Session #5

 

Create 3 dimensions by using shifts in colour and highlights – see small flower upper right. Special attention needs to be paid to the subtle shifts in colour (from more orange to more yellow and more white) in order to make the form “roll”. I will work on this more when I can concentrate in the Studio and bring it back.

 

 

This canvas was covered with a deep burnt sienna ground colour before anything else was done. The basic shapes were drawn on using a black (or a white) china marker. Beginning with the darkest areas, and paint thinned a little with medium, the basic bones were painted in. Jumping ahead, the lighter values were demonstrated (see close up images below) using negative painting, where the shape of the objects (branches, needles, etc.) were created by painting the sky up to them. HINTS: use Titanium White to lighten, use un-thinned paint and be as tidy as possible, take your time.

 

Acrylics On Watercolour Paper:

Subject picture:

 

 

Hints: Tape your paper securely all around or prestretch it – 140 lb paper is OK, 300 lb is better; prepare your colour mixtures ahead of time (before you wet the paper) and make them watery – no medium, just water. 

Lay your painting flat, then wet the paper thoroughly. Beginning with the yellow/green, stroke colour into the wet paper -  let your brush strokes go right off the edge of the taped paper. Using a clean, damp brush, wipe out some light strokes and then colour in some darker strokes.  Dab purple shapes more or less where the flowers are. Using a broad horizontal stripe, place the blue strip on the top of the page, then the sandy coloured strip. Let the paper dry thoroughly.

 

 Mix a quantity of slightly darker green paint, thinned to very thin consistency, then GLAZE it over the foreground, avoiding altogether the light forms in the grass shapes. Again, this is negative painting. To be continued….

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.