Demonstration 1
I applied a wet in wet wash of thinned acrylic paint, roughly in a color range of my background image. You will see in future demonstrations, that I sometimes paint a complimentary color as my B.G.
I let this dry completely before further painting
Now with more opaque paint, I paint and draw with my brush. I try to use thin (washy) colors for my darks and thicker paint for areas of light.
I let this dry completely before further painting
(I must admit, I didn't wait long enough for the canvas to dry as I took my photos... the wet areas look dark & textured, or bright with sparkles, They will be better controlled in future demos.)
In this step, I put more concentration on the sky. Darkest blue at the top to light blue at the horizon. Most of this painting is wet in wet, you can see that I worked a soft pinky yellow into the sky, especially in areas where I wanted clouds. Don't worry about detail at this point, think of it much like watching a picture develop slowly before your eyes.
At this point you should be aware of your light source, and start to form anything that is affected by it with highlights & shadow placement.
I let this dry completely before further painting
Continuing to develop the sky and clouds, and keeping in mind that this is the furthest background element and should be painted lighter, softer and cooler (color temperature) than the middle or foreground.
My paint is applied quite thin (about the consistency of dairy cream) as I push and pull the colors together. For most of the painting at this stage, I am using cheap natural bristle brushes, and because the painting is only 8" x 10", my biggest brush is a No. 6 flat.
I let this dry completely before further painting... you can use a hair dryer to speed up the drying time.
I like to paint the B.G. almost fully before I add in the main subject—for better continuity. Now, I don't do this for every painting, but when it's a portrait, or where the subject is very dominant I do. I really prefer to work out the drawing with a brush, but because I wanted to keep the B.G. clean, I sketched the main subject using a thin vine charcoal stick.
Try to do your initial sketching using straight lines. This will let you see proportions better because it doesn't allow you to stop and focus in tiny areas too early.
I am a strong believer in drawing every day. I use pencil crayons in my sketchbook because it looks better and it doesn't smudge.
Next, I started to paint in the darks using fairly loose brush strokes.
This really show the power of acrylic paint. You really can't mess up, look how easily you can add paint over paint. The background is completely dry in about 5 minutes, and you just continue painting.
There is a green ribbon in the girl's hair , so I under painted some of the dark hair using a green. This subtle touch helps with the overall color harmony of the painting.
I continue to add darks, in the eyes, under the nose, etc, then I begin to add middle flesh tones and local color in the clothing.
See how I work in thin washes, you can see the B.G. through the paint in the face and in the red clothing. I will continue to add color as I build up the painting playing with light and shadow.
The finished painting,
"Green Ribbon"
8" x 10" Acrylic on canvas
Between step 7 and this step, a fair bit of refining took place, but it was done, just as in the previous steps—a layer over layer build-up of paint.
I went back into the sky and softened the clouds, making them appear further back and through more atmosphere.
I hope this demo was informative for you, and if there are any question you have where I may have been unclear, drop me an email and I'll try to give a better explanation.
rmfineart@execulink.com