Summer 2011 Acrylic Class

Acrylic – Demo: Pelicans in Flight Week 4

PV Students, you are almost caught up with the Torrance students as far as the demos are concerned, you will need to go back to last weeks blog to review the under painting of the pelicans but the rest of this blog will apply to what we covered in class except for the highlighting of the birds, that is where I stopped with Torrance.

When I look at my paintings when I'm writing these blogs, I will often times see things at home that I don't when I am trying to teach the class. What I saw at home that I couldn't quite figure out in class was that the water and the island behind the birds were too plain, they looked too flat so before I started finishing up the pelicans, I wanted to finish up the water and Catalina.

Painting with acrylics you can go about things in a couple of ways: You can either go darker or lighter depending on what you think your painting needs in a particular area. With that in mind, when I looked at my water, I thought it was a bit too light and I needed to add some darks and some movement to it and could accomplish both in the same move.

I mixed up a color of blue, a touch of sap green and a tiny touch of purple. A reminder: you want your paint creamy like soft butter but not runny when using a regular brush however, if you use you liner for this step you will need to use enough water in your paint so that it is very ink-like, the choice is yours, I demonstrated both using my liner and using a #4 flat sable brush.

I turned my canvas so that is was in the vertical position and starting out with that dark blue mixture on the very edge of the canvas I made long vertical lines that were slightly "u" shaped. These overlapped or crossed each other but for the most part they were vertical and I painted about a third of the water color in these stripes.

Please take note and check the picture page: I DID NOT cover the entire under painting. The paint that was there becomes the highlights on the water. If that area had been darker than it was, I could have put highlights back in with the same technique with lighter colors but I would have left the dark blue as shadows. Too many of you still cover up all of your under painting when you could have left it to work for you as shadows then you have to work twice as hard to get the darks – sometimes lights – back in your painting. Let the under painting work for you.

After I painted that third of the water, I mixed in a bit of white and a little green into the same mix, I wanted it to be a bit lighter though it should still be a bit darker that the next area we will paint. Again, I painted vertical strokes but this time they were a bit shorter and closer together. I am trying to create distance in my painting keeping in mind that as things go into the distance they become softer, greyer in color and closer together. About another third was painted this way thought I did put some of this color in the border between the darker strokes and this color.

That last third was painted the same – vertical strokes – but I added a bit more white and barely skimmed the surface of the water so that the ripples in the water faded out as they went into the distance. Don't over think this, it is just ripples on the water it should be done quickly and be done with it. Turn it back to horizontal when done.

Next, I wanted to add some contour on the island hills, for this I mixed my blue with purple and a little touch of sienna and white to make a color that was just slightly darker that what was there. I just want a little value (darker) change just enough to suggest some detail in the hills. With a bristle brush (#6 flat), I scrubbed in this color where I wanted shadows. My light is coming in from the top left side so shadows will be on the right side of the hills. I have looked at hills and shadows all my life so I can figure out where the shadows go but if you need to see how shadows fall on hillsides, please find some reference of take some photos, those reference photos can be worth their weight in gold when you need to know how something looks, keep them handy and add to them.

When I finished with the shadows on the hills, the next thing I did was soften the line between the Island and the water so it wasn't as defined, to accomplish this I mixed a touch of gesso into some of that blue color and a lot of water this time, I want a very thin glaze of a light color for this effect. With my bristle brush I loaded this color on my brush and then I used my paper towel to remove any excess water from my brush, this is a dry brush technique with very little paint.

Right along the line between the water and the land, using a circular, scrubbing type stroke, I very lightly (little pressure on my brush) went over, under and above that line almost like making clouds. This haze that you are creating should be uneven as you go across. This does take practice but it is a good thing to learn because you can use it in many situations to soften distant hard lines or add some atmosphere to your paintings.

Torrance students we did get started on some of the details of the pelicans, though we didn't get too far, we have some left to do in our next class but you should all have your birds under painted at this point.

I started at the head around the eyes in the feather area, from an image of a pelican in mating plumage I found on the Internet, I could see that around the face the color started out as a sienna color and faded back to a soft yellow. I went back to the small flat sable for this step so I would have more control and will use it for all the work on these birds.

Starting with the sienna I pulled that color back away from the eyes, keeping in mind that I was painting feathers that followed the contour of the head, using short strokes. This color goes to the top where it ends at the bill and fades out under his chin. I just wiped out my brush and picked up some orange and mixing slightly into the sienna, made more small strokes just behind the first color. I did a similar thing with yellow and a touch of white. Again, I'm not trying to cover up all my under painting because that will give me texture and shadows.

I mixed a bit of grey by using what I had on my palette with some gesso to start, I wanted a lighter color than what was already on the bird for the top of the head, back and the top of the wing. Using just the edge of the brush I made short, choppy, over lapping, strokes to create a feathery look in the sun lit areas ALWAYS following the growth pattern of the feathers.

On the two smaller birds, I just put touches of color because they are too small in the painting for much detail.

Both acrylic classes we will be finishing up the birds in the next class and we have a few more weeks to go so please have something with you that you want to paint and I can help you get started. See you soon.

SUMMER 2011 ACRYLIC CLASSES

Acrylic – Demo: Pelicans

PV Classes I do want to remind you that blogs on how to do the skies are a couple entries back but because we are such a small class and we have 3 hours, we are almost caught up with Torrance, so you will want to read the parts on clouds in this blog.

