Tag: Acrylic Painting

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An Exploration In Using Stiffer Brushes With Acrylics

A few weeks ago I set out to explore the use of stiffer brushes in acrylic painting after reading this post on the Crimson Daggers art forum.

I started by purchasing these bristle brushes from Cassart which I am very pleased with.

I found that the stiffer bushes allowed me to work with thicker paint and use less layers of paint than the glazing method I tried previously.  Also I could use the technique of dry brushing which worked really well for blending soft edges.

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Acrylic Painting 5: Learning How To Colour Over An Underpainting

Here is my fifth acrylic painting and this time I was Learning How To Colour Over An Underpainting.

I tried using a grisaille (grey monochrome) underpainting.  I then painted my colours over the top.

This seemed to work quite well as the paints I am using were transparent enough to let the underpainting show through.

I also had a go at painting “lost edges”.  These are edges that are so blurred as to be “lost”.  I love seeing them as they lend a real painterly feel to a piece of work.

I learned a few things on the way:

  1. Underpainting really does work to provide a tonal variation underneath any subsequent application of colour.
  2. Using a grisaille underpainting didn’t affect the hue of the colour being glazed over the top.  This makes colour matching a bit easier.
  3. I probably should have planned in my lost edges earlier on i.e. at the underpainting stage instead of applying then right at the end.

Anyway, here is the final result (sorry – I forgot to take some process shots):

Acrylic5Bluetit

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Acrylic Painting 4: Learning How To Mix Paint With A Robin Red Breast

I was determined to learn how to get better at mixing paint so I found the following articles on the internet and read through them:

 

What I learned from these articles is that you need to think about the following when you’re trying to mix paint to match a specific a specific colour:

  1. Value
  2. Hue
  3. Saturation

Some people first try to match the value, then the hue and saturation.  Others try to match the hue first and then the value and then the saturation.

Having said all this I reckon the secret weapon to mixing paint is …

… patience.

There is no secret weapon – you just gotta keep working at it until you’ve got the colour you want.

So here’s my attempt at mixing paint …

This is the reference image:

And here’s my attempt:

HimleyRobin2 HimleyRobin3 HimleyRobin4 HimleyRobin5

I’m a bit disappointed with the lack of light and shadow on this, I feel I could have done more to describe the 3D form here.

I think for the next painting I will do an underpainting to establish the light and shadow and then glaze colour over the top.  I think the acrylic paint I’m using has enough transparency for this to work well.