Fall 2018 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Class Project: Dancing Boots Week 1

This week we started our class project of the boots. This is something a bit different from what we have been doing and should be a lot of fun.

The first thing I did was to create the background. In acrylic we can start from the background and work our way forward because we can paint right over the top of of what we did before.

I am working on a 16 x 20 stretched canvas and for this part I used my 2" hake brush (blending brush).

The first thing I did was to lightly spray my canvas with water (you can use the hake brush to wet the canvas), then I applied a thin coat of gesso to the entire surface of the canvas so I could blend into the wet gesso. Gesso dries a bit slower so it gives you a bit more time to work, just remember that it is white and will change the value of your paint by making it lighter.

Still using the blending brush I picked up some yellow and a touch of orange and started working in the light areas. I did not premix on my palette, I went straight to the canvas to do what is called "brush blending". Working out from that light area I picked up, in not particular order, burnt sienna, blue, orange, a bit of red, more yellow and to darken the corners,more blue and some purple.

This is where your skills with the blending brush come into play: When you put it on your canvas, get it on quickly and get the area covered. It doesn't matter if it is a solid color, it is better if it isn't, this is called "mottling" and is a great background for many subjects.

To blend your colors is the tricky part, you need to use very little pressure on your brush and the brush is almost parallel to the surface of the canvas. Use long crisscross strokes to blend your colors. If you feel the brush start to drag, you may need to spritz your canvas with a little water but quickly work the water into the paint as you continue blending.

This doesn't have to be perfect and you should have a variety of colors, the more you practice this technique the easier it will be for you to create those soft blends. Let it dry.

When the background was dry, I taped my design over the canvas. My boots are slightly off center and that is on purpose, I want a bit of space in front of the boots so they are not "Dead Center". Subjects that are centered seem to be stagnate visually, there are always exceptions to all "rules" in art, but better to go with the rule of thirds in most cases.

I had used white chalk to go over the lines on the back of my design then used the end of a brush to go over the lines to transfer the design to the canvas. I also used the Poster 8 program to enlarge the design to fit my canvas. (see Lerri's Links" in the sidebar)

 The last thing I did in class was to under paint my cactus. I switched to a #6 flat bristle brush to fill in my cactus. the reason I use the bristle brushes for this step is because they are designed for a lot of abuse, the sable brushes just won't last long with all the scrubbing and scumbling we do when we under paint.

THE KEY to this is not to paint the cactus or any other subject like a wall. Everything has its own unique shape and you need to follow that shape. This cactus is rounded so all of my strokes with follow the roundness and the curves of the cactus.

As you can see, there is a lot of brush strokes and texture in my under painting of the cactus. I used Hooker's green, ultramarine blue, touches of sienna, some yellow to suggest the tops of ribs, and even a bit of purple in the darker areas. Look at the reference photo to see how the cactus gets darker near the bottom and as it goes around. Good reference is a must if you want to be a better painter because it has all the information you need to create a believable painting whether you are going for realistic or impressionistic paintings.. 

This stage may look messy but it is the foundation for our cactus.

Try to get your painting to this point because this is where I will be picking up the demos. Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Summer 2018 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Project: Marsh Madness Week 6

This was the official final week for out summer project, I did a bit of detail to mine that you may or may not want to do to yours, it is up to you how you want to finish your own project. You may want to look at the reference photo to decide what you want to do.

The branches on the right I highlighted with a lither version of the under painting: sienna, a touch of blue, white and I added just a touch of orange to warm it up. I used my #4 flat sable brush on the larger parts of the branches rather than paint a line, I touched the end of the brush to the edge of the branch, pulled down in a semicircle and lifted at the same time. This will give you a rougher look like it has bark. In the smaller areas, I just touched the edges of the brush along the twigs letting the canvas take what it wants, again to suggest a rough surface. I also made up a reflected light for some of the shadows on larger parts of the branches.

In the corner I used sienna and orange to suggest some dead leaves, but I also used a little of this color in the trees to the left and also added a touch of white to highlight the trunks of the small trees behind these branches.

