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Work in Progress - Having a bash at Acrylic painting.
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Message
Posted
Interesting Robert. Early days yet, I’m not contemplating further acrylics yet…beyond replenishment. I’ll need more white, of course. Atelier seems suited to the way I have to work. I haven’t used all the mediums supplied, the unlocker for fully dried paint for example. Didn’t need to. But who knows? Different acrylics or stay with Atelier? Never say never.
There’s an interesting portrait example in that book John recommended using glazing techniques. I used a LITTLE bit of glazing in this picture. For my next acrylic I might try that.
Edited
by Lewis Cooper
Posted
Thank you Jade, and welcome to the site.
For the reasons given I felt a bit cack-handed using the acrylics, it was the brushes mostly. I want to continue with acrylics and intend to use small brushes and try glazing.
I'm using 300gsm watercolour paper (I intend to buy some boards later). This is about a4 size. Once again I drew the basic shapes with a black waterproof fine-liner. ( a woman finding a broken doll in her attic...spooky looking things I think.) Here I've applied a layer of transparent gesso primer over the drawing, this time remembering to add a little burnt sienna to get rid of the glaring white...
...you'll see I clumsily managed to rip some paper surface off when removing the tape. Ho hum...no big deal. Won't use tape again, this paper doesn't cockle much and is easily flattened under a pile of books.
I applied a second coat, including over the torn patch, this time making the background darker as well...
That was about 10 days ago. I've looked at this and done other things. I've bunged it on the forum to force myself to have another go. Lack of motivation I guess. It's the weather...always a good excuse.
...you'll see I clumsily managed to rip some paper surface off when removing the tape. Ho hum...no big deal. Won't use tape again, this paper doesn't cockle much and is easily flattened under a pile of books.
I applied a second coat, including over the torn patch, this time making the background darker as well...
That was about 10 days ago. I've looked at this and done other things. I've bunged it on the forum to force myself to have another go. Lack of motivation I guess. It's the weather...always a good excuse.
Posted
Acrylics are all about layering Lewis as the paints are mostly transparent, apart from one or two. Although Titanium white is very opaque and super for going over a mistake and redoing the piece again. This looks interesting, and the doll looks like it has a life of its own even at this stage. Give us more.
Posted
Well, I have to admit that if I hadn't put this here as a work in progress this is the point at which I'd bin it. I've spent most of today getting no where. It's awful. The plan was to paint an underpainting in monochrome and then try glazing. I've read in many places that one of acrylic's strongpoints is in the area of glazing. You'll see I started the monochrome with the broken doll and made a hash of it, so I started on the woman's face without doing an underpainting. It's not the paints, it's me. Can't manage them. I'll stick to the mediums I can use.
I will grind on with this and reach an ending with it. One further thing I'll try with acrylics is a more linear style with flat colours...something I've done in the past: I may be able to manage that with these paints.
I will grind on with this and reach an ending with it. One further thing I'll try with acrylics is a more linear style with flat colours...something I've done in the past: I may be able to manage that with these paints.
Posted
The more mistakes you make the more you learn and this is just going though that ugly stage where we think oh no this is yuk. With acrylic you can go over and over it why bin it? You are so critical of your self Lewis thats because you have such a high standard. However you would not have put this up on the forum if you did not want feedback. But thank you for putting it up because it’s got something going for it but not the bin I hope.
Posted
There's an ugly stage to acrylics, as John says, and to a lesser extent in oils: I attempted an article for LP or The Artist a few years ago in which I attempted to show this, but the quality of my photographs wasn't good enough for publication. I entitled it " In Praise of Fiddling", and put a version on my Wightpaint blog. Because we're told - with justice - that fiddling is bad; I think that with acrylics, though, we often have no choice in the matter - fiddling if you don't know what you're doing and are just getting deeper into an unrewarding mess is certainly something you'd want to avoid, but the fact is that acrylic needs (often, not always) a lot of layers and tweaks; and sometimes many layers of glazing.
Your painting, Lew, is salvageable, but I can easily see that you might have got totally fed-up with it; what you've lost is the transparency of colour which is one of your trademarks in watercolour and pencil; I think you could reclaim it, by re-establishing some darks, softening them, and glazing over them: but I'd certainly understand if that's more of an effort than you feel like making. This painting might have been a bit easier if you'd started with what Alwyn Crawshaw called "a watercoloury way" - but then, maybe you did!
You know well that any skill with media involves a lot of practice - even if you're as brilliant as you certainly are in a different medium: some skills are transferable, but not all are; expecting the same results from acrylic as you could get in other paints isn't always going to be rewarded with success. That's why I object to two bits of received wisdom: one, that you should aim to make your acrylics look like oils (why would you? They aren't oils), two that acrylics are much easier than oil or watercolour - well, you're here to tell us that this just ain't so.
How about trying something that's out of your usual style and practice - maybe don't try for a while at least to achieve in acrylic what you already know you can do is watercolour and CP? I don't know - a landscape, or still-life, perhaps? You could find that quite liberating, and that it helps to give you that feel for acrylic which you believe you're presently lacking.
Posted
Thanks for the advice. I’m familiar with the ugly stage John, my winge was less about that and more about my lack of manual dexterity. I’ve worked round that with pencils and watercolour, I need to do that with acrylics. I’ve had a brief break from it and did a drawing. I’m back on it now.
Thanks for that Robert, lots of common sense, at least acrylics lets you keep at it in ways not possible with watercolour. Just using it, even ham-fistedly, lets me see its possibilities. So I’ll continue and see what happens, if nothing else I’ll learn something.
Norrette, I like Paula’s work. Starting with monochrome may be my route with acrylics, I just need to get better at using it.
Thanks for the encouragement folks, I withdraw my winge. There may be something to these acrylics for me.