Torrance class we started out by putting clouds in our sky. The clouds are not the story in this painting, they are just there as supporting features, to put the pelicans in their environment as it were, I didn't want big, flamboyant, colorful clouds that would compete with the birds, so I strived to have them there but not as attention getters. It is not to say that if you want the clouds to have a more prominent role in your painting you can make them more outstanding, it just isn't what I wanted for mine.

Even though the clouds are the big, fluffy white kind we see quite often, I still need to start out with a grey under painting. I wanted a grey that was just a bit darker than the sky behind it and I needed to put the clouds where they will help my pelicans so I want the grey behind where the heads are going to be, however, I didn't need to draw the pelican in, I just needed to mark where his head would be so when I painted my clouds, I would have them in the right position.

My grey was white (gesso), ultra marine Blue, burnt sienna and diox. purple. This is my standard mix for grey though there are other ways to make grey, this is my workhorse mix. The white or gesso is what changes the value of the color, no white and you have a very dark almost black color and it is what I use instead of black when I need a dark color. This version is mostly white to create a soft medium light grey color.

When I apply the color to the canvas, I start where the middle of the cloud would be with my bristle brush (10 or 12) and with circular motions create the shapes of my clouds all the time thinking about how the clouds themselves are formed with bubbling and boiling shapes. There are no had edges to a cloud so the outside edges need to be very soft and airy so when I get to the edges I lighten the pressure on my brush and dry brush the top and bottom portions of the clouds. I even picked up little touches of the sky pink to put in the clouds to repeat the color and worked it in to the color that was already there.

The next layer, when the first was dry, I added more white or gesso to the same pile of paint and mixed it in but this time when I loaded my brush I wiped out the excess and using a dry brush stroke, I kept this color to what would be the tops of the "boils" of a cloud so I left some of that darker color as shadows in the clouds. The final layer (glaze) was just white on my brush and I dry brushed this on again on what would be the tops of the clouds and very dry brush. This take practice so your clouds don't look like cotton balls so you might want to try it on a separate canvas at first.

When my clouds dried, I took the pattern I had and my soft vine charcoal and rubbed the charcoal on the back of the pattern along the lines. Then I taped it to my dry canvas where I wanted the birds to be and with the end of a brush handle I traced over my pattern and transferred the birds to my canvas. I did have to go over the transferred lines with my charcoal so I could see them clearly on the canvas. I did blow off the excess when I was done.

When you are placing your birds, remember to give them room to fly into. You don't want to place the lead bird so close to the edge that he is going to "bump" into it, you want to give him enough visual space from the edge so he has room to fly. If when you look at the charcoal lines and your birds aren't in a position you want them, take a wet paper towel and wipe them off and start over. Better at this point that after you start painting them in.

The birds will be under painted in varying shades of grey so you might want to mix up a good pile of a very dark grey (little or no white/gesso) and add little bits of white as needed to lighten on the head and back. DONOT USE WHITE ALONE at this point, it is still shades of grey. Keep the grey to the cool side by adding more blue, if you want to warm it up in spots add sienna or a touch of orange like on the body of the main bird or on its bill, but essentially grey will be your basic color to which you will add touches of white to lighten the color in the sunlit or light areas of the bird such as the head, back and top of the wings. Look at your photo to see where the light and dark areas are and add touches of white in those areas but do not paint them white at this point in time. We will get there but this step is important to give body and form to your birds. Use a brush that is the right size for you painting, I was using a #4 bristle, you can use a sable if you want, and paint in the direction of how the feathers grow, keep that photo handy.

Also, when you are doing the birds in the distance, watch their shape, I saw a lot of crows in my classes because you were going too fast and didn't pay attention to the shape of those birds and they ended up a different species. They don't need a lot of detail so don't spend too much time trying to make them look perfect, they are just suggestions of pelicans and play a supportive role like the clouds.

All students, we will probably finish this project up next week so if you want to bring in something you would like to paint next bring it in so I can help you get started. If you have any thing you would like to see a demo on, let me know because if you need help on something chances are that others in class need help as well.

PV students try to have the birds sketched on to your canvas and we will work on them next class and probably finish them.

See you all soon.

SUMMER 2011 ACRYLIC CLASS

Acrylic Class – "Pelicans in Flight"

PV students, you will want to review the previous couple of blog entries so you will know what we will be doing in class on Tues. I hope that you have been able to get your blending brushes (the real soft ones) but if you couldn't find one, do not worry, we will just have to do our skies like we practiced in class last Tuesday, it might not be a nice smooth sky but it isn't a "wrong" sky, just a different way to achieve your goal. If you are going to follow along with what I will be demonstrating, please download and print out the reference photo and the drawing found on the picture page. Let me know if you have problems, I do have a few extra copies.

Torrance students you should have your paintings up to the point so that it has the sky, Catalina, and the water (if you put water in your painting), I did not do the clouds yet, that will be our next step on Monday, also, if you are not going to draw the pelicans freehand but are going to transfer the image to your canvas from a drawing the size that will fit your canvas, be sure to have the enlarged drawing ready, we will probably get to where we are basing in our pelicans in the next class.

I do want to mention that we should be done with this painting probably in the following class so you might want to start looking for something you want to paint and I can help you get started on it in class.