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ok - I've taken the acrylic plunge
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Message
Posted
We had a long thread at the back end of last year about starting out with acrylics and I've finally taken the plunge and picked up a small starter set from our local art shop; some Daler-Rowney paints, some brushes and a pad of acrylic paper to work on. I've splodged some dollops on some paper to look at how much coverage I can get, and I've mixed a colour-wheel type thing from basic red, blue and yellow to see what happens. I'm seriously loving the intensity of the colours and can't wait to (have the time to) put a first project together.
Life's easy in pencil land, everything's lines and shading and mostly in black and white. What's a good viable first project to get me up and running in this brave new colourful world? I can handle stuffing things up and being not happy with results but don't want to set the bar too high first time out.
Posted
My first acrylic .... was a disaster. I couldn't make the paint work at all, because I'd been using oils before. But then, realizing that they WEREN'T oils, I used some acrylic medium, and water - a Daler Rowney set of Cryla acrylic (which I still use 50 years later, with a couple of other brands) and nylon brushes, also by Daler Rowney (or were they just Rowney back then..?) which I still have and use regularly. And I took off, basically. If it weren't for the fact that I still love oils, and have developed a late-flowering interest in watercolour, I'd use nothing else. The one thing I would suggest is that you graduate to boards or even canvas (Syd won't agree with the latter) asap; I'm getting on better with acrylic paper than I used to, but it's been an uphill struggle and I still find it curls at the slightest provocation and is unpleasantly scratchy stuff.
As for subject - well my first successful (by comparison) acrylic was a winter tree in a high wind: and I still have it - you could do worse than try the same thing: I didn't worry about detail, relying on broad strokes to give the impression of wind, and it taught me a lot.
Posted
I graduated from oils because they took too long to dry and the fumes were awful. Couldn't get on with water-mixable oils so I tried open acrylics which allow me to blend before drying. I love them. As to what to paint - just whatever grabs you after all it's only a painting. I use canvas boards if I want to add a lot of texture to my paints otherwise I use 140lb or 300lb HP watercolour paper and then frame under glass. Enjoy.
Posted
Good point Pat, I hadn't thought of that!
I have just started playing with acrylic too, after a fair few months making very little progress with watercolour (but having a lot of fun along the way). I have to say, it has been a revelation; I can actually get the ideas from my head onto paper far more effectively with acrylics! I think that the pre-planning aspect of watercolour is the thing I'm not very good at, whereas with acrylic if I can see what needs changing on a painting I can do something about it.
Posted
As for subjects, just do it.
I tend to use paper for acrylic being a learner and have overpainted on all sorts of subjects on all sorts of paper etc including newsprint. Being naturally clumsy and now movement impaired I abandoned my lovely oils and learnt new techniques ie, the credit cards and BTW finding transparent white for mixing, which does help but not as opaque by a long way.
I haven't tried any meduims yet, water on the brush here and there and a mist spray and am now aiming to work on bigger grounds with bigger brushes and probably therefore more mediums. Problem is floor space when I would like to work bigger and more expressive.
Go for it, you can paint.
Posted
I switched from oils to acrylics roughly 5 years ago, reason was that with young children toddling about the house I reasoned that they weren't safe.
With acrylics I do use them like oils and they dry quicker (sometimes frustratingly quick in warmer times) speeding up the process of the work I'm doing.
Personally I love them and won't go back.
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