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Red angels - WIP
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Message
Posted
Hi this is my second attempt with acrylics, ill post the original painting I did in photoshop later it's a 3 foot by 2 foot canvas.
So far using acrylics even though I'm spraying with water & fluid retarder the drying times killing me it's just drying too fast for me to blend to the level I'd like to, I guess thats something I'll master in time, all feedback welcomed!
Posted
I work with acrylics too and like yourself I haven't a great deal of experience with them either... I find blending difficult too (and often I just decide not to blend instead) but here are some methods that seem to have aided me a little.
If you mix a large amount of paint it should stay wet on your palette. If you can break the area's down on your canvas into sections this can help too, for instance you might do one limb at a time to completion so that for instance you do one limb at a time and you can do wet into wet blending. Mixing colour gradients on your palette (a line with the lightest value at one end and the darkest at the other) can be helpful in that you can always find the correct shade if you are doing wet on dry shading. If you do the bottom half of the range first (shadow areas) and block in the midtones often the highlights (if using white etc) are translucent enough to blend in after everything has dried.
I have bought medium which thins the paint (without losing its binding like occurs when diluting with water) but I have yet to use it...I am thinking that building see through glazes as is done with oil paints is going to be the way forwards if you want colours that look like they glow and super smooth gradation.
Anyway aside from all that I like your composition here and it looks like it will be a nice painting so I will keep an eye on this one.
Posted
I have nothing to offer regarding the use of acrylics, I've done two or three paintings with them and gave them up for the reasons you gave. But I'm always interested in work in progress, and I shall watch in the hope that I'll pick up some tips. David's suggestion about completing small sections at a time makes perfect sense, and I may give that a try.
I like your painting very much, and shall watch it's progress with interest.
Lew.
Posted
With Acrylic, it is best to use a say wet pallet. Mix up the colours with retarder in advance for each section, so that you can dip into each colour quickly to blend. However I now do underpainting in acrylic and then use oil for the top layer when a lot of blending is needed. You can get gloss medium to mix with your paint, but this gives you more of a glaze.
There seems to be fashion for high gloss paintings in galleries these days and yes it is true that it will make the darks look darker.
Linda Wilson.
Posted
Sid...I've done maybe 3 or 4 acrylics in my time, and gave up for the reasons Aya has given. I've also done a few oils, but don't bother much these days for the opposite reason...they seem to take forever to dry. I work in watercolour and use mixed media paper (260 gsm) or watercolour paper (300 gsm). But my first love is drawing in ink or pencil, and I'm happiest stuck in my sketchbooks.
I'm in awe of the wonderful oil and acrylic work produced on POL.
I've stuck my nose in AYA's thread out of interest, hopefully I'll feel prompted to try acrylics again.
AYA...your painting is looking good, and I look forward to watching your progress. There will be others who share my interest and follow this thread but don't comment. Thanks for sharing.
Posted
I realise I commented on the colours popping, that's because I was looking at the digital painting ^^ D'Oh!
It still looks like its coming along OK though.
I am going back to pencil for a bit, colour is a headache and I feel like monochrome at the moment so I am joining Lew in sketchbooks for a bit while I recharge my energy for trying something ambitious.
