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Work in Progress - Having a bash at Acrylic painting.
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Message
Posted
HI Lewis,
I'm a little late to this but wondered if you were still using acrylics on paper? I always paint on canvas and it can be the cheaper ones. I feel it's easier to get a textured appearance and I use plenty of paint.
You have made a good start and need not be put off acrylics.
Landscapes are much more successful imo, here is part of a quick little painting I did and I like to use a dry brush technique to add interest.
Also, I use a wet palette with greaseproof paper covering a damp j-cloth and placed in a sealed shallow plastic tray/box which I keep damp and don't let it dry out. I hope this helps. 👍
Posted
Lewis, I applaud your sterling effort to try a new medium. I started out with watercolour before moving to acrylic and still flip-flop between the two often using watercolour techniques on acrylic paintings and vice versa. For example I often use acrylic washes like watercolour washes to provide backgrounds for paintings I finish with watercolour. The nice thing is you can scrub out the top watercolour layer if you make a mistake, without disturbing the background. I also use thin acrylic washes as glazes (on acrylics) to add shadows or to knock back objects in the distance. Note I’m using regular, not interactive acrylics.
My only other thought is that if you want to use paper and not canvas, you could try using a watercolour pad that is gummed on all four edges, it saves time not having to stretch the paper and you can get these in Cold Pressed (textured) and Hot Pressed (smooth)finishes and if you get at least 300gsm paper they will work fine with both mediums. I never gesso the surface when using paper but I do gesso canvas and frequently use a raw sienna wash when using canvas as you have done as it gives a nice ground to work on.
Finally my art teacher friend says that you should expect to reject one in three of your paintings and not expect a perfect result every time, so don’t give up.
Edited
by Andrew Roles
Posted
Thanks Andrew. Interesting info. I'm using paper because I have some good quality 300gsm paper, and didn't want to initially fork out for canvas boards in case I found I didn't like acrylics. Interesting that you don't gesso paper. There seems to be a divide of opinion on this, some saying they don't gesso paper, others saying gesso everything (including pre-primed boards). I'll try paper without the gesso. I will be buying some boards later.
I'll stay with acrylics for a while, I haven't used it enough yet. I've slowed down in my art making, but I can't believe how long this little pic took. It's nothing to do with the acrylics of course, it's me adjusting for the effects of old age and trying to find a way to use it. Your art teacher friend is right, with one addendum...I NEVER expect a PERFECT result at any time.
Posted
Had another go at this this morning. Tried another glaze on the woman's face, hoping to minimise my first attempt which was far too thin. Should have wiped that off immediately, but then my life's been full of 'should haves'. Tried some further adjustments here and there with acrylic. My dodgy brushwork is still in view. Then I remembered that you can use coloured pencils on top of acrylic. I use Faber Castell water soluble pencils (which obviously can be used wet or dry). So I tried that...mostly on the woman, plus some little bits on the doll. On a last minute whim I add the cobweb (with a coloured pencil). Here it is...
Feel a bit better about it now. Might even put it on the gallery - wasn't going to before.
Here's the two versions side by side...
I'll try some more acrylics. If nothing else, they'll be a useful addition to my mixed-media pics.
I'll carry on with my depredations against my innocent acrylics without putting them on here. Thanks to all for your much valued input and advice.
Feel a bit better about it now. Might even put it on the gallery - wasn't going to before.
Here's the two versions side by side...
I'll try some more acrylics. If nothing else, they'll be a useful addition to my mixed-media pics.
I'll carry on with my depredations against my innocent acrylics without putting them on here. Thanks to all for your much valued input and advice.
Posted
Much better! I knew you'd find a way, it's not in your nature to accept defeat - you can also glaze watercolour over acrylic, add pencil (as you have), charcoal, carbon, ink; pastel, oil and whatever the word for regular pastel might be; some people as we know add oil paint to them, using the acrylic as a quick drying base; you won't be doing that as you don't use oil paint (and it's not a practice I'm at all happy with, but then I don't have to follow suit, and each to their own techniques).
Perhaps I should just add you can glaze with watercolour over SOME acrylics: those that dry matte - they'd be unlikely to take to a glossy surface. Anyway - well done that man: persistence promotes the path to perfection.....
Posted
Oh, and "gesso" - in inverted commas, because it's really acrylic priming, not real gesso at all: I always point that out, and am fully aware it gets boring! But I live in the forlorn hope that manufacturers will stop using the wrong word.
Anyway - you don't need to gesso watercolour paper for use with acrylic - the paper is well sized (if it weren't, it would act like blotting paper) and the only reason to add priming would be in search of a particular effect, to add texture, to give a particular quality to the overlying paint. Priming would be necessary if you were using oil - which otherwise sinks into and rots the fibres (in time - quite a lot of time in my experience). Priming probably would help to prolong the life of watercolour paper, but to such a minimal extent it's not worth doing it for that reason.
You could prime cartridge - but the result isn't likely to be good: there is ultra-thick cartridge available, and you can paint with acrylics on it, but adding a primer would be pointless, in my opinion anyway.
Posted
Thanks folks. You’d never guess from the way I’ve been whingeing on here, but I’m really glad I bought the acrylics. I hadn’t realised how versatile they are. Robert’s info on what can be used on them is an eye -opener. I knew about coloured pencils but WATERCOLOUR?? Didn’t expect that.
I struggle with larger watercolours (except oddly for little pics, like 6 x 4 inches), but get round that by combining coloured pencils when necessary. It looks like that’s going to be my way with acrylics.
Thanks again to all.
Posted
Actually Lew - coming back to this: that's bloody good! Your latest, that is. And I'm so pleased you don't regret your acrylic purchase - I don't think I've ever regretted an art materials purchase (at least those that weren't a gimmick): they've opened up so many avenues to explore, and I wish I thought I'd live long enough to explore them; that's probably why an awful lot of artists live a very long time - just got to try the next thing: Picasso, Dalí. Michaelangelo, Titian, Rénoir, Monet: there'll always be a few who reduce the average, through careless living and a touch of unwise roistering, but an awful lot of painters have managed to get well beyond 90 - all sorts of reasons for that (one of the biggest being doing what you just love to do, I expect) but it offers hope to all of us: can't die now, sorry - far too much to be getting on with! And I suspect that we can blame age and frailty for losing certain skills, but it's been my experience that yes, you will; yes you do; but you gain others: e.g. I can't easily paint big pictures any more - arthritis in arms, shoulders and back makes that a trial, so, regretfully, I just don't: but I can paint smaller pictures now far better than I ever could just twenty years ago, and in all media. Well, all that I'd normally employ.
We don't live long enough, that's our trouble ! But while we're here, let's try anything and everything: as you're doing - and it'll keep us ticking over for years yet. Maybe avoid excessive roistering, though - after all, it's so easy to put your back out....