Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Learning to Paint



Sometimes I have to paint something, so I can paint it.  This is an example.
This set looked interesting to paint, flowers, pottery, and a cup.  I first painted everything.
But it felt a bit busy. 
 

So I did the next one simplifying all the objects.


After sitting a bit and look at the first two paintings, I realized the flowers were the most interesting to me.  So with the final painting I focused only on the flowers. 
The last painting I feel like I learned how to paint this subject, in other words, I painted to learn how to paint.
14 x 11 inches, watercolor

                                                    Available at DPWs


Mary

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Acrylic mediums

8 x 8 gallery acrylic on gallery wrap canvas
                                                                                                          Available at DPWs

10 x 8 Acrylic on canvas panel
                                                                                                        Available at DPWs


Thought I would share a slightly different method used in paintings these flowers.  As long as I have been using acrylics, I mainly have used water for mixing and diluting my paint.  Read an art book a while back that suggested not using water except for clean up.  The author said to always use a medium for mixing.  Air brush medium was suggested for mixing similar to water, and acrylic mediums such as matte or gloss fluid, or pouring medium for a slightly thinker mix.  Gel medium was suggested for a think texture.
I decided to give this method a try for these flowers, used pouring medium instead of any water for painting both floral paintings.  I was surprised and very pleased with how they turned out.   This does create a much richer look that I honestly was not expecting to see.  If you haven’t tried this yet, give it a try and see if you notice a difference.

Mary