Part 2 – Exploring Acrylic Painting Styles

Acrylics are one of the most versatile mediums we can use. They lend themselves to a variety of styles, and combine beautifully with other media.

When painting animals, I am sometimes overwhelmed a by their complexity. I often want to retreat to the safety of the “easiest” painting style I know, which for or me is realism. For you, it might be something else. What I’d love to see us do here is explore acrylics to their fullest, trying different kinds of styles. Bold and loose, tight and detailed, decorative, abstract. Everything from traditional portraits to blue bulls and orange dogs. Anything and everything goes. Do what feels right, and don’t be afraid to explore, because it’s just paint!

I’m posting a few sample of my favorite acrylic techniques here, details of larger images. They’re all horses, because that’s what I have the most of, but these styles will translate to other animals. These are by no means a definitive sample, so please post some of your own ideas if you’d like.

I’d love to post these full size, in one thread, but I don’t want to bog down those on slower connections. So I’m going to have to post these seven styles one at a time as attachments. Please be patient with me.

Here’s the first one:

1. Realistic and highly detailed, using multiple layers of thin glazes and tiny strokes applied onto a wet glazed surface. The goal was to represent every highlight, every hair. This is actually an oil, but the same look can be achieved in acrylic.
Full image

Part 2 – Exploring Acrylic Painting Styles

3. Dry-brushed acrylic over transparent washes. Light and form are dominant, and details are ignored. This painting began with watercolor on paper, but could just as easily been done with water-thinned acrylic. The thin paint is applied first as a thin wash within an ink outline, then thicker acrylic is dry-brushed over the top. Bits of the background were allowed to show through the dry-brushed layer.
Full image

Part 2 – Exploring Acrylic Painting Styles

5. Loose paint, tight structure. Fluid acrylics on paper over loose India ink sketch. The colors were laid in boldly, with little regard to the true color of the horse, but I am trying to keep the form of the horse accurate. Note the strokes on the shoulder which loosely follow the lines of the bones in the shoulder. The background – which is a wash of thinner paint applied to a damp surface – is allowed to peek through. If you enlarge this image to its full size, you can clearly see my initial loose sketch in black ink.
Full image

Part 2 – Exploring Acrylic Painting Styles

7. Pure fancy. Anthing goes. Everything from thin washes to black ink marker to thick paint. Paint what you feel, not what you see. The idea here is suggest the energy of the horse through vivid use of color.
Full image

I had to laugh when you described the life of a pet portrait artist! What is so funny to me too is I just came across some ads like that in a magazine at the vets office and I spent the time I had to wait daydreaming about getting good enough to do that!

You’re already good enough. If I can find one of my pet portrait photos from those days, I’ll post it so you can see my beginner phase. Let’s just say they were less than impressive, I was rarely happy with them, yet people loved them! Maybe they don’t have high expectations when they’re commissioning an artist from the back of a magazine, or maybe they’re just so tickled to see their pet in paint they don’t get caught up in the finer details. Doing pet portraits from client photos is one of the most difficult, nerve wracking things I’ve done, but it’s a great way to learn.

You own that gorgeous refined animal? Lucky you! It looks like it’s coming along very well. I like the natural pose you’ve chosen. Dappled greys are the hardest color to paint, especially in acrylics, so I’m impressed with your dapples, and your color. I’m really loving some of those shadows on the face. The color and value are right on.

I agree with your assement of some of the things you’re not so happy with, except the eye, which I like. You know what I think happened? Your initial drawing was correct, but you might have lost part of your drawing when you painted the background. Some parts got a little too small, like the muzzle. (I hope you don’t mind – I’ve converted the images of the photo and painting to line only. This is one of the tricks I use when my eye gets fatigued and I need a fresh perspective on a structural problem.) I can understand not wanting to risk losing the delicate colors you’ve achieved on the muzzle already. I often choose pleasing paint over drawing when I have to decide on one. But perhaps you could beef up the bottom line between the cheekbone and the muzzle, though, especially at the point where it meets the cheekbone? That’s a low-risk fix, because if it doesn’t work, you can always just cover it up with background paint and return it to its current state.

The neck looks a bit heavy now, but I realize you’re not done. When you define the crest and seperate it from the muscles of the neck, it’ll look more elegant. Those two areas are in full sun and close in value, so it might be tricky. I usually use a bit of blue (reflected color from the sky) on the top of the neck muscles, to seperate it from the more vertical crest.

Looking forward to seeing your detail work. I think this is a real winner!

Tami