New and confused painter

[Becca]

Hello all, I am very new to acrylics and need some help! I stumbled across this great site and look forward to exchanging thoughts with other artists. By new, I mean I have only painted three times with acryics (one pix I'm still working on) and I need to know about blending, I can't get the look I want as in soft clouds, smokey effects, just blending in general. Should I thin the paint more, I do use a little water and a gloss medium? It seems when I try to go light on the canvas, such as clouds, the paint does not sink into the pores of the canvas, so I put more paint on which kills the effect I was going for. Being so new, I am lost, I bought some books, but they don't answer all of my questions.

I also am having trouble with the brushes, I need some tips on which brushes to use for certain looks, trees, water, obviously I am interested in painting nature! I have painted tons, but only in crafts (on wood, ceramics, ornaments etc.), I have painted in oil, but I was very young and I would just sit along side of my mom who was a great oil painter and paint with her, I do know oil was easier to work with!! Because of the hazards and cleam up of oils, I chose acrylics. Any advice to get me going would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!!

[Keith Russell]

Greetings:

The best tool for blending with acrylics is the airbrush.

(Unfortunately, the clean-up is tedious, and the health hazards of breathing airborne acrylic particles is equal to that of oil paints. (I wear a respirator, but that is tedious, too!)

Keith.

[vallarta]

I suggest you forget about the airbrush unless and until you have learned how to use a brush.

If your new to acrylics you will find that they dry quickly and that is both a plus and a minus. The plus is that you can do overlays and whipeouts in just a few minutes...the minus is that it is hard to blend colors and do wet into wet.

The fast drying and the need to paint something are a challange. I suggest you accept this as a trueism. You will need to do 25 or more small paintings before you are ready to start. You can always gesso over the support your using (canvas/masonite/cardboard) and so there is little waste.

Try first using the paints with a bit of water on the canvas....you wet it down before you paint. Try mixing a bit of water into the paint and see how that goes. Try using acrylic medium....try a mix of medium and water. You need to experiment.

Try "glazing" that is putting down something in an opague way and then laying over other very very dilute water paint mixes to change the color. The latter is how I work. Frankly, acrylics are tough so the way I generally use them is to lay down an underpainting and then use oil glazes over them.

Paint simple things at first. Don't do portraits ...large landscapes...difficult compositions. Instead try doing simple things...I suggest small and uncomplicated still lifes. I often recommend to newbees that they start with a painting of a brick and then advance to a painting of 5 bricks stacked up in a random sort of way. Why bricks..because they are easy to do....and the drawing is not the problem. Then try to achieve a painting of a brick that LOOKS LIKE A REAL BRICK. If you can do that your on your way.

vallarta