Tag: acrylic paints

A Man from the Mountains

In between life and knitting disasters and housecleaning and purge-atory (I got rid of a lot of junk last week), I have been painting a portrait in acrylic over the last few sessions of my figure painting class. I used one of the many wonderful portraits available from Pixabay.

Painting this portrait was a challenge. I did not want to do a photographic reproduction. My idea was something moody and a bit sketchy, more so as I think such a style is more easily done in acrylics (which I swore to work on!) than a realistic rendition of the person himself. I painted using more transparent paint and scumbled a lot of the paint onto the canvas. Some areas don’t even have paint on the surface, or very little. Layers and glazes were built up. The quick drying quality of acrylics makes this easy to do in a classroom.

My palette was pretty limited, too. I used carbon black, ultramarine blue, raw umber, cadmium red light, titanium white, and yellow ochre. First step was to sketch in the man, working on proportions and then mixing general areas of color, slowly moving into details. I stepped back and forth to look at my painting.

What really attracted me to this portrait was the lighting, the expressiveness and rather mysterious quality of the man – he could be from so many places. My first impressions is he is a man from a remote part of the world, a man who works hard and labors with his hands to provide for those he is responsible. I wanted to catch this quality – a rugged ability to endure.

I think I will hang this on my wall to enjoy. Yeah, pretty pleased! That is after I correct the mistake under the man’s mustache . . .

Heavy body acrylic paint, cotton canvas panel, 11×14.

Thoughts on Brushwork

In my last post, I looked at both portraits and brushwork. Doing both is sort of a new adventure for me – portraits, certainly, but brushwork is something I play with periodically. Two artists I admire for both their subject matter and brushwork are Maggie Siner and Hashim Akib. Both have very clear brush marks as well as a strong sense of graphics and color. Siner’s work often displays wide swaths of color and Akib’s often does the same, as well as creates movement and light with brush strokes. Their portraits are striking.

That said, I am a dabber and a rather haphazard (okay, very haphazard) painter in my approach. I paint and putz, sometimes getting it right, sometimes getting it wrong. I will draw in a general idea, but don’t do much more. In particular, I don’t do value studies as I want to look and decide on the scene. I want to train my eye to see them in the picture or landscape or person. It is far more difficult than I think it will be. Slowing down helps, looking and then going into the painting process.

I did the painting below vaguely based off a paining by Siner called “Golden Cumulus”. You can find it on her website. Siner’s brushwork is deliberate, and she says she scrapes her oils off until her brushstroke is as she wants it. She doesn’t paint over things.

What I was looking at in her painting were her brushstrokes. They are directional, sometimes heavy with paint, sometimes not. At times she smudges and edge into another to break things up. For my variant, a wide brush, a square canvas, and either oils or acrylics using the colors found in Siner’s palette, which is very limited.

A lot was learned here: A limited palette makes color choices easy and harder – gotta mix those colors! A big brush – here a flat – allows far more mark making than I thought possible. And a big brush forces me away from my dab-dab-dab with a pointed round.

I don’t remember when I did this painting nor what media I used, or even if I published it here before. I found it the other day and remembered what my goals were. Brushwork then, brushwork now. I’m trying to clean up my oils / acrylic painting skills like I worked on with (and sort of succeeded with ) watercolors.

Oil or acrylic on cotton canvas board, 12 x 12, sort of a master copy of Maggie Siner’s “Golden Cumulus” ca. 2018.

Tanglewood Underpinnings (II)

A paintings is rather like rocket ship – different stages as it takes off.

I did this in yesterday afternoon’s class, trying to focus on both light and dark, warm and cool. Acrylics seem like a rather unforgiving medium insofar as they dry quickly and can have very hard edges. That makes it a bit of a challenge for someone like me who prefers blending and mushing painting. It took me a bit to figure out how to do it.

The fun thing about an art class is the class members and seeing how they paint. Perceptions and styles are all so individualistic. Naturally you prefer this to that, but admiration for an individual’s work doesn’t mean you have to copy them. Add to this, people are so full of information and stories, and this adds to the value of their art – you get to know them.

So, this may be put off for a few days as I have some other things I need to do – and it never hurts to take a break. I hope I don’t start more than one painting at a time, though, as then I will fall into my habit of UFOs lying around, sobbing for attention.

The Forest Track

Today is my fifth painting with acrylics. I felt confident enough to choose a more complex subject, using (of course) another YouTube video. I am learning a lot by following videos, especially ones that suggest brushes and colors, as well as explain techniques.

This painting is done on Fredrix canvas pad paper, 11×14. The canvas, though already gessoed, was gessoed by me. I like that step and feel it is a good way to begin a painting, much like grinding ink prior to doing sumi-e. There is a meditative element to it.

Murray Stewart, whose video I followed, painted his underlying canvas with burnt sienna. I used red ochre and found that the color is just yummy! I live where red soil is known, so it was like seeing an old friend. That said, from there I pretty much followed through the video. About half way, Stewart mentions that the basic work was done, and details were what were needed to finish the painting. I agreed, but watched through to the end.

I have been using titanium white for mixing colors, but decided to use zinc white, as I do with gouache. For gouache, and mixing colors, it is great, but the titanium is a much better choice for mixing colors in acrylics. I am not quite sure where I will use zinc white in acrylics, but I am sure I can do some research.

This video presented me with a lot of material I enjoyed learning: making sun beams, using a fan brush for foliage, dark against light and light and against light effects. More, too, simply by doing. While painting, I found that dipping my brush in water prior to picking up paint made for better painting. The brush wasn’t sopping, and the water in the brush gave enough moisture to allow pure pigment to be spread around. I also found that this helped with glazes.

So, here is Stewart’s video – he did a good job, and he is pretty darn funny, too!