Ways to Learn Acrylics... Painting Project No. 3

'Little Ways to Learn Acrylics: 50 small painting projects to get you started’ by Mark Daniel Nelson is a great way to practice painting with acrylics.

System 3

Of the first three projects, this colour mixing pasture scene was my least favourite. Getting the lines clean when dark colours met lighter colours was really difficult. The hues weren’t very inspiring either, but for some reason I painted a second version.

Atelier

The Atelier Interactive paints are meant to stay wet longer and to enable the painter more time blending.  There was a visible difference between the two paintings. The first painting (in System 3 acrylics) needed three layers of paint before it looked finished. With the Atelier only one coat was applied and although a second layer would have made it look better… I lost interest.

This post isn’t very encouraging; for archival purposes I felt it necessary to post it. Sorry, dreary day, sombre mood.

New Book ‘Little Ways to Learn Acrylics: 50 Small painting projects to get you started’

Past experience with my ‘3xWeekly’ acrylic paintings was invaluable, however it was difficult to keep up. I’ve decided to make things a little simpler for myself with this great book ‘Little Ways to Learn Acrylics: 50 Small painting projects to get you started’ by Mark Daniel Nelson. The book goes back to basics and all the decisions are made for you; the only thing to do is paint.

As usual supplies had to be purchased. On my favourite art supply website I found 8” x 8” Loxley canvas boards(box of 60) for £53.78. Because shipping was free I had to buy some new acrylic paint colours; viridian hue and alizarin crimson. They weren’t available in System 3 heavy body so I bought Liquitex and can’t wait to try them.

The first painting assignment was a black and white study. Even though it looked simple, I did learn something.

• Waiting for layers to dry can make things easier
• If you need clean lines, use a wet wipe and/or your finger to clean up...best if you let one side of the paint dry (see 1st bullet)

In the past, I would have attempted to paint the moon and highlight on wet paint. Just proves…it’s never too late to learn. The book, by the way, is fantastic and there will be more paintings to come.

Vibrant Acrylics Art Book by Hashim Akib

Came across Vibrant Acrylics by Hashim Akib; found the book while watching ‘A Splash of Paint’. They were doing a review of the book and I was intrigued because the artist’s style was fabulous. Reading books completely is not my forte… and to my surprise the author was conscious of people like me. By the third page Hashim recommended an assignment to do if the reader couldn’t wait. The book was written for me...great minds think alike.

What I produced wasn’t fabulous but there were lessons learned. One of the problems, yet again, was I didn’t have the right colour paints or large brushes. There goes more money for art products; but this time it’s o.k. because I’ll be doing all the exercises in this book. The colours also suit me so that’s good too.

Will also try to be patient and read the book from start to finish and do ALL the assignments in order. After my attempt at ‘the Rose’ it’s absolutely necessary! Watch this space...

Top 5 Art Books for Newbies

Daily Painting by Carol Marine - as I’ve said before…this book changed my life. If you want to paint and only can buy one book…this is it!!! Along with the book Carol had a DailyPaintWorks website and of course, it’s in my top five websites blog.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards - in my blog, I reviewed two drawing books. Both were really great, but if you only wanted to buy one…this is it. The beginning of the book is mostly psychology so some people might be turned off; but if you are new to drawing it’s worth the read. The second half has more technical drawing information and the exercises are fabulous.

Colour: A Workshop for Artists and Designers by David Hornung - this was one of the first books I purchased and really enjoyed it. If you are like me and have trouble with colour…this is the book for you. Of course, I bailed on the exercises but the book is really worth reading. For lazy people like me they do give you examples of the exercises so you don’t really have to do them.

Painting Abstracts by Rolina van Vliet - is another fabulous book that I fully enjoyed. Again, because I get distracted easily, I didn’t finish the book….but it’s on my to do list. I decided to learn to draw and paint more before getting stuck into abstract art.

Draw like the Masters by Barrington Barber - is great for people who are looking to draw from life. The book describes how the old masters did things; apprentices used to draw from images of the old masters for a long time before moving on to drawing themselves. This book has some great examples of line, tone, texture and form. If you can’t take a life drawing class, this book is a good substitute. It’s 127 pages, mostly pictures so even I finished reading it.

Carol Marine ‘Daily Painting’ Book & Blog Review

‘Daily Painting’ by Carol Marine revolutionized the way I think. Each time I failed with a particular painting style in the past I felt defeated and just tried something new. It was easy to move on because there are so many mediums and subjects. Daily painting hast taught me if you want to get good at something practice, practice, practice.

The book is fantastic with lots of tips, tricks and great ideas. Carol paints mostly in oils, so if you are an oil painter it will be more informational. But even though I mainly paint in acrylic, I loved reading this book and would highly recommend it to anyone.

Carol Marine not only has written this book but also hosts a Daily Paints Works website that sells her paintings and paintings of others who are doing the same thing. The website is very motivating and someday I aspire to sell my paintings there. The artists also have a place to list their links to individual e-mails, gallery, blogs, websites and facebook.

