Getting to Know Acrylics

I'm going to do a series of posts about getting to know acrylics as I go thorugh my class.


So far this week I've only had one opportunity to sit down and paint. Well, let's rephrase that, I only took one opportunity to paint. I took plenty of opportunities to clean my painting area, so that's good, I guess. I have class again tomorrow and between then and now I have bills to pay, soup to make for Bingo, girls to take to basketball practice, piano lessons, and a beef meeting. Oh, and I got called in to work between 12 and 3. So, maybe tonight at 9:00 I'll find time to paint again.


Here's the painting I started in class last week. I decided it wasn't worth the time, effort or paint ot finish it. I had a #8 round brush to work with, and it was much to small for the job. The canvassette is 16x18 or some such crazy too big size.

For this second painting I cut the canvassette in half. No use wasting paper. What I found on this painting is that I need to not be afraid to use the dark. The final paint applied was the dark on the left edges of the fruit. (This is an orange and a lemon, not a tomato and a balloon! Although I will admit it's hard to tell) That little bit of darkest paint helped tremendously.

I'm still struggling with the fast drying acrylic. It drives me batty that I can't go back to an area and apply water to change it. I need to learn to layer.

I am eager to go to class tomorrow, just wish I had spent more time painting this week.

Paint Class

I have enrolled in a painting class and had my first class this last Friday.

I was very impressed with my instructor. She was very informative on supplies had us do an icebreaker and gathered information on each of us on our experience and expectations.

I feel that this will help me get painting on a regular basis. This week I plan on painting each day, and returning on Friday for further instruction.

The class was offered as a oil or acrylic painting class, so as I was going over the supplies needed I decided to try acrylics. I haven't worked in acrylics since high school. I decided on acrylics mainly because they are less toxic than oils. Plus I had a few acrylics on hand from a different project I had started.

The class runs for 3-1/2 hours and the first 3 hours were explanation of the supplies and a demonstration of a monochromatic still life. This left just half an hour to paint.

I started mixing paints as instructed and was pleased with the colors I created. Once I started laying the paint on the canvasette I realized I hadn't mixed enough. So, back to mixing I went. At last I got the background done. It took forever because my size 8 round brush (recommended) just didn't fill up the background as quickly as a bigger brush would have. My next problem arose from the paint drying out. I have been working with color pencil, water colors or oils. No drying out there! It was very frustrating. I either have to work quicker or come up with another plan. It will be a challenge.

For now I am cutting my canvesette papers in half to do smaller scale paintings. Most of the work I do this week will be monochromatic still lifes.