Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Help with Portrait Painting

Since I haven't completed many portrait paintings. I found a few websites that had instruction, although most were about using oil paints, you can also use acrylic. YouTube is a great place to find an actual person using a brush

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a__n22dp2k&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4wAoTb9etk&feature=related

and last how to paint one of my favorite paintings. Vermeer's, The girl with the pearl earring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLh5b9CDNmg&feature=related

Friday, March 26, 2010

Acylic Paint Tips

1. The best paints to use are Golden for their coverage.
2. Scketch out the painting by diluting a color with water.
3. To thin use acrylic glazing medium, I prefer gloss. You can also use this to seal, cover the painting when you are finished. Since acrylic paints dry mostly flat, I like the results of the gloss glazing as a final coat. It helps the light to pick up and show the thicker strokes.
4.Usse modeling past or texture gel to thicken paints. I foudn the gel to be better, it disn't affect the color as much, I also used palett knives and lots more paint on the brush to achieve the effects I wanted.

Monday, March 22, 2010

The Fourth Painting

This painting went through a number of changes. I continued trying to layer the paint strokes to build up the surface. Midway through I took a picture and ended up sanding down some of the problem areas. After taking a break I ended up happy with the final result. I concentrated on the figures and came up with a suitable background of swirling paint. The only thing left was to give it a name. What is the title for a mother holding a baby, the word responsibility came to mind.



Monday, March 15, 2010

The Rush to Finish

I figured I should go back and record the events leading up to my final show.

Not necessarily is order.

Goal from last semester was to make representational work but have it more personal. I also wanted to figure out how to paint impasto style. Lots of research on the web about acrylic impasto. Additives to use to make acrylic paint thicker.

Excited about trying this new style of painting.

Started working, painting my 3 nieces at my wedding gathering shells on the beach, I love this picture. I finish the under painting and then decide the thick paint wasn't working. The painting is quite large, 48 x 36 and the tools (brushes, knives) I have are making small strokes that don't seem to be helping me to show nice heavy thick paint.





Back to the Art store to try other additives and purchase the larges size brushes they have. More research about trying to find something to make the paint thicker.

I started sanding off the painting I had done. This turned out to be a disaster, sanding wasn't level so it started to affect the other areas of the painting. Frustrated. I turned the piece over and gessoed the back.

While that piece was drying, I started another image of a mother holding a baby. I like the abstract style but still not getting the results I want with the paint. At this point I'm out of a number of tubes and find myself back at the Art Store in Henrietta to purchase more paint and gesso boards.

Finished versions of paintings #1, #2, #3