SPRING 2013 ACRYLIC – Practice

 (Class Picture Page Link)

A bit of background so you can understand the process: When I am looking through my photos looking for something I think we can paint as a class project I am looking for something that is not only interesting but also doable in both acrylics and watercolor as class projects. The photo I chose for this semester’s class project was one that really interested me but I had to see if I could break it down enough so it wouldn’t intimidate my students too much. I want to present you with challenges, not brick walls so I did a couple of studies you may have seen in class.

 

Reference Photo

As I was doing the studies – one in acrylic and the other in watercolor – I saw that while it really wasn’t hard to do in either medium there were some areas that might cause some problems for students because they look complicated if you don’t know what you are doing, however, with a little practice I think we can muddle through and learn a lot in the process. So with that in mind I decided that for returning students it would be good review and for new students it would give them some practice with their equipment and paints if we did some practice studies the first couple of week. Once you have done it, it takes away the fear and I know most will not practice this on their own.

Since we always work from the furthest to the closest I thought we would start with the sky. This sky on the day I took the photo was after a rain so there were broken clouds that were white to almost charcoal with patches of blue shining through. The first thing I had students do was to mix up some gray. My standard gray – this should be committed to memory BTW – is ultramarine blue, burnt sienna (this makes a very dark color), white or gesso to change the value to a medium gray and sometimes just a tiny touch of purple but not so much that the color looks purple, the purple goes a long way so when I say tiny, I mean tiny. The color you end up with should be a nice medium value, cool gray. Mix enough because we will be using it in the next step as well.

I was using my #10 flat bristle brush to do this step and it will work better for you than a round brush of similar size.

Acrylic Sky (see Picture page for bigger image)

With my bristle brush and gesso, I coated an area where I will paint the sky and a little more. While you don’t have to paint the whole canvas with sky, you also don’t want to paint just the sky’s area because you want to be sure that when you put something, such as out mountains, in front of it, you want to be sure that your sky covers enough of your canvas that you won’t leave blank canvas showing when you paint your mountains in. I actually did that in class so we all are prone to not covering enough area for our sky. It can also look “cut and paste” because of canvas showing or hard lines between the two areas.

While the gesso is still wet, I streaked in some blue areas along with some gray areas and leaving some of the gesso for white cloud areas, to suggest clouds with breaks in them – same brush – then I rinsed my brush and wiped it out, then using a kinda flat “X” stroke with very little pressure. I lightly blended the areas together. I mean lightly. If you use too much pressure it will be too streaky and you will drag too much of the colors into each other and loose the distinction between them until all you have is a streaky gray color. You can pick up more of a color and add it back into an area, again using a light pressure on your brush.

This takes practice and patience learning how to hold your brush (it isn’t a pencil or pen), how to mix color, how to get the consistency right (your paint should be like soft butter)…So many things to think of all at once, doing these little practice studies are very important in your learning process so don’t overlook them. This was only one way to make a sky and it will be a more “painterly” sky than other techniques but I think it will work with this project.

 

Mountains based in.

The next thing we did was learn how to paint in our mountains. Keep in mind that as things go off into the distance they become softer, lighter and grayer in color and less detailed. Mountains that are 100 miles away won’t have much detail if any. You might see snow or where the sun is hitting them but that is about it, further away you won’t even see that much. As things come closer they become darker in value until you start to see some color of rocks and/or trees even closer you might see tops of trees or rock outcroppings and still on the grayish side but that is about as much detail you will see until they are right in front of you.

With that in mind, these mountains are about 10 – 15 miles from where I took the photo so you can see a little detail but the color is very blue gray, which is where your gray mix comes in to play again, if you have run out, mix up some more, it doesn’t have to be a perfect match as long as it is gray. I was still using my #10 flat bristle brush loading it with my gray and working it into the bristles, on my canvas I used my charcoal to sketch the outline of the top edge of the

Note the soft top edge made with the flat end of the bristle brush.

mountains then with the flat edge of my brush on that charcoal line I pulled down to form the top edge of the mountains. Because acrylics dry so fast you don’t usually want to outline with your brush or you can leave a hard line the reason I use the end of my brush and pull down to form the edge. In the body of the mountain it is just a matter of filling it in just keep in mind it is not a wall. Do not use long flat strokes, they can and will show in the final painting, instead use what is called a scumbling stroke which basically means your brush goes in all directions and you can scrub the color in as well. Be sure you bring the color down far enough to be behind any trees and that the bottom edge is soft, no hard line.

Next week we will practice adding some detail to the mountains, adding some foreground trees and doing a wash to push the whole thing back. If there is time we may practice with the liner brush or we may wait to do that when we get closer to that part of the project. Keep your practice board handy, you may need to use it as you go along.

I also want to remind/encourage my returning students to consider being a part of the Torrance cable project that Hope presented in class last week, it could help encourage other people who have retired or are thinking of retiring and wondering what they are going to do with their life to get out and try something they may have thought they were too old to do. I think my mom would have been up to it if she were still alive, she was learning new things almost to the day she died and she was 94, so not only would you be doing a good deed encouraging other seniors, you can show your friends and family what you do. Think about it. See you in class.