Winter 2020 Acrylic Class

Project: Desert Refuge Week 2

This week we were still working on the background - the distant mountain and plains. 

As I stated when I started this painting, I want to keep it soft and light which can be a challenge for a painter like me who tends to be bold and bright when it comes to color but I am always up for a challenge when painting because at the end, I feel like I have accomplished something as well as learned something along the way.

I needed to add some shadows and highlights to the distant mountain and this proved to be more of a challenge than I expected. Colors I thought were light enough for what I wanted yet dark enough to say shadow tended to be darker than I expected even taking in the fact that acrylics dry darker. I had to modify it  adding more white (gesso) but finally got the look I wanted. The colors were white (gesso), a touch of blue, a touch of alizarin, and a touch of burnt sienna so it was just a little bit darker than the color from last week. The highlight color was gesso, burnt sienna with a touch or orange and a bit of the "mud" from my brush to gray the color.

The challenge for most beginners is subtlety not only with color but also applying the color. Before you start adding either color randomly, look at what you are painting and try to understand it. All mountains and cliffs have erosion patterns that form with mostly water. Water washes dirt and rocks down the sides of the hills to form fans at the bottom and washes down the sides. If there are other ridges, the water will flow around those ridges or over cliffs, look for these patterns and the shapes them make in the mountain. They don't come just straight down. Your brush strokes need to follow the direction of the thing they are painting so watch for changes in direction. I was using a #4 flat bristle brush and applying the paint in short choppy strokes to create the terrain of the mountain for both the highlight and shadows.

  Next came the desert floor. Again a terrain change. The desert is flatter as it comes off the mountains it does have some hills and dips, for that I used the dame brush but did a series of overlapping long curves strokes.

The color in the back near the bottom of the mountain is yellow, gesso, a touch of orange and some of that mud from the mountain to gray the color. 

Because everything we have been doing so far has been in the distance we need to remember that as things go into the distance they become softer and grayer in color and value (darkness) so adding a touch of some of the mud from before will mute the yellow so it isn't so bright.

As you come forward, add touches of the shadow color if you still have some on your palette if not, little touches of blue, burnt umber and a little gesso to keep it from getting too dark, though less gesso as you come into the foreground. Let this dry.

Once this was dry I wanted to push the mountain even further back so I did a dry brush glaze using gesso a tiny touch of blue and alizarin and lots of water to make a very thin mix. Using a #10 flat bristle brush, I loaded it with this thin mix then wiped off most of it from the outside, This will be a dry brush technique so you don't want a lot of color on the brush. Start at the bottom of the mountain, very little pressure on the brush and make a series of circular strokes and work your way up the mountain even going into the sky. This is a good technique to not only push things back but also to add some atmosphere into your painting like dust and moisture. It looks a bit strange when you first apply this color but when it dries it should just leave a hazy look. If it looks way too heavy, you can wipe it off with a damp paper towel while it is still wet then try again.

Once the glazing is dry we added the reeds behind the  levee. The golden part is a mix of yellow, a touch of orange and a touch of burnt sienna and a tiny touch of gesso. Should look a bit like mustard. 

I used the #4 flat bristle brush. The stroke is a combination of a pat, a push and a lift. Pat the color onto the canvas then push and lift. This will give a ragged edge to the top of the stroke like the tops of the reeds. For the lighter tops, it will be the same stroke but using gesso with a touch of the reed color to make it lighter.

The last thing we did was to under paint the levee. I used the same bristle brush with a mix of blue, umber with a touch of alizarin. Remember what I said about following the shape of the thing you are painting, the sides of this levee are at a slight angle so remember to angle your strokes as you apply your paint.

This is where we stopped for the day, try to have your painting to this point by the next class. Keep painting.