an overall tone to your finished painting if you paint thin or miss some spots it isn't a bright white glaring out at you. This is an option, it is not carved in stone. If you don't want to tone your canvas - don't. This is my preference but I do like to show you options.

I use the heavy gesso (thinner gesso can be used but it may take a couple of coats) and a lima bean sized amount of yellow ocher for my 16 x 20 canvas board. No, yellow ocher is not on my list, it is one I only use occasionally, you can get a close color with cad yellow light and a touch of burnt sienna, just don't use too much of either because you want to keep this rather light. I used a #10 flat bristle to spread the gesso and color out and I was not worried about variations in color, just getting the canvas covered. Then let it dry.

While we were waiting for my canvas to dry, I went over the value of sketching and drawing. I know I go over this often but I wanted people to understand how important even a simple sketch can be. 

A sketch can be nothing more than a small thumbnail with lines and shapes that allow you to figure out where things go, what you can leave out, what to put in, where are your values or you can figure out if you are going to work vertical (portrait) or horizontal (landscape) as some subjects will work better if the canvas is in a certain direction. 

 It is also a good practice when you are learning, to add a grid so you can place main elements into better positions on your canvas. The grid on these example indicate the Rule of Thirds where you put importnt elements on or near third lines or in the intersections of the lines for best visual affect. If you have a grid in your camera or phone, turn it on and use it when you are taking photos, this will improve your photography as well. 

While these sketches look a bit simplistic, they are very important when designing the painting I am going to start.

When you are taking a photo, you are constrained by many things such as trying to find the right angle to take the image. In the photo I took, this was the only angle where I could get the "V" of the trees and reflections with the mountain in the back because if I moved one way, I lost what I wanted the other way I was behind a tree and if I moved forward I would get wet so I had to take the photo you see, but as an artist, I am not confined to this image. I can virtually move mountains if I want to to make for a more interesting composition. On this project, I am going to move the mountain a bit over to the right and the gap between the trees a bit to the left, this will create a visual path that will help the viewer's eye wander back into my painting, keeping them there wondering what is behind the trees. With the mountain "dead center" the eye goes straight to the mountain and stops, it has no reason to look further so I need to encourage the eye to explore my painting.

Work in progress

A sketch can also be the ground work for a more detailed drawing and drawing is a good thing. If you can render an image in just pencil - black and white - painting it will be a piece of cake. You get more intimate knowledge of your subject when you draw and the better you can create the shapes when drawing the better you will create them with paint. I encourage everyone to just site and draw, it is very meditative and it will make you a better painter.

The yellow at the bottom was the color I painted
the whole canvas to begin with.

Once my canvas was dry, I started with the sky. I want to keep this painting soft and light which was what attracted me to this image when I took it. There are no real dark darks in this photo and for someone like me who like the drama of light and shadow in a painting, this will be a challenge.

I was still using the #10 flat bristle brush to  paint my sky using crisscross strokes. I also want this painting to be a bit more impressionistic to I am not going to try and make things perfect, I want those brush strokes. I did not worry about the mountain and painted straight across.

In my palette I mixed gesso, for the white, and added touches of ultramarine blue and a tiny mount of burnt sienna to gray the blue for my sky color. Then I started at the top, working across and down about a quarter of the way with this color. If you look at the photo, you will see that near the horizon the sky has a slight lavender color to it, so to the blue, sienna and white, I added a little alizarin crimson. I want to keep the same value as the blue, just change the color a bit.

If you feel you need to wait for this to dry, that is okay but you can start the mountain while the sky is still wet and it will help create a soft edge to your distant mountain. If your paint is still wet, you can lightly draw the edge of your mountain with to handle of your brush if you need a guide to paint, if it is dry, you can use your chalk or charcoal to sketch in the edge.

In either case - wet into wet or wet on dry - you need to create a soft edge so I use a flat brush and use the very edge to create the edge by pulling the brush down along the edge letting the bristles naturally soften the edge. In the interior of the mountain, I want to make my brush strokes follow the natural erosion paths you see in the mountain, it is not a wall so follow its shape. I used the same color I had in my palette but to it I added a touch more alizarin and sienna and just enough gesso to keep it light but only about a value darker than the sky.

The plains at the bottom of the mountain was gesso, cad yellow light and burnt sienna, same brush but this time I made long flat "X's" to suggest the flatness of the desert floor.

This is where we left off, if you need some time to catch up or review because of the time off, not to worry, I won't get you lost. Just keep painting and I will see you in class.