March's Classroom thread- Basic Acrylic Painting Techniques

[MsLilypond]

Welcom one and all to March's Classroom thread (a couple days early).
This month we are going to cover some basic painting techniques that can be used in acrylic painting including some different ways to create textures in your paintings.

Each technique is going to have it's own post within this thread. I painted an example for each, and tried to show a few steps in each.

For the textures I just took one picture of each for an example.

Well lets start shall we...

[MsLilypond]

Acrylics lend themselves well to an opaque technique. They are thick and creamy and as long as you don't thin them too much with water or medium the colors tend to dry to a dense smooth finish.

Some pigments are more transparent than others and have less of a covering ability. You don't need to avoid these colors when painting opaquely, but you may want to mix with a more opaque pigment to maintain color density.
They will alter the color slightly but won't lose their effect entirely.
A small dab of titanium white can increase opacity very well.

When I paint this way,I typically block in colors and and many times mix colors right on the canvas as I go.

[MsLilypond]

I'll be back to finish this thread in a couple of hours,
I'm going to the inlaws

[Quiet]

Originally Posted by MsLilypond

I'll be back to finish this thread in a couple of hours,
I'm going to the inlaws

Hurry up! I can't wait to see what comes next! ;-)

[Godzoned]

EXCELLENT!!!

I'm signing up for this months Class - Miss.
What desk is mine?

[Margaret 59]

Enjoying this!

[MsLilypond]

One of the things I love most about acrylics is it versatility, the way you can go from an opaque alla prima method to using it in a watercolor type application. One of the wonderful advantages of using acrylics like waters color are it insoluble and permanent nature. It makes applying layers of washes easier, because the lower layers won't dissolve and blend. The disadvantage of this is it is easy to do too many layers and end up with mud.
A few things to note, I mentioned when discussing the opaque technique that transparent pigments can sometimes be problematic when trying to use them opaquely, in this case the opposite is true. If you can restrict yourself to the transparent pigments the better the painting will be.
However this doesn't mean you can't use the opaque pigments, but keep in mind some of the opaque pigments can appear chalky and dull when diluted and may deaden underlying layers.
You can also work wet into wet when using acrylics as watercolors, it's just slightly trickier. The key thing is to start with damp paper and make sure it's stays damp by using a spray bottle, which is also a great way to keep your paints moist. I used this method in the background of the example I painted. By the way retarder is no use with water thinned acrylics, it's made for opaque methods only.

[MsLilypond]

A world used to describe the thickness of the paint applied to canvas.
Acrylics seem ideal for this particular technique. The already thick paint can be thickened even further using agents such as gel medium (which comes in regular, heavy, extra heavy & high solid in the Golden brand) & modeling paste (which also comes in several varieties.) Be warned, mixing paint when you mix the paint with the medium the paint appears lighter than it does when it dries. The medium is white until dry. It's probably a good idea to mix the color you want before adding the medium. Another way to paint with impasto is with Liquitex's super heavy body acrylics. Let me tell you that is some seriously thick paint. With acrylics fast drying tendencies there isn't alot of time to move the paint around on the canvas. With this method the paint need to be applied with as few strokes and possible and should be allowed to stay where they are. Interfering with the initial effect will cause you to lose the crisp edge and destroy the spontaneity of the brushstrokes. Impasto is also great combind with glazing, the thin paint sinks into the low areasa and adheres only to the partially raised areas.
In these examples the first two pictures are with gel medium, the third is super heavy body acrylic and the third has impasto areas that are just paint with no mediums added.

[MsLilypond]

Since I mentioned it in the previous thread, I'm going to go onto the glazing technique. Like impasto it's a technique that originated with oil painting, but was a rather slow and tedious process. Acrylics with their fast drying tendencies are tailor made for this approach. Remember, like with the watercolor technique you'll get your best result in combination with the paints that contain transparent pigments. Glazing allows you to build up beautiful rich depth and subtle nuances. It's also a great way to mix colors because each application of color modifies the one below. Glazing can be done with water but the colors will look more alive and tranparent if you use a glazing medium.

[MsLilypond]

It is one of the 'broken color' techniques which refers to any area of color that is not flat. It's most often seen in applications which feature opaque painting. It is a technique that can be seen in almost all painting medias. You can use in on uncolored paper or canvas. It can be used using thin paint, a soft square ended brush with the ends splayed slightly is ideal or with medium or thick paint, a bristle brush is preferable. It can be used light over dark or dark over light. I followed along with a painting in a book, in which they tinted the background with diluted paint and spread it with a paper towel. Most of the painting is drybrushed to form a consistant texture.

[MsLilypond]

Scumbling is probably the technique I use most often to blend colors when I'm painting. It is one of those things that seems to be a natural way of working with this paint, most people don't realize it's considered an actual technique. It's rather similar to drybrushing, though it employs a scrubbing motion instead of a dragging motion. It's normally used with somewhat thick paint, but can be used with thinner paint if you squeeze most of the paint out of the brush. You can use a stiff brush, rag, or even your fingers with this method. Generally it's better to use this with canvas, canvas board or rough watercolor paper because the grain will help the effect.

[MsLilypond]

It is defined as scratching into the paint to reveal the canvas or the color below. It's a bit more difficult to this with acrylics than it is oils, because of it's fast drying, but isn't impossible. The trick is to use a fairly thick paints or a retarding medium. It's a great technique for creating patterns and textures and almost anything can be used for it, a scalpel, brush handle, a old kitchen knige with a serrated edge can give you a few different options.
Depending on what you use and the consitency of the paint you get a range from fine, crisp lines to rougher lines with paint ridges on either side.
I used a colored background and scratched into the overlying colors to reveal it.

[MsLilypond]

One of the wonderful things about acrylics, is it's wonderful ability to take on textures, in this thread and the next I'll be showing examples of some ways to create texture. I was going to include sponging, but there have been some wonderful examples of this method recently and I didn't want to feel repetitive

The first three pics, are done with a plastic bag. The first is the bag pressed to paint and pulled away. The second and third, is paint dabbed on the board with the plastic bag. The last two are done with bubble wrap, one had the bubble wrap pressed in and pulled away, the last was bubble wrap with paint on it pressed to the board.

[MsLilypond]

Like I said lots of ways to texturize.
In these examples, the first is paint with scraped with a metal palette knife. The second is the a hair pic pulled through super heavy body acrylics. The third was an experiment, I added sea salt to my paint, I think it's going to be great for impastos, since it thickens up the paint and gives it a grainy texture. The fourth is common to the watercolor world, spattering, juicy acrylics flicked on the board with an old paint brush.
The last is paint with modeling paste added to it.

While doing research for this months classroom I learned about two other texturizing techniques that I hope to add in the next few days, extruded paint and wax resist.

[MsLilypond]

Another wonderful method of painting with acrylics is using the grisaille method, we've recently had a wonderful thread about and Lady Carol has been gracious enough to let me link to her thread. Besides she explains better than I ever could.
http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/show...lle+acryli cs

Again thank you to Lady Carol for this wonderful thread about grisaille and acrylics.

Well that's all folks. If you have any questions about any of the techniques please feel free to pm me, well unless it's about the grisaille, bug Carol on that . I hope everyone learned something, even if you aren't new to acrylics and enjoyed my mini lectures. Bye bye for now