I wanted to get just a bit brighter highlight in the small trees/bushes on the right as well as some intermediate greens on the sides that aren't quite in shadow. I started out with yellow and added some green for the brightest highlights, then added a little blue to slightly darken the color to the sides of these trees. You can also use these same colors up in the branches of the other trees on the left as well when you are done with this side. Again I was using my #4 flat sable, but used the corner of the brush to suggest the clumps of leaves.

You may need to practice making smaller individual leaves with your flat sable brush before you do the single leaves and small clumps but it is easy if you don't think about it too much, same goes if you are using a small round sable brush, practice first. Both brushes require you to touch, push and lift and do it quickly to get a reasonable facsimile of a leaf. No, the do not need to look perfect because the leaves are going in all directions so you will see blobs, fat ones, thin ones, curved ones etc, it just needs to look like it could be leaves. Don't clog up the area too much and try to get them coming off your branches and twigs.

On the left side I added more dark clumps of leaves then I used the same mix of light green (see above) to highlight some of those clumps. Even in the dark shadows there is a possibility that there is a hole in the canopy above that will let a little light come through, just don't get carried away, these are just touches. I used the slightly darker version to also add more leaves and to suggest the algae on the surface of the water, keep your strokes flat if you want it to look like it is floating on the surface.

I also added some dead branches in the trees and some more grasses at the bottom of the trees to set them into the water. 

Finally, in the water I did a very dry brush glaze over most of what is water using my #4 flat bristle brush. This was a very watery mix of white (gesso) and a very tiny touch of orange just to slightly tint the white, it should look like cream so it is a bit warmer than white alone.

Remember, after loading your brush to wipe most of it out (dry brush), then used the small side of the brush and lightly glaze over the water areas using horizontal strokes. You can go over the reflections with this glaze bout avoid actual things. The reeds can be tricky but try to get some of this glaze over some of the water. You can switch to your liner brush or a small round brush and around the bottoms of some of the reeds suggest ripples and also along some of the edges of the sand bars in the back and around the base of the small trees.

Do as much or as little as you feel comfortable with to finish up your project. I hope you learned about green and reflections and that no matter how complicated something looks, you can only paint it one stroke at a time so anything is possible to do.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Summer 2018 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Project: Marsh Madness Week 5

This week I started working on detail because we are nearing the finish line on this painting.

On the tree trunks on the left I added what is called a "reflected highlight". Light in out atmosphere bounces off of surfaces especially something like water and will bounce into shadow areas. This is not a bright light but a cool one. I mixed blue, purple, a little burnt sienna and white (gesso) to make a lavender blue color, with the chiseled edge of my flat sable brush, I touched along the edges of the trunks that were either in the shadows or over water all the time thinking about the texture of the tree trunks. I also mixed up gesso with a little touch of orange and sienna for the light highlight on the lighter trees then added more sienna and orange to create the highlight for the darker, redder trees.

Up in the trees after I had added the reflected light and highlights, I under painted clumps of leaves that are in front of parts of the trunks (look at the reference photo to locate the clumps). I was using my #6 flat bristle brush because I would be doing some scrubbing during the under painting but went back to my flat sable for the highlights.

The under painting was sap green or Hooker's plus (mine have sort of merged on my palette), blue and a very, tiny amount of purple. If you don't have purple add more blue and alizarin crimson, this will create a dark, cool green.  I scumbled and scrubbed dark shapes in the trees, covering some trunks and painting around others. This color even goes out over some of the outstretched branches and around the base of some of the trees (look at the reference photo).


Since some of the top leaves of these clumps are in partial sun and others in full sun, there are 2 variations of color: To the previous dark color I added more green and added some yellow to get a lighter but still cool green and using the corner of my flat sable brush (you can use a round brush), I added this color wherever I thought light might be getting through the canopy. DO NOT COVER UP ALL YOUR DARK COLOR! That dark is your deepest shadows, look at the photo, you will see these dark areas especially near the bottom of the tree.

The lighter highlight was green and yellow only to make a bright sunlit leaf color and it only goes in a few places where the sun is hitting the leaves directly. You can use a bit of your "artist's license" but do not get carried away with the highlights of you will lose the sense of light in your painting.

That same bright green can be used in the trees on the right and you will probably notice that I used some of the lavender color in these trees as well as the ones on the left. Just a few of those lavender leaves adds a bit of life to your painting. I have also used that color when detailing the trunks coming out of the water, the highlight color was the same as I used on the left with just a bit more sienna.

