[shinji69]

I am doing an acrylic painting for a scholarhip competition. Due date is October 30th. The work must be done in acrylics. (because they manufacture acrylic painting)

The problem is, I suck at painting with acrylics. I am an 'oil' guy. I am more comfortable with oil painting and can do faster with it. And it's really hard to mix colors with acrylics. yeah, I know that I suck at color theory since I got kicked out of ACCD after a couple of semesters... I know that Spooge said gouache(basically the same concept as acrylics) is the best medium to learn painting.

Actually, I am very stressed. The work MUST be done with acrylic painting. At first I tried to enlarge the original drawing and pasted onto the board with matte medium, but it never worked. (the surface kinda resisted the painting) and Liquitex acrylics are way too transparent! And I hate fast-drying medium like acrylics. (I can do B&W gouache paintings but that's a whole different matter...) As a second attempt I directly drew on the board with burnt umber. Unfortunately I didn't do any color or B&W study before I do the final. (I have little time to share...)

Can you guys give me some good advice for acrylic painting?

[spooge demon]

Gouache and acrylic are very different but can be handled in a similar way.

Don't think about the different medium; think about working either transparently or opaquely. Most media can be used either way (maybe not water color, but gouache is opaque water color). When you work in either manner, the way of thinking is similar.

So, what do you like about oils? Need to know how you work with them. I would guess that you like to paint opaquely and blend a lot to a high finish, very smooth. Cant really work that way in acrylics.

If the opacity aspect of oil appeals, use Cel Vinyl, a very opaque acrylic that is used for animation cels. I wonder how business is? you can get it in LA at their Culver City factory on Lindblade st.

If it is the blend that you like, you are out of luck. I don't know of a controlled way to do this. Try an atomizer to keep it wet? Probably not. If only a few key areas need a grad, do that first and then paint around them.

I won't suggest with time being short to learn a different way of think about form so that blending is not required. Blending is a nasty habit, that is why they give gouache to beginners. Blending (also called licking) can cause bad eyesight and hairy palms and everyone knows what you have been up to. Long term plan, learn more about different ways of painting.

The most controlled way to use acrylics, and one that suits the liquitex translucent variety very well is to use it very thinly.

This is really the same technique used by many old masters, but without the separating value and color.

Get your drawing on the board; use fixative to keep it there

Using a series of 20-30 very thin washes, wet your board and lay in the wash, tip the board so the wash runs equally everywhere. Lather, rinse, repeat. The goal is to get the board to a middle value that is flat and very thin. One the paint builds up (if you get impatient) it is all over, and you must work opaquely, and there goes any hope of �blending.� This is probably the source of frustration with your earlier attempts. A finished acrylic painting has barely any paint on it at all.

Once you have a nice middle value (usually done with a warm earth tone), gradually work dark and lighter with thin washes. DONT use acrylic white, it sucks, use acrylic gesso.

If you want to feather things, keep a damp sponge nearby to dampen the board with. When you paint into this area it will feather well, as it won't have an edge to dry quickly.

One more tip that will save your butt-

Get some 100% cotton vellum (must be this) and fold up a few paper towels and place them on your palette. Get the towels good and wet (not standing). Butcher trays are great for palettes, cause they have edges. Place the vellum on the towels. The moisture will leach up through the vellum and keep the paint you mix there wet, but not wet enough to upset your delicate viscosity control. It works really well.

[Simon Gustafsson]

I think the nice thing with acrylics is that they dry so very fast. Learn to use that. it is tho possible to paint AlPrima with acrylics. Apply Gesso with palettknife and then "push" colors (sometimes directly from the tube) into it. this way you can easily control texture in the painting. If it gets to white you can apply thin layers upon it, and it wont look dirty. Ofcourse the painting will get very thick. (thats what i like about it)
Dont follow your sketch blindly from the start. Try to paint the bigger elements of the composition directly from your mind. draw the sketch upon it, paint more, draw the sketch again, and so on. in this way you wont run into walls as often.
well, thats how i think anyway.