I’ve had this book for a while, but didn’t want to blog about it until I had time to do a painting a day. So, I’ve decided to apply the theory but alter it a little to suit my needs. I’m going to try and commit to at least three paintings a week; dubbed by me… ‘3x Weekly’. I will be blogging about my experiences along with pics of the paintings once a week. It’s not daily but I have too many other things to do; some may call it a cop out... but I call it realistic.

Acrylic Painting Class – Life Drawing with Joel

Instead of acrylic painting Joel was going to get a live model for us to draw; but Surrey Adult Education wouldn’t let him because it wasn’t outlined in his syllabus. So Joel modeled for us, but it was hard for him to come around and help. Not really proud and a little embarrassed to show my drawing; but here’s hoping there will be MUCH improvement next time.

We did warm ups before the live model and these were difficult for me, so in true AMS fashion, I bought a book. ‘Drawing Like the Masters - Be Inspired by Great Artists of the Past’ by Barrington Barber has many illustrations from famous artists and some of mine are below.

The female and male face's are by Leonardo da Vinci, the female nude by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld and the male nude by Raphael Sanzio.

I would recommend this book, which outlines different types of drawing; Line, Tone, Texture, Form, Space and more chapters on style & composition. After writing this blog it’s clear I need to read the book in full and not just copy the drawings. Books are fantastic learning tools, but there is nothing like taking a class, so my next step is to look for a life drawing class.

Painting Abstracts Art Book Review

While browsing through the books at WH Smith ‘Painting Realistic Abstracts’ by Kees van Aalst it looked interesting. When purchasing it on Amazon, however I accidentally bought ‘Painting Abstracts, Ideas, Projects & Techniques’ by Rolina van Vliet, which turned out to be the better of the two.

‘Painting Realistic Abstracts’ mostly had examples of watercolour paintings and I wanted to work with acrylics. This book will come in handy in the future. The artist Kees Van Aalst is truly gifted and provides lots of examples of what makes a painting good; but doesn’t explain the how to. This book will be useful after I have more painting experience and know more about watercolour techniques.

‘Painting Abstracts, Ideas, Projects & Techniques’ by Rolina Vliet is an excellent book, it has tons of information about everything. Each chapter has a different subject with explanations and exercises to go with it. For every project there is an explanation on theme/emphasis, picture element, composition, materials, technique, work sequence, tips and variation exercises. The examples they provide are interesting and beautiful, unfortunately my experiments didn’t come out as nice. Taking notes on what worked and what didn’t for future projects is the right way to go. The exercises in the book are broken down into five sections; Primary Picture Elements, Secondary Picture Elements, Composition, Technique and Material, Theme and Project.

Primary Picture Elements- Exercises 1-5

1 Expressive Shapes – design a surface divided by spontaneous lines, apply colours roughly with a pallet knife. My first try there were too many colours, it looked like a child drew it. The second was using only neutral colours and I liked it better. The third used only three colours, and turned out the best.

2 Variations in shape – don’t think this exercise was properly done, but I liked the outcome.

3 Geometric shapes – didn’t like the way the two paintings came out. The first had a black background and the colours on top were not saturated enough so the back showed through. The second was using tape to get clean lines, but the tape didn’t pull up correctly. Probably should have included an example but it's too embarrassing.

4 Free shapes using oil pastel crayon – did three only one came out half way decent. Again too embarrassed to include pictures.

5 Spontaneous shapes – painting in layers, start with an underpainting and let it dry.  Using only two or more colours these paintings were pretty successful.

The first was with cadmium orange and modelling paste over turquoise, a third colour wasn’t necessary.

The second was with turquoise, yellow ochre and burgundy, square instead of landscape.

Did a few others and liked them as well; the spontaneous shapes study is my favourite so far.

Colour - Exercises 6-11

6 Mixing with colour blending – used cobalt blue, primary yellow and paynes grey, painting was very dark looking and it was difficult to blend colours. I didn’t like this exercise.

7 Mixing with a palette knife – the first painting came out muddy, the second I used a scrapper to pull colour off and it looked nicer but not great. Sorry once again...no photos.

You would think I would have a handle on colour after reading the book on it, but for some reason the colour chapter was not working for me. I got discouraged and stopped doing the exercises.

There are a great many things to learn in this abstract book and when I get my confidence back I will carry on. That should be a t-shirt 'Lost confidence just CARRY ON anyway'. It really is fantastic and one of the best I have bought so far. I would highly recommend Painting Abstracts, Ideas, Projects & Techniques’ by Rolina van Vliet. Look for more exercises from this book in future blogs.

Watercolour Portrait & Chinese Painting with Wendy

Previous class practice drawing eyes, noses and mouths came in handy for our next assignment - a tonal portrait study.

Tonal Study

Wendy supplied photos to choose from; my dad and I both love Clint Eastwood so…

Colour Study

We also did a colour study, not my favourite. I seem to have trouble when I need to add colour. 

