How to Paint with Acrylic

According to marketing guru Seth Godin 12/32/08:

” If we define ‘good’ as showing reasonable skill in the expected areas of performance, then good is not only useless, it’s dangerous. Good authors rarely change minds. Good politicians rarely get elected.

The worst thing you can be given as a marketer is a good product to sell.”

People buy paintings by apes, elephants and children. People paint to ease their OCD or to rid themselves of addiction. Quit beating yoursefl up for not being “good” enough.

Do what you want to do: learn how to paint acrylic. Get it going and you’ll learn to get it right as you go along.Mamke mistakes. Paint over the mud and try again. Let that one go and give it another shot. Do a series of the same idea until you get it right. Dig deeper and deeper.

Paint from your heart, from your eye, from your shadow self and you might change the world. Then you’ll be great, not good.

Technorati Tags: Seth Godin

Yesterday I did my first video tutorial, and learned a lot about using a web cam for painting instructions. While I am working on editing the raw video, Here’s the image, acrylic on unstretched Fredrix canvas, with limited palette: yellow ochre, pthalo blue, napthol crimson, hansa yellow, titanitum white.

I used a standard web cam jury-rigged to a true-color desk lamp to make the videos, It is not designed to work closer than three feet to its subject matter.

The reference images are listed below. Next time I’ll include a quick color sketch and a more detailed drawing. I just wanted to get the video part done, so I jumped in with both feet headlong and painted.

This tree is in Spartanburg’s Hatcher Gardens, where amateurs are allow to make photographs. I think my status is safe.  It’s clear that I am a better painted than a photographer, but even a washed out photo can work. Also, I sometimes edit the photo in photoshop to get the effect I want. I’ll definitely do that before I work with this image again.

I have always been fascinated with the way tree roots can make openings — yes I know that means the tree is not healthy–but it is an interesting image, especially with all the moss and tree bark. I’ll do another one of this in watercolor just for fun when I get my camera rig set up properly.

This image comes from People and Poses by Buddy Scalera (978-58180-758-5). I have watermarked it because I want to respect his copyright, but the images in the book and on the  CD are not watermarked, obviously. The images on the accompanying CD are not the same as the ones in the text. There are also videos so that you can see the actors in motion: a Hispanic woman, an Asian woman (the one I used), an African-American man and a white man. The poses are aimed at comic book artists, but are well done for any audience–and clothed for the younger set as well.

It was a birthday present for my daughter who is working on transforming her draft of a novel into a web comic.

Technorati Tags: painting reference photos, woodland fairy

Tools for painting with acrylic can include pizza cutters, scrapers, and sponges, as mixed media artist Linda McKinnick told fifth graders in Destin, Fl, according to Jennifer Rich at  thedestinlog.com.  McKinnick volunteers her time to teach in the Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation program to provde arts education in public schools, a way to work around budget cuts.

McKinnick, an award winning artist,  works with recycled materials, which impressed the children. She told them about working with passion and with their own ideas. Artists have always worked to change the world, and this is a way to spread the passion for art to the artists of the future.

Acrylics lend themselves to many kinds of applicators–even sticks, kitchen equipment and other things meant for other uses.dragging, printing, splattering, and scraping are ways to transfer the paint to the surface. Using unusual tools offers a kind of experimental confidence because we don’t have to worry about making a mess.

Aluminum foil, plastic wrap, paper bags, and paper towels can make interesting patterns when used either to dab on the paint or to remove some of it like a faux finish technique.  The sharp edges can suggest crinkled fabric, rocks, ice or broken tiles.  Using a gel to make the paint more transparent helps to provide greater subtlety, especially if the colors are close in value or hue.

It’s important not to cook with the utentils that are used for painting. While acrylic polymer is not toxic, it isn’t beneficial to eat–or tasty. Just use common sense and see what painting tools you can rescue from your kitchen junk drawer.

Knowing how to paint acrylic starts with choosing the right type of  paint. Since acrylic is a relatively new medium (only decades old rather than centuries), each type of acrylic paint is made to be like an older type. The development of acrylics over the last few years has improved their quality, not only as a medium for art, but as replacements for the less “green” oil and solvent based media.

Craft or liquid acrylics are similar to tempera, gouache or casein, but more permanent. Generally they are used directly from the bottle with a little blending medium to mix colors. They are inexpensive, at $1-$2 for a 2-oz. (60-ml.) bottle.  They are good for craft projects, figurines, and decorations on other items, such as stencils on walls and even small murals. They can be painted over without showing much brushwork.

Tube or artist acrylics are similar to traditional oil paints and can also be used with  watercolor techniques. Artist acrylics have much more pigment and thicker medium than craft acrylics, which have more water. Most artists use tube paints because they have the dense pigments that allow the artist to mix a wider range of colors from fewer tubes of paint. Various mediums can be added to the artist acrylics for body, transparency, or working time. Tube acrylics can also be thinned with water 20:1 for loose, wet painting without losing the permanence once the paint dries.

Artists can also use household grade paints, which are replacements for oil based types, such as acrylic enamels and wall paint intended for interior or exterior surfaces, depending on the project at hand, such as a large mural or exterior furniture, shutters, or yard art. Artist acrylics can be mixed into enamels and house paint to make small amounts of different colors for large projects.

All acrylics can be mixed together with other water-based paints,(NOT oil or varnish), but plan to use cheaper, student grade paints for colorants. Have fun learning how to paint acrylic.

Technorati Tags: artist acrylics, craft acrylics, household acrylics

An intriguing example of how to paint acrylic and mixed media is Hermit Crab Kingdom by Melissa Cole:. She has painted and attached wood pieces with air-dry clay, 3D starfish to canvas for a puzzle effect. Each part of the painting connects with the lines on the other parts, but there are also edges that break the design into tiles. Her style contrasts lines and dots with few solid areas, which creates a shimmering rhythm. Complementary colors, a range of blues and greens against dark oranges and reds, vibrate with life. Another example is her Couched Upon Stars. which uses wood moldings and fused class mounted on stretched canvas, also on an underwater theme.

Acrylic medium makes an excellent glue for attaching pieces as well as making the colors more transparent. Using a stretched canvas as a base is being easy to hang and lightweight while allowing the attached pieces to stand out from the surface. Ms. Cole’s intricate painting style does not always use the puzzle effect, but is a study in how to paint acrylic to get vibrant effects with color.

Acrylic paints offer the widest range of technique available to artists, but getting started can be intimidating. Acrylics are the newest medium, and they require a new set of skills to get the traditional effects of oils and watercolors, but they allow a wider range of technique than traditional old-world media.

Choosing between the many types of acrylics from craft paint in two ounce bottles to artist grade paint in tubes to tubs of mediums and cans of home decorating acrylic enamels can be confusing. The good news is that many of these different forms can be mixed together and used with other water-based media for permanent and durable works of art.

In this blog, you’ll find the best tools, tips, and techniques for how to paint acrylic on all kinds of surfaces–wood, metal, paper, glass, concrete, walls and even traditional canvas. Surface preparation finishing and framing will be covered as well to display your acrylic art in its best light. You will learn the media that extend the technique of acrylic: gels, floats, drying retardant, modeling paste, as well as using acrylic with other materials–color pencils, pastel, even oil paint.

Step-by-step tutorials and resources help you in planning a project, working with reference materials such as stock photography and assembling an appropriate palette for an effective mood and atmosphere.

You’ll be learning all you need to know about how to paint acrylic for your own recreation and even for profit at craft shows or as a business. Get ready to paint your world.