Before starting the final stage of the painting I took a long break, looking at it from a distance and referring back to my sketch. I used an opaque Pebeo Studio Acrylic Turquoise mixed with white for the sky to make it stand out against the other strong colours in the painting and painted carefully round the tree trunks and branches including some across the moon. I also painted around some of the pattern to show a few leaves and moonbeams. I painted the allimportant owl in a tree and used thin acrylic glazes to darken or brighten some areas of the painting to enhance the different tones. Finally, in order to bring the trees and the hares forward in the painting they were outlined using the ruling pen and white acrylic ink.
How to combine different acrylic paints – ‘Over the Moon’ with Teresa Rogers
Teresa Rogers likes to experiment with different acrylic colours and enjoys glazing to achieve subtle layers. This is her third illustration for a book for her grandchildren.
The inspiration for this painting came when I was watching my grandsons, enthralled when their dad was reading them their bedtime story. The three – soon to be four – year-old loves animal stories and especially ones which are richly illustrated with lots of detail and colour. He likes to ask lots of questions using clues from the pictures and, if it is bedtime, he can keep chatting about the story and the characters for ages! His younger brother, at 17 months, likes to point to things he knows in the story and always looks for an owl. This painting is one of a series that I hope will become a book for my grandkids.
Materials List
I decided that the main characters in this landscape would be two playful hares and, of course, an owl. I drew a tonal sketch to give an idea of the dark and light areas and pinned it on my easel. As this painting is one of a series, I decided they needed a signature style which would be a link throughout the pages. I have recently experimented with the use of colourful patterns as an underpainting and decided to use this method of working.
I prepared a Frisk canvas board with gesso. I put blobs of Velvet Purple, Process Magenta, Phthalo Blue and Pistachio acrylic paint on the canvas. Then, using a credit card, I made broad sweeping strokes across the canvas resulting in areas of light and dark. I then used stencils to create patterns in lots of different colours across the whole canvas.
Step 3: Add detail and patterns to the background
Next, I drew the outline of a moon and two dancing hares and established the borders and the main compositional lines. I painted the hares with a Velvet Purple and Prussian Blue glaze, and I put Pebeo gilding paste on the circle for the moon before applying silver leaf. I ruled a border around the painting so that some of the patterned underpainting would show. This will be a feature on each page of the book. I patterned using Pebeo stencils and some of my own which I made from the plastic backing of a sketchbook. I even patterned in areas I knew would be painted or glazed over, as I like to leave a hint of the pattern showing through.
I then painted some areas of the foreground with opaque colours and others with translucent glazes to reveal the river and the lower riverbank, carefully leaving the pattern showing for the plants, grasses and flowers. It is a negative space method I often use.
Supplies
So let’s take a quick look at what we need. You’ll need something like THIS medium right here:
This is a satin glazing liquid so it’s specifically made for glazing but you could also use something more like this :
Which is just gloss medium and varnish . All of these are great for glazing. It’s important to have some sort of glazing liquid, medium or varnish for a glaze. Why? If you don’t use something like that and just mix your paint with water, the paint will tend to come off the canvas. It won’t really stick to your painting. The glazing liquid / medium / varnish is there to help your paint stick to your painting and not become watery.
You’re also going to need a color of paint or else you’re just going to be putting something totally transparent over the top of your painting and nothing much will change. For this example I’m using Golden Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) Liquid Acrylics . You can use Heavy Body Acrylics as well, you’ll just have to thin your paint down more in later steps. The important thing is to use a transparent hue. (You can check to see whether a paint color is transparent or not by checking your paint tube).
So, right here I have this little cup to mix in. I’m going to use a palette knife to mix things together. You’re also going to want a rag or paper towel (this is super important). And finally, you’ll want something to apply it to your painting. I’m using a bigger brush.
I’m going to be doing two different glazes on top of two different paintings. Both of these paintings were painted outside. This painting is a painting that has a ton of oranges in it and I’ll be cooling it down a bit using a Golden Phthalo Blue Fluid Acrylic:
This painting was painted in the mountains and is a very cool scene. I’m going to be using a Golden Quinacridone Gold Fluid Acrylic on this painting and actually warming it up a bit:
These two glazes will have two different effects.
Mixing the Glaze
Now, we’re going to actually create the glaze for our first painting by mixing ingredients together. For our first painting, I’m going to mix glazing liquid, water and Phthalo Blue together in this bowl. Robert Genn always had a rule of ‘A third, a third and a third’ meaning a mix of 1/3 glazing liquid, 1/3 paint and 1/3 water. However, you can mix any amount of glazing liquid with any amount of paint. It’s just up to you to decide how much pigment you want in the glaze. Add more glazing liquid if you want a more transparent glaze. Add more paint if you want an opaquer glaze. Once we’re done mixing we’re going to have a mix that’s pretty thin. It’s not as solid as even our normal Fluid Acrylics.
