I've rearranged everything. The utility room wasn't big enough to use a projector, nor to "step back," so I cleared-out my bedroom, laid down plastic and canvas atop the carpet, and moved my whole painting set-up and "mural practice wall" into the space. (I now sleep on a little cushion which rolls-up under the desk!) This is a real improvement for learning murals, and I finally got myself an overhead projector, so now I can actually practice the EXACT techniques I need for mural work. ....
And, YES, those are practice spheres, but I've never done 'em before. (They're in EVERY learn-to-paint book I buy.) And you know what? Spheres are actually excellent exercises. You must BLEND, and you must work from dark to light in different colors. If you can paint spheres in all the colors, you can paint any object, in a sense. I darkened each hue with its complement, basically, and tinted with white, for all the variation in value (and chroma). (I kinda rushed 'em, and didn't get the shadows right, but the shadows in the book were wrong, I noticed.).... And I've switched to professional Liquitex heavy body acrylics. They have a higher percentage of actual PIGMENT.
... Oh, and I did something I thought I'd never do: I bought a couple of books by Lee Hammond. If you've ever browsed the art technique section of a big bookstore (and who HASN'T!) you've probably noticed several books by Ms. Hammond, and you've probably noticed that some of her example artwork is, well, rather SIMPLE, if not SUSPECT. But, you know, I realized the other day that LEARNING acrylics REQUIRES simple work. (I've been getting frustrated.) So when I looked closer, I was intrigued. I mean, look at this limited palette: cad red medium, cad yellow medium, prussian blue, and then throw in alizarin crimson and burnt umber (and tit white and a black) and you're set. Nice and simple (and EDUCATIONAL). ...More to come.
3 comments:
I think we talked about it before, but you should try the liquitex matte varnish or glossy if you like it. It will add a lot of transparent layers you can build on as they dry. Just mix a little with your paint as you are working. Since acrylic dries so fast the medium allows you to blend over your dried work. BTW you might want to rethink your abbreviation for titanium white. :)
Hmm, I don't remember us talking about that before. But I think you're right about that process: allow a layer to dry, then blend a new layer over it. I've been trying to do it all at once. ...LOL, how about tit-white or tit. white? Common usage I thought, although I never gave it much thought. (In chemistry, titanium is TI, however, I think.) Funny. ...Oh, and I'll try that matte varnish. Thanks, Mandy. Nobody seems to know much about acrylics around here, just cartoon illustration, photoshop, and oil, it seems. (Although Sebastian Kruger uses acrylic for his famous caricaturing.) See ya.
I've only done a few small acrylic work. I gave it away.. so you'll never be able to see it unfortunately. But.. yeah, they seem to dry fast if you aren't using that stuff Mandy is talking about. I used it too. Although, I didn't remember what it was. Pat was the one who showed me how to do it. He had the varnish stuff. It came out really good too!
But anyhow, your stuff is looking good! Man! I wanna paint! But I don't have any paint!! grr.. I need a proper weekly paying job 1st then, I can use that as play money for toys. Well, I'd better get looking. I tend to just wander on these blogs too much. lol!
ah well. I'm going, I'm going!
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