------------------
simn

[Danny]

I've heard that Background painters over at Disney using Acrylics keep the surface wet for blending by spraying it with a waterfilled airbrush. Dunno how usefull this is as I've never used acrylics myself. Used to be more of a colour-pencil man myself.


------------------
[email protected]

Trust in Trance

[Fred Flick Stone]

I don�t have too much more to add to what Craig has already said. You don�t want an airbrush slick blend when painting, but you can blend your colors a bit. Use a medium with your paints, this will also thin the opacity of the paint so be careful how much you use. THe medium will keep the paints wet long enough for you to get all the blending you need out of the paint. Then, going against the grain, or along the dividing line between you colors, fan the brush between the two colors, moving along your edge, not in just one spot. This will evenly, or should evenly dispurse your two colors together, blending them to a certain degree.
When this step is finished, you can then use a big sable brush, or a fan brush, a lightly wisp the surface of the blended area, to smooth out any really harsh brush strokes that might take away from the whole feeling of your painting. Lots of artists overdo this step and create airbrush slick blends which I personally do not care for, but some people really like that, it is really your choice, but I would say, never do it�

This is all I have to add, Spooge really covered the topic well. Post the painting when you finish it. I would like to see what you did with the acrylics in the end�

[Fred Flick Stone]

THis is one I did in acrylics. It was done in glazes like Spooge was mentioning.
I have an Atrocious Amidala that I will post later when I scan it. It was done in opaque acrylics.

This image, the majority of it was done in the pencil render. Then, about 30% of it was painting. Just washes over the pencil to keep a full value impression. IT is sort of like colorizing black and white film�

[Kastro]

fred is there a way you can post a more detailed part of that acrylic, like part of the cape or the arm or something. i'm doing acrylics at school right now and am having trouble with some techniques, its kind of looking like wet on wet and dry brush put together which isn't working for me...

[samdragon]

Great advice! I hope others come in and read this topic.

Hey Shinji, is that for the liquitex compitition? I saw a banner for it on campus the other day. If you win, you'll have enough paint to choke a horse! If it's not the same compitition, I can email you the info if you're interested in joining it as well.
(licking = blending) ahaha.
sorry to get off topic,but do you guys mind if I keep the info you just posted for a my personal website? You'll get full credit, but I need to ask so i can use your names..your aliases anyway
thx

[Fred Flick Stone]

Here is a part of it, I hope this helps a bit...

[Plop]

I said it before but, this darth maul pic is fuking incredible.

[Kastro]

did you go wet on wet mostly on this? it seems KIND of transparent...

i have trouble mixing the paints in the drawing itself, i am doing a b&w picture to start off with and i put down my black, then some gray, white, etc, but they dry fast and i don't know exactly what im trying to do to tell you the truth, i guess im going impressionistic and well blended at the same time...

[Fred Flick Stone]

No wet into wet. It was all layered on. Getting the effect I was after would not have worked wet into wet.

THe drawing underneath gives it the appearance of wet into wet. That is the reason for such an intricate understudy. THat becomes 90% of the painting in the end...

[Francis]

I hope you are keeping some intermediate steps in your Rudy Valentino painting. That would be very helpful to follow along with. Is that drawing done to the same degree that this Darth Maul was?

------------------
Francis Tsai
TeamGT Studios

[Fred Flick Stone]

Francis, actually, the Rudolph Valentino I am trying to go for a more painterly look, not glazing it. I have been scanning each leg of the painting. I have three so far. Not finished yet. The last class is this weekend so I have to finish it all before then.

[Liquid!]

Fred-

Thanks for going through all the trouble to scan the different Rudy-Steps. I can't wait to see them and am anxiously awaiting the final result. Nevertheless, thanks for doing it, I think its a huge opportunity to learn a ton!

Thanks
-c

[shinji69]

Eeek, glazing? I never tried that method fully. I can't wait till it dries. (maybe I will need a blow dryer) I never learned that way. Right after I posted this thread, I barely managed to grab how to use acrylic painting.

Again, I found that pasting an enlarged copy on the board is not a good idea. The copy paper doesn't take paintings. I like absorbent surfaces.

Well, I do opaque style in oil painting.And I don't use blending as much as I would get hairy palms. ^_^