I did a couple of things down in the water, first, I added more dark reflections from the line of small trees into the water with the dark green from above. I used a #6 flat bristle brush and the dry brush technique, pulling the color straight down to suggest the reflections.

Next, I started adding some reeds and grasses with my liner brush using several variations of green from dark to light, play with the color, you won't be wrong. 

When that was dry, I added some of the branches that come in from the right with my liner brush and a dark brown (sienna, blue and a tiny touch of purple). I have marked what is branches and what is their reflection so you can find them on the photo, add just a touch more blue into the color for the reflection. I will highlight the branches next class.

I also used these same colors to add a few dead branches on the left and some reflections of branches in the water that may be hanging over the water but we can't see the branch that is reflected because it isn't in our painting but doesn't mean it isn't there. Remember that water reflects what is above it and I am sure there are a lot of branches we don't see that could be reflected in the water.

This is where I left off in our last class and we are getting very close to finishing up this painting. Try to have you painting as close to this as you can, we still have 3 weeks until the end of the semester so there is plenty of time to finish up.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Summer 2018 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Class Project: Marsh Madness Week 4

This week we really started getting into detail. Starting with the trees on the left, I made a highlight color of burnt sienna, a little blue to grey it and white (gesso) to make it lighter, then I took my #4 flat sable brush, so I would have more control, and using the very end edge created a series of marks going up the trunks to suggest the bark of the tree. Do not cover the whole trunk with this color, the darker previous color becomes shadow and texture so leave some of it. 

The big tree in the back as well as the smaller trees in the back are the same colors, same technique but I used very little gesso to keep the color more towards the sienna side. Look at the photo and adjust your colors accordingly.

Next we added smaller branches to the main branches with the liner brush. This liner brush is a fun little brush and it can do some amazing things but you do need to practice with it if you have not used it much.

First you want to dilute your paint until it is very ink-like then fill the bristles to the metal ferrule by wiggling it around in the ink-like paint. As you lift off your palette, roll the brush in your fingers so it comes to a point. Hold the brush at the very end and slightly down so the paint will flow from the bristles. If your paint is too thick it will not flow so you will need to add more water. If you press the bristles to the paper it will leave a fatter mark, as you drag your brush across your canvas gradually lift it up to the tip of the brush as you pull until it lifts off. You should have created a line that starts thick and tapers to nothing, that is your first branch. To create branches off your branch, if you loaded your brush correctly you should still have paint for several branches, start back in the fatter part of the branch you just painted and as you pull and lift, go off in a different direction. Yes, I make it look easy because I have been doing this for decades but I also did a lot of practice when I was learning how to use this brush and I watched others use this brush, it will come IF you take the time to practice.

I actually need to had more smaller branches, but for now, this is good. I want some of them to overlap the sky in the background because it was a big uninteresting negative shape, the branches and leaves will break it up in to smaller more interesting shapes. The dark color was a mix of sienna, blue and a tiny touch of purple.

I used that same dark color to add the twigs and branches to the bushes on the right side, I also used my liner brush to create some reeds and grasses coming up out of the water using various greens, light to dark, but as I looked at it I realized I need more reflection in the water from those bushes, so some of them may need to be redone next week.

Another thing I did was mix a color similar to the hazy sky just above the trees and dry brushed that in behind these bushes for a couple of reasons: One, to repeat the sky color in the water and two, to make the area behind the branches a bit lighter for the contrast.

On the left side I used the dark color to make some reflected branches in the water. I also started something in the water that I will do more of next week and that is to put a glaze over the water to create a sheen to it.

I also realized that I hadn't put in the dry areas in the back part of the water. I'm not sure what it is exactly, but I think it is where the water is receding and high spots are starting to show. I used a mix of sienna, a touch of blue to grey it and gesso to lighten, the with a very dry flat bristle brush I lightly scrubbed the dry areas in using flat strokes the keep them looking flat. I also reflected some of the lighter green from the tree line in the water between those dry areas.