Now let’s get started with the glaze on this first painting. It’s important to know that part of a glaze is knowing how much to put on and part of it is knowing how much to take off. That’s why we have a rag with us because we’ll be removing a lot of the glaze we put down initially. I’m going to dip my brush and start glazing the painting:
You can see that it’s definitely got some transparency to it! I can see through the glaze to the painting beneath, but it’s changing the feel of the painting completely. Phthalo Blue is a very strong color – it shouldn’t be taken lightly. What it’s going to do is unify the feel of the painting. Sometimes with your paintings you can lose your color harmony. Something went wrong and now you have a wacky color harmony going on! Glazes can help solve this problem by uniting the colors of your painting together.
Remember when I said part of a glaze is knowing how much to take off? Honestly, what you take off is way more important than what you put on in most cases. I’m going to take my rag and remove some of the glaze. I’m going to leave more Phthalo Blue in certain areas than others.
After my first pass, I’m still not totally satisfied with my glaze so I’m going to wet my rag so I can take even more of the Phthalo Blue off. At this stage, it’s important to know exactly where you’re going and what your goal with the glaze is so that you stop before you take away too much of the glaze.
If you do take too much of the glaze off you can always let it dry, come back later, and add another glaze.
Let’s move onto glazing this mountain scene. I’m going to first mix Quinacridone Gold and Quinacridone Red together in my bowl. Then I’ll add glazing liquid to the mix. I’m going to be left with this nice and thin mixture.
This glaze is going to WARM this painting up. It’s going to make it really feel like the sun is shining. After my first application, I’m left with this:
And you don’t HAVE to take any of your glaze off if you don’t want to. If you’re satisfied after you add your glaze, leave it there! There’s nothing that says you have to take glaze off.
However, for this example, I’m going to remove the glaze only from a couple places.
2) The background mountain and
3) the snowbank in the middle ground. I’m going to leave the glaze on the trees because I really like the warmth it creates.
You can wipe off sections. You don’t have to wipe it all off. There’s lots of cool stuff you can do with a glaze.
Now, usually, I find that the glaze affects the color of the painting so much that I usually open my paints and add a little more variety back into the painting. I often finish my painting with fresh paint above the Glaze.
For example, with this painting, everything has an orange-y yellow-y hue to it and usually I want to go back and make some final adjustments. This will finish off the painting in such a beautiful way. You can see how I added some white to the snowbank.
I didn’t finish adding paint to it for today’s example, but I hope you have a basic understanding of the process.
Summary
So that is how to do a glaze and how it affects your painting! In summary you need:
- The paint can be heavy body acrylics or fluid acrylics
- A medium. This is the important part. You need something transparent and clear.
- Water
You’re doing a glaze to unify your painting or to change the temperature of the painting. When I did the Phthalo Blue wash on that first painting, it almost made it look like an evening / moonlit scene at first even though it was painted during the daytime!
You can do so many cool things with glazing. You can do this with opaque colors, but it won’t work the same as if you used transparent colors. You just need to know which colors are transparent. You can figure this out by looking on the back of your paint tube. Often they’ll have a little thing that says whether the color is opaque or transparent, so make sure to go with a transparent color.
I hope that was helpful for you and I hope that you have a better understanding of this awesome tool. It’s a really fun, powerful technique that you can use in some really creative ways. See you friends next time!
Best Practices for Acrylic Paints: AME 091
Today I’m talking to acrylic artist Anna Bartlett about all things acrylic paints, art studios, paint parties and how to make the easiest sketch books ever. Anna is an artist from Queensland, Australia and the owner of Shiny Happy Art. We met through Instagram and instantly connected over our shared love of bright colors and happy art.
Anna shares her journey of transitioning from an accountant to art studio owner and how she positions her business as a premium service. For anyone who struggles with charging enough to run a profitable business, Anna’s thought process just might convince you to start charging what you’re worth.
Anna is a presenter at our online summer workshop, Draw, Paint, Make. To learn more, click the link in the show notes down below.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:
– How Anna started her own art business and evolved it into a successful career
– How Anna uses positivity and The Law of Attraction to help shape her business to what it is today
– The importance of choosing whether to become a premium product
– The benefits of using good quality acrylic paints with your students
– What strategies Anna uses with her scrapbooks and notebooks
LISTEN TO THE SHOW:
In the show, Anna shows me the sketchbooks she uses to map out certain projects. While I couldn’t find the same sketchbooks or plastic covers in the United States (I believe they are only available in the UK and Australia), you can make a similar scrapbook.
I was so excited to use this inexpensive type of scrapbook for my own personal use, that I created my own. Simply take 8-10 12″ x 18″ sheets of white sulphite paper and fold in half. Make the crease strong by running a ruler along the fold line. Using a long arm stapler, staple the pieces of paper together at the crease.
Use Gesso to paint the front and back cover. this make the cover strong and feels like a real sketchbook. I’m using my hand-made sketchbook for Anna’s 15 Flowers Acrylic painting class. I already completed the Sunflower and Lily and next up is the Daisy.
These are the acrylic paints Anna loves…
LINKS & RESOURCES:
Save $40 using the code DEEPSPACESPARKLE on the 15 Flowers e-course from 26 April – 30 June 2018
Join Anna and other artists at the Draw, Paint, Make Art Workshop….click for more details Draw Paint Make Online Summer Workshop
You can visit Patty through Deep Space Sparkle on Facebook and Instagram
