Painting Project No. 32 & 33 from “Ways to Learn Acrylics” - Landscapes

These two projects are the last in Chapter 3 - 'beyond the basics'.  Can't believe it, but my first painting in “Little Ways to Learn Acrylics: 50 small painting projects...” by Mark Daniel Nelson was back in November. Looking forward to moving onto Chapter 4 and probably for the first time in a long time finishing what I started.

Project number 32 ‘Accenting with a complementary colour: Birch trees’ came out better than I thought it would. At first, the steps to finishing the painting seemed odd but the final result was pretty nice and despite my prejudice...I liked it.

Project number 33 ‘Using exaggerated colour: Expressionist landscape’ was all about various colours as well as shapes; in my opinion it didn’t look so great. Probably should have tried to do my own thing and make some alterations to the instructions, but really I’m just ready to move on to the next chapter.

Painting Project No. 31 from “Ways to Learn Acrylics” - Sunflowers

Project 31 in "Little Ways to Learn Acrylics: 50 small painting projects..." by Mark Daniel Nelson was 'Creating contrast with temperature: Sunflowers’. I’m not experienced with painting sunflowers but all in all they came out pretty nice. I probably should have stopped sooner because with too many layers of yellow, the flowers don’t pop as much as they did. I prefer the poppy painting.

Painting Project No. 30 from “Ways to Learn Acrylics” - Poppies

Project 30 in "Little Ways to Learn Acrylics: 50 small painting projects..." by Mark Daniel Nelson was ‘Massing multiple objects: Poppy field’. As mentioned before, I don’t like massing or painting from loose paintings; but I do like poppies. This project started out looking good, then there was a moment where it went all wrong. After working on it for a day or two I was able to salvage the painting to a point where I really liked it. This method was difficult but effective and the poppies look vibrant.

Painting Project No. 29 from “Ways to Learn Acrylics” Landscape

Project 29 in ‘Little Ways to Learn Acrylics: 50 small painting projects...' by Mark Daniel Nelson was ‘Massing in nature: River and trees’. Sorry to say but I didn’t like this exercise either (see Project 28; Bananas); not a big fan of massing. This whole chapter is really challenging for me; loose painting from images that are loosely painted is a real nuisance. I worked on this landscape over several days until it looked presentable enough to publish.

Couldn’t wait to start Chapter 3 but now I can’t wait to finish it:(

Painting Project No. 18 from 'Ways to Learn Acrylics' - Abstract

Project number 18 ‘Layering a simple abstract design: Yellow circles’ is the last painting before Chapter 3 in ‘Little Ways to Learn Acrylics: 50 small painting projects..." by Mark Daniel Nelson.

The abstract was done on mixed media paper as in painting no 15, but this time 3 layers of gesso was used to prime the paper. The gesso made the paint glide easily across the paper. Per the instructions, circles were painted first and the blue background was added after. The results left white edges where the circles met the background.

In another painting not shown I tried a light yellow background before painting the circles…it didn’t make much difference. There were still spaces between the circles and background. There were now light yellow spaces, it was hard enough drawing circles freehand so I abandoned the painting:(.