This is where I left off in class. I may be able to finish this next week because I am really getting close to being done. I have some reflections to put in, some weeds, a few leaves and branches to add along with some final highlights and shadows but really, not that much - at least for me. We still have a month to go so don't feel rushed to finish, I will be doing demos as needed once I finish so there is still a ways to go before we can put this semester to bed. So keep painting and I will see you in class.

Summer 2018 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Project: Marsh Madness Week 3

This week I started out by under painting the tree trunks in. I will do more work on them later using the liner brush but because these are substantial trunks I used my #6 flat SABLE brush rather than the bristle brush because it stays together and I have more control over it.

Have your reference photo out - the actual photo or the marsh, not something I did in class - and look at it before you start painting. It might also be a good idea if you can bring it up on your computer and really look at it before you start enlarge areas so you can see what is really there, phones and photos don't always give you the whole picture. 

I did the darker trees first with a mix or burnt umber (burnt sienna will also work), and blue. When those trees were in, I added a little touch or gesso (white) and a little more sienna to warm it up slightly (should be a warm gray color) and under painted the closer, lighter tree trunks. Do not go for the final color of these trunks yet, we will get to that later, this color then becomes the shadows and texture of the tree trunks, it is important.

To the water, I added reflections of the brighter highlights of the background tree line. Reflections are a bit darker than what they are reflecting so I used sap green and yellow and used the side of my #4 flat bristle brush and pulled straight down and lightly went across after. This is a dry brush technique so you don't want to have too much paint or water on your brush and use very little pressure with your strokes.

I added the bushes on the right using Hooker's green and blue for the under painting,  added mid tones by adding yellow to that color,then highlights using a mix or yellow and sap green.  Each time I leave some of the previous color because that now becomes texture in the smaller bushes For this I was using my bristle brush. Then I used that dark mixture I used on the other trees to add the bases of the bushes going back to my sable brush. I have some things I need to do in the water behind these bushes so I will put in the branches later, I just needed to see where these went.

I also started some of the reflections from these small bushes and their bases with the same green, the same brown and same technique I used before, pulling down to create the reflections. There is more to do, but this is a start.

This is where I left off, try to have your paintings to this stage if you can because we will be working from there.

Keep painting and I will see you in class.

Summer 2018 Acrylic Class

Acrylic Class Project: Marsh Madness Week 2

Last week's stopping point.

            






Remember I said last week that I needed to make changes to what I had done in class (smaller image), well, the first part of the class I spent changing the things I didn't like. I made a soft orange color with gesso and a tiny touch of orange, to re-shape the tree line in the back using the dry brush techniques (little paint or water on the brush) and scrubbing it on using little circles to create a bit of haze behind the trees and blending it up into the sky (use less pressure). this way I didn't have to worry about matching the blue of the sky and it added a bit of warmth into the painting. I may do more of that later.

Next I added the big tree behind the trees that are along the water's edge. It is a more blue-green tree from the ones in front of it so I used Hooker's green, ultramarine BLUE, a touch of burnt sienna and a little gesso. Leave some of the sky showing through near the top, Near the bottom you can add a bit more blue and green to make it darker and it can be more dense, also, you can use this darker color to shape the trees in from of this new tree, that is called negative painting.

When these were dry, I went back in and highlighted the trees: A lighter lime green for the trees along the water (sap green, a little yellow and a touch of orange and white) and a lighter version of the big tree (add yellow and a touch of white to the colors you used to create the big tree)

That got me caught up and things fixed so I could start moving forward.

I have been using a #6 flat bristle brush to do all of the work so far. the bristle brushes are the workhorses of acrylic painting because of all the scrubbing we do, I will continue to use the bristle brushes for most of the rest of this painting.

Here I mixed a dark blue/green using the Hooker's green and blue with a little touch of purple to create the dark reflections in the water and the dark in and under the tree line. When the dark color was dry, I used a medium lime green (same as above just no white but a touch of blue) to suggest limbs hanging over the dark areas under the trees.

In the water I scrubbed in that dark green color using the dry brush method (little paint or water on the brush) to create some of the dark reflections. When working on water, your strokes need to be horizontal or parallel to the top and bottom of the canvas so it will look flat. If you have reflections n the water, after you scrub them on parallel, you can lightly pull straight down, this will give the effect of movement in the water.

