Thursday, July 22, 2010

acrylic again

For tonight's painting class, I decided to go back to acrylics, since the oils are too difficult to transport while wet.

I decided to paint over an old canvas, the failed Half Moon Bay landscape that became too busy with many colors (shown at left.) I sanded down the rough spots.

Since it was supposed to be a landscape, I figured I'd stick to that idea. I mixed 3 washes of greens (a teal, an olive and an emerald green) and started to cover the old canvas. Then I added some "white" spots (thinned out white so it wouldn't be completely opaque.)

I'm trying to remember the process from the first class I took from Shilo. Thin washes in different shades of the same color, followed by gradually thicker washes in a harmonizing color. It is useful for me to try to replicate that process, since I tend to forget if I don't do it often enough. I think it was a bit of a mistake to switch to oils for the private lessons because I hadn't quite assimilated this process for the acrylic. But, I suppose I just need to do more of BOTH. "Mileage" as Shilo says.

So the painting is looking pretty green right now. The next step will be to go a little less watered down--maybe bring in the colors that are in the under-painting. I hope I don't completely obliterate the under-painting.

much too purple

The beets painting was way too busy, so I carefully mixed what I thought was a very neutral grayish purple and splashed a good deal of it to "unify" the painting. I even tested the color to match a spot on the painting. Well, it certainly looked different than I expected. Way too purple and way too much of it.
So I mixed a lighter and more muted brownish gray purple and then dripped on some off-white. Kind of "broke the rules" by going with very thinned down paint over very "fat" paint.


I'm not sure what I'm feeling about this painting...but I'm still not happy with it.