Dang. I’m still not finished. I’ve got some serious work to do on the model. I may have to retrace the eyes. Hmm.
Patrick got me started on the face. The fur is going to be … different. Can’t do it quite the same way I would with oils. But acrylics can be blended and gradiated with water.
I never would have attempted the jewelry if it were up to me. I’m surprised it turned out so well. Smoke and mirrors. I’ll try to remember to take photos as I work next time.
Man. Those straight edges really make a difference. It’s going to look wicked smaht with the newspaper edges and shadows. I got most of the colors right. I’ll probably skip some details. Still working pretty slowly, though. I really need to put in some time during the week.
I’m still digging the acrylics, although I need a way to keep them wet, preferably for days at a time. I hate throwing out substantial amounts of mixed colors every week.
Coming along. Slowly. I’m surprising myself.
The instructor is Patrick Kirwin. Kyrwin?
These classes are great. 3+ hours devoted just to painting in a room full of other people with the same interest and a great instructor giving you tips and techniques along the way. There’s a family in the class. Mother, father and daughter. Indian. I think that is so cool. It would be great to take a class with a friend. Maybe going outside into DC or a park and painting some landscapes.
Check out judsonsart.com. So many options for portable painting. But it will cost you. I just got a fancy but cheap case and a special case for transporting wet paintings. That was expensive enough. But if you get one of those fancy French portable things with all the accessories and backpack and tripod. You could easily spend, like, $700.
It’s kind of funny because the instructor is hands on. When he has something to show you he’ll pick up a brush or razor or masking tape and show you on your painting. That’s a good lesson. To have someone else get hands on with your “masterpiece”.
It puts things in perspective. If you look at the source material in one of the earlier blogs you’ll see that the newspaper parts — I painted them with way too much contrast. The colors are too lively.
But Patrick showed me how to do a glaze. I’m really digging the acrylics. Even though they dry on the palette way too quickly for me. Quick drying with the help of Leika’s old hair dryer really speeds things up. I’ll figure it out eventually. But a newspaper colored glaze will really push the liveliness down to that of old newspaper. Neat.
I have to work on this at home a lot more. And I’m looking forward to it.
Hm. I didn’t get very far tonight. Tried some spattering and speckling to try and get the background looking cardboardy.
The instructor showed me some techniques — this class is all about techniques — with tape to get clean edges: a razor blade, blue paint masking tape, liquid matte. My edges still aren’t very clean. I did it wrong. I’ll get it next time around.
I’ve got a lot to learn, apparently. I didn’t even know how to keep acrylic paint from drying out on the palette. Thank goodness for acrylic glaze. And using a hair dryer to dry the canvas between steps or layers. Yes, I have a hair dryer. What? A bald dude can’t have a hair dryer? It was Leika’s. Although, drying a wet dog with a hair dryer was not as effective as I hoped it would be.
In the photo of the painting in progress that I’m about to put here, you’ll notice something. My colors for the newspaper portion are too bright. Too lively. That part of the image is supposed to look flat, which is the opposite of what I always try to do when painting something. So I’m not sure what to do about that.
I may end up using a yellowish glaze to get that faded newspaper feel. Also, note how gray the newspaper is. And how cool the color of the magazine ad with the diamond/titanium jewelry is. Oy.
I’m definitely going to have to work on this at home. Three hours of painting and that’s what I got done tonight other than the background.
Yes, I missed the first two. For some reason. I really, really, really didn’t feel like going to the class for some reason. Weird. Can’t explain why other than that I’ve been in serious lone wolf mode lately.
I am intimidated but it was fun. I’m still intimidated. Look at that collage-y thing. Good grief. This is going to be rough.
Kind of neat how it works so far. Tracing paper to trace over the imagery. Then carbon copy paper under the tracing paper. Trace over your lines on the tracing paper and the image is transferred to the canvas. Awesome.
I’m using acrylics for this class. They’re amazing. I blocked out the background — it’s going to look like cardboard — and the upper left corner was dry by the time I got to the right hand side. I’m used to painting wet on wet. But acrylics allows for layering, which is very important for trompe l’oeil. It will also allow me to do … something … so I can get the texture.
Missile Mill: Painting & Photography 