Be sure you have the reference photo IN FRONT OF YOU, not a photo of my painting because the best information you have is the photo, if you were working outside, the real thing would be your best information.

Look at the shape of the reflections and try to do your best to recreate them. they do not have to be perfect and if need be we now know how to fix something so just get it in as best you can.

The last thing we did was to add some of the dark foreground leaves where the trunks are going to be coming out of the water.

Yes, you will be covering up some of that background we have been working on bit it needed to be there so you can leave holes in the new color (same as we used in the water, just put it on a bit thicker), and it will look like you can see through the trees. 

If you want, you can add blue when you are working in the area near the bottom of the trees where it is naturally darker and a more solid color and you go up into the top of the trees, add more sap green instead of the blue though you want to keep it on the cool (blue) side for now. Remember to leave holes near the top and  "flip" your brush to soften the edges of the dark and create clumps of what will be leaves. You DO NOT have to do leaves yet, we will get to them, this is just the under painting for them.

I know it is a lot but this is going to start coming together in the next class or two, so hang in there, keep painting and I will see you in class.

Summer 2018 Acrylic Class

Summer Acrylic Project: Marsh Madness Week 1
(Note: Apparently Google has added some kind of notice regarding the collecting of information, cookies and things of that nature, I only add links to the picture pages, if any info is collected it is Google not me because I wouldn't know how to do it in the first place, let alone use it. Just an FYI.)

We started our class project this past week by getting our background in
(Sky and starting the water) and some of the background trees, not a bad start until I got it home and looked at it. First the background.

In acrylics you want to start from the furthest thing to the closest or the thing that is under everything else. Since the sky is always going to be the furthest and the water is behind and below most other things in this painting we start there, first the sky.

I lightly sprayed the sky area with a couple spritz from my spray bottle then coated the sky area with gesso. Gesso is slightly opaque and it also takes a bit longer to dry then say titanium white so it helps when we are doing large areas so they stay workable for the duration. It also is what I use for white so it will lighten the colors I blend into it, if I wanted a color to stay dark I would not use gesso. In this instance I do want the sky to be a medium light gray/blue. 

I used my 2" blending brush to do both the sky and the water because it helps me get it done quickly as well as allows me to get soft blended areas because of the goat hair used in the brush. Be sure that you get most of the water out of this brush before you load it or it will thin down your colors too much. I squeegee it between my fingers after I rinse it out. 

After I got the sky area covered in gesso, I picked up ultramarine blue and a very tiny touch of burnt sienna and even tinier touch of purple while the gesso is still wet and blended the colors into it. You want the sky to still look blue and both the sienna and the purple are very strong colors so maybe 5 to 1 blue to sienna and 8 to one blue to the purple. You should have a soft blue/gray, if it looks to brown or purple add more gesso (white) and blue to get the color you want. Be sure to cover the canvas all the way behind the trees it won't hurt anything because we can paint right over the dried paint.

The water was done in a similar way except I didn't start out with gesso because I wanted it to be darker. Still using the blending brush, I sprayed the water area with my spray bottle and smoothed it out with the brush then picked up blue on one corner and little touches of sienna and purple on the other and applied it to my canvas with long flat strokes. As well as reloading with the blue, sienna and purple I occasionally picked up a little gesso as well to work it onto the canvas. This is called brush blending and it give you an uneven blend which is what I want in this area.

I then mixed up a dark green with my Hooker's green, blue and a touch of purple for areas in the water that will be the dark reflections. Again, I used a long, flat stroke to add this color as well and to blend into the blue areas a bit but I also, pulled straight down with my brush, this starts the reflection process in the water.

This is the point where I went off course. Talking and painting are not necessarily good things to do at the same time and because I am off to the side, I am seeing a distorted view of my canvas, I also get so focused on what you are all doing I just don't see something until I get home. That is what happened last class. Even though some were questioning me about it, I couldn't see it until I took it out and looked at it and knew immediately there was something wrong. So you will get to learn from my mistakes.

That is one of the things I like about acrylics, is it is so forgiving, I am going to have to make corrections to most of the treeline so if you followed me too closely, you may need to do what I will do in class, it will take a few minutes but you will learn that you can fix almost anything with just a bit of patience and paint.

Until then, keep painting (on something else) and I will see you in class.