In our last class we learned to do Chinese painting; practicing bamboo with ink and Chinese brushes on cartridge paper.

For the final project we made bookmarks on watercolour paper; it was a nice ending to the class. By adding a hole and a ribbon I now have a lovely bookmark to remind me of the class.

This type of painting interested me so adding to my library, once again, I bought a book: ‘Chinese Brush Painting Handbook’ by Pauline Cherrett. The only trouble was I didn’t have the right brushes. Wendy had lent us inks and brushes for the class so I used my regular watercolour brushes and paint.

I only achieved a halfway decent fish.  Someday I will buy brushes, read the book again, and try to make more paintings.

Cat Painting from 'Compendium of Acrylic Painting Techniques'

Leisure Painter is one of many art magazines in the UK, it's full of articles and advertisements all relating to art. There is a plethora of information; details on art clubs, exhibitions, book reviews, website news, letters, tips, views and tutorials for watercolour, acrylic, pastel etc. The adverts at the back for Holidays & Courses are interesting too; someday soon I’m going to go on a painter’s holiday.

The May 2014 issue had an article ‘From A to B’ that discussed using a pantograph; which was too difficult for me to use and a waste of my money. There was also an article demonstrating a painting by Bob Brandt called ‘Sunlit Harbour’; it was from ‘Compendium of Acrylic Painting Techniques’ by Gill Barron.

The Compendium book turned out to be very useful. There was an assignment on the glazing technique-pg147, which I tried. I wasn't as successful with the technique but I liked the painting. Glazing takes patience and I’m not a doctor....laugh here.

Annual subscriptions to magazines are less expensive; however I like to sample them all, so I'll just keep buying them as and when.

Two Great Drawing Books

Wendy recommended two drawing books ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’ by Betty Edwards and ‘The Fundamentals of Drawing a Complete Professional Course for Artists’ by Barrington Barber.

‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’ is for people who are timid about drawing and explains how adults who are not artists tend to draw. There are plenty of amazing experiments that are worth trying; I recommend reading it. The exercise on drawing upside down and not thinking was cool; as was the contour drawing.

Drawing on the picture plane is also a great lesson and fun to do.

‘The Fundamentals of Drawing’ is the type of book that you can use as a reference guide; it has exercises on lines and circles, 3d shapes,ellipses, basic objects, methods of shading, human figure: proportions and more.

Both books are worth owning, but my lazy self needs the structure of a class to force me to practice. Also, it's nice to have the critique of an instructor and to be around like minded people.

Colour Book Review

Because of illness I couldn’t drive to Alton anymore and wasn’t able to finish my last paint project with Jane @ Ashley-Brian Art.

While trying to finish the painting at home it became obvious that I needed to learn more about colour and mixing paint; hence the next book in my growing library.

‘Colour: a workshop for artists and designers’ by David Hornung is a fantastic book that teaches you about using colour. The book suggests you buy Gouache paint to do the assignments. There are eleven colours in total: cool, warm & earth tone/reds, blues & yellows = (9) + white and dark brown. Jackson Art Supplies  in the UK had the best price and variety of the Turner paints. It probably would have been fine to use acrylic paint, however the book tells you the exact colour names for each brand (5 brands listed). In my limited experience every paint supplier uses different colour names....it's enough to drive you crazy.

Chapter two - First Principles; is about the structure of colour hue, value and saturation. I made four colour wheels and a greyscale with the warm and cool colours.

Chapter four - Beginning Colour Studies; assignments were about using different chroma greys, muted colours, prismatic colours and combined saturation in a small painting. Don't worry the book explains it all and provides a hue/saturation colour wheel.

After completing the assignments I got lazy and just read the rest of the book. There are plenty of exercises so a more disciplined person would really enjoy it. ‘Colour: a workshop for artists and designers’ is an excellent colour theory reference guide and while writing this blog I am tempted to read it again and do ALL the assignments.

Art History & You Tube

Lessons on how to draw and paint wasn't enough, I needed a little art history. At the discount book store I discovered ‘Art – Everything you need to know about the greatest artists and their works’ by Susie Hodge. This book is a crash course in art and full of the most popular paintings from ‘Gothic to Early Renaissance c. 1300-1500’ to ‘Modernism to Pop c.1900-1970s’ and everything in between.

My favourite period seemed to be ‘Impressionism to Post-Impressionism c.1865-1910’, so I decided to do more research. With my handy Chromecast and IPad, viewing You Tube videos on TV was a breeze. There are tons of documentaries on Impressionism and the artists who interested me were Manet, Degas, Monet, Renoir and Pissarro: the following videos were the best I found.

The Impressionists - 3 part BBC documentary was informative and worth viewing before going to see the Impressionists exhibit National Gallery in London.  You have to act fast because it closes 31 May 2015.  I saw it and it was very impressive; the exhibit had paintings that were acquired by Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art Market.

Two other interesting documentaries were Degas and Pissarro.