Ways to Learn Acrylics… Painting Project No. 4 & 5

In the first three projects of Mark Daniel Nelson’s book “Little Ways to Learn Acrylics: 50 Small painting projects to get you started” I didn’t use a round brush. I used either a filbert or flat in all my previous paintings, because it seemed easier. However, in these next two paintings I took the advice of the author and used a round brush. It was nice to use something different and now I’ve gained a better understanding of round brushes.

Project no. 4 ‘Simple gradations: Deep blue sea’ looked easy enough, but of course it wasn't. It took me four tries: the first wasn’t bad but the canvas wasn’t completely covered, the second time I needed to go back to a previous layer but didn’t save the colour, the third time I remembered to save a little of each colour but when the layers dried there was a visible line between layers. The final painting wasn’t perfect but after four times and a lot of wasted paint…I gave up.

In project no. 5 ‘Using the white of the canvas: Rowing boat’ it was difficult to create clean lines; possibly because the whole canvas was white. The blue for water is lighter because I used paint from project no 4 and the yellow was darker in value from the book because I liked it better. All in all it looked pretty good and now it’s my second favourite painting from the book.

Top 5 Art Blogs

Lachri - If you’ve been reading my blog regularly you'll know I’m constantly writing about Lachri Fine Art. I absolutely admire Lisa who tirelessly draws, paints, teaches, critiques and helps with social media tips. Lisa must be working 24/7 because she has created copious amounts of beautiful artwork while keeping up to date with practically every social media platform... how does she get it all done? Along with her blog, you can subscribe to Lisa’s YouTube channel (Top 5 YouTube Subscriptions) and lets face it, sometimes it's easier to watch a video rather than read.

Carol Marine's Painting a Day is another favourite of mine. As I’ve said before…her book changed my attitude towards drawing and painting. Carol practices what she preaches and almost every day you can view her blog and see another wonderful painting. Her blog is a tremendous inspiration, as is her book ‘Daily Painting’ (Top 5 Art Books) and her 'DailyPaintWorks' website (Top 5 Websites).

Kimberley Santini's blog inspired me to paint dogs for my '3xWeekly' challenge. A painting of a dog painted by Kimberly was featured in Carol’s book ‘Daily Painting’ and it was absolutely gorgeous. When she started, in 2006, her dogs didn’t look as good as they do today. So, if Kimberly could improve...I could too. Thank you Kimberly for the inspiration :)

My Art Journal by Diane Salter is mostly for art journal craft and not painting but I love her beautiful artwork. Her colours are fabulous and imagination boundless. It’s worth reading just for the fun of it; even though she only posts around twice a month, it’s a nice distraction from my own artwork.

Art Biz Blog by Alyson Stanfield is for those interested in blogging and needing some help. Having not read most of the posts, I'm saving this blog for a rainy day. If anyone has any thoughts on Art Biz Blog blog, please let me know.

'3xWeekly' - Paintings of a Brown Cocker Spaniel

For the longest time I couldn’t decide on a subject or medium for my '3xWeekly'. Because the results of my previously painted acrylic dogs weren’t great, I was discouraged and thought they wouldn’t be a suitable subject. In Carol’s book ‘Daily Painting’ there was a painting of a dog by Kimberley Santini that I absolutely loved. On Kimberley’s blog it was clear that when she started, in 2006, her dogs didn’t look as good as they do today. So, if Kimberly could improve...I could too.

Being eager to begin, I did four paintings of my friend's Brown Cocker Spaniel this week. After the first painting I decided to put the background colour down first, then draw the image, then paint in the eyes, nose and mid-tones. Finally, layer the dark and lights of the hairs. Some people say it’s best to do the eyes last; but the painting looks too scary. I did four of the same image trying different techniques and colours. 

Before ‘3xWeekly’ I would never have just stopped painting and would have obsessed over each painting until I got discouraged and gave up. Knowing that I would paint another day, it was easier not to get bogged down by the results and just enjoy the painting and learning process.

My First Attempt at Art

Almost two years ago with no previous experience; after browsing through the pages of ‘All About Acrylics’ by Oliver Lohr, Kristina Schaper & Ute Zander, I decided to paint.  The dripping technique caught my eye since Jackson Pollock paintings had always inspired me.  It looked simple enough, just throw paint onto a canvas and voila.   As most of you probably know there’s more to it than that, as I quickly found out.  The paint didn’t flow as expected, the canvas was filled with blobs of paint...not a Jackson Pollock.

With my limited knowledge, continuing to work with acrylics seemed the right thing to do.  Acrylic paints dried easily, could be worked over and watered down or thickened for the right consistency.  So obviously, success is going to take a little more time. 

My second art book; ‘The Acrylic Artist's Bible’ by Marylin Scott was more useful technically.  With information on colour mixing and a section on techniques that was more of a how to than the theory in ‘All About Acrylics’.  The problem with both books was there were no interesting exercises.  So the paintings below combine a lot of different styles with colours to match rooms in my house. 

Nothing too exciting but hopefully future posts will show improvement.  So left with a ton of acrylic paint, all kinds of brushes, pallet knives, sponges, etc.; new ideas to come.