Session #4

Session #4

This session is all about staying the course. A look back at what is done so far is a good place to start – with an eye to “filling in the blanks” of darker areas left unpainted. Sometimes, correction of a colour tone is needed at this time as well. The big issue is often the fact that acrylics dry so much darker than expected and areas need to be lightened. 

HINTS: 

•  When working in dark values that need to be lightened a bit, use ZINC WHITE rather than Titanium White to keep the colours rich and strong. Later on, when the much lighter values are painted, switch to TITANIUM WHITE as it covers better.
• To get a really light value, begin your mixture with Titanium White, then add the colours you need.
•   Use ENOUGH PAINT to do what you need to do. Use a big brush for big areas and a small brush for small ones, replenishing the paint often so you won’t be dragging it around and covering too thinly.
•  If your mixture is mostly one primary colour (say YELLOW), begin to mix with yellow then add smaller amounts of red/blue/white to change the tone of the mixture. Makes life easier.

The demo above just moved the value along a little to a more middle value. Notice that the larger areas are broken up by frequent colour changes so they look more interesting. Exaggerate the small hits of colour you can see if you look closely at the subject.