About Brian Rice:

Brian was born on May 25,1958 and his roots are in the small outport of Pilleys Island, Newfoundland, Canada. At the age of nineteen he moved to central Canada in the Sarnia, Ontario area, where he now works in the Petrochemical industry.

His interest in art began in high school, when an art teacher encouraged him. In 1979 he began to paint realistic images of Newfoundland and northern wildlife, using an acrylic medium. He has many admirers of his work and most of the paintings have been sold; many were commissions. In 1998 he did a painting of an old united church (circa 1945) for his hometown heritage society. Prints were made and sold as a fund raiser.

In 1997 he entered an art contest in Sarnia. This contest was held to select a winner to commemorate the new blue water bridge. The painting got an honourable mention and it was reproduced as a limited edition print.

Brian has no formal training in art. He is self taught and learns most from a careful observation of the order and design of the natural world . He believes that “nature is the artwork of a creator/master artist who displays a wisdom and a genius that we have only begun to understand”. His focus is to create art that will cause the soul to search for a deeper meaning in an increasingly chaotic world.

He started striving for a photo realism style in the 1990′s and achieved it to some degree, but, he found the style did not evoke much emotion and set out on a journey to find a style that was realistic but, with a much looser impressionistic approach.

Eighteen of his paintings were on display at his hometown Petrolia Library during the Summer of 2004.

The Painting “The Newfoundland Cabin” appeared in “Guest Gallery “which is a page in the downhomer magazine; www.Downhome.com is the biggest magazine on the Canadian eastcoast with 26,000 subscribers. This magazine also has a gallery and gift shop in St. John’s, Newfoundland which now carries prints of the painting “seasons of life”

Brian’s Websites:

http://paintingsbybrianrice.blogspot.com/

http://sites.google.com/site/paintingsbybrianrice/

In Calm Waters – An Acrylic Painting Demonstration

Last summer I fished for cod , in Newfoundland, in an area where a lone minke whale was feeding. The water that evening was flat calm and the whale was after some sort of small fish that flickered on the water. It got close to us at times as we fished for cod. This painting tries to capture that moment in time as I remember it. This is an 18′ x 24″ acrylic painting on panel.

Heres a link to read about minke whales.

I prepared my 18” x 24 “ cradled panel with three coats of gesso. On the 2nd and 3rd coat I added a little paynes gray and cobalt blue . I sanded each coat with 220 grit sand paper, and the last coat I sanded with 400 grit sandpaper to get a very smooth surface especially in the bottom half portion of the panel.

This mid tone of color in the gesso gave me that perfect ground color for further glazing of colors in the water area .

I mixed parchment white , paynes gray, crimson ( napthol red and quin voilet) and cobalt blue with glazing liquid for my first coat of acrylic paint. I blended my painting to get a slow transition from yellow /blue/ gray at the top to deep cobalt blue at the bottom.

Then I glazed in layers of yellows, crimson , cobalt blue in the water to get the effect I needed.

The back ground trees and hills were blocked in with a combination of hookers green and yellow ochre

I added more detail in the hills and trees . The sun is going down behind the hill on the left and so a strong shadow and reflection is cast upon the water there. This dark area would later balance the whale color in the center of the painting. I added the ripples on the water . A few more glazes , I think I introduced a little naples yellow at this point.

I added texture to the hill on the left to form the trees and help the viewer get a sense of depth and this contrast with the lighter hills in the distance gave a greater sense of aerial perspective.

I added the whale in a place that best suited the composition. I know the rule about not putting your main subject focus in the middle but in this case it seemed to work best. The whale is made with cobalt blue and paynes gray.

You can can see the small fish flickering ahead of the whale as the whale dives quickly to try and get a mouth full.

I touched up the trees the rocks etc, with raw umber and paynes grey, and a little parchment white .

I will get a better photo when the sun comes out but this is what I got so far. Your comments are always appreciated.

I made some changes and uploaded a new photo of the final painting.

About Brandi

Brandi Deziel is a self-taught photorealism painter living and working in Toronto.

She creates the illusion of a photograph by layering crisp images with soft, blurred backgrounds and foregrounds thus shifting the attention to the focal object and deceiving the eye.

Her work is included in private collections world-wide.

Visit Brandi’s Website Here

Brandi Deziel’s Acrylic Painting Method – Layer by Layer

The following is a step by step look at how I layer acrylic paint.  Its not a right way or a wrong way, its just how I do it.  The process has evolved over a few years and will continue to evolve as I grow in my painting career.  It doesn’t go into detail about brush strokes or the colors/materials I use, but is meant to show how I achieve my blending and final luminosity in my work.  Before all of this begins, I have set up a still life composition (this one in particular was set up on my bedroom floor) and then I photograph it from various angles using various lighting techniques.  That all then goes into my computer and I come up with a composition to draw from. Enjoy.

I start with a line drawing.  I do this straight on the board.  I don’t make it as detailed or refined as I would a finished pencil drawing, but its enough to give me the shapes and the basic darks and lights.

For this particular painting I used frisket (clear masking paper with a slightly adhesive backing) to mask off the foreground characters.  This technique, usually employed by air brush artists, is something I’ve only started recently.  It allows me to blend my background over my foreground while keeping the foreground clean.  Later this will help give the impression that the background is behind the foreground and not butting up against it.

Next I apply light washes of the most prominent colors.  I don’t worry too much about being tidy here since there are still lots of layers of paint to come.  The paint is thin and watery at this stage.  No need to add any blending fluid to the paint yet.  I want it to dry quickly so that I can move onto the next layer.

Here I’ve started quickly blocking in the background colors.  Still keeping the paint light and watery and not worrying too much about details.

Now that I know where most of my background colors go, I start using heavier layers of paint.  I add slo-dry blending medium here to start smoothing things out more.  I’m still not worrying about the foreground at this point. It is protected by the frisket.

More layers of paint here.  I’ve gone back and filled in the blocks that I covered when blending the far background in the last layer.  I’m starting to put some of the reflections into the floor and define the dark and light areas more.

With the background mostly complete it is time to remove the mask.  This shows how the frisket keeps the area clean.

I’m basically going to repeat the layering for the foreground now.  The only difference is I’m going to use more controlled brush strokes and start creating crisper edges and finer lines.  I start with a light wash of colors.

Here the foreground is in various stages of completeness.  From the doll’s face being nearly completed to the horses head which only has a couple of layers of paint on.  I’ve gone in with white and recreated some of the horses mane.  This will help the bright colors go on clean and stand out.  I’ve also added a yellowish glaze layer to the background to alter the lighting slightly.

Here is the finished painting!

That’s it!  Hopefully it gives you an idea of how I achieve my final painting.  If you have any questions please feel free to email me:  art@brandideziel.com.

Text and images copyright 2008 by Brandi Deziel.  All rights reserved.

This is a really cool 6 part acrylic portrait painting demonstration by artist ERIC T. FRANCIS. This portrait painting tutorial will teach you how to paint your very own portrait, start to finish, with the aid of a free software program called Gimp.  If you don’t have this software, you can download it here.

Computer software can be a wonderful tool for artists.  More and more artists are utilizing technology to make the painting process easier.  There are certain settings within image editing software, that make it much easier to see the values within a photograph.  For the untrained eye, recognizing different values within a portrait is very difficult and this software really helps!

How to Paint an Acrylic Portrait Part 1

Eric will show you the exact settings and features he uses within the Gimp software to produce his reference image.  After he is happy with the picture, he prints it out and gets ready to paint!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLq7H25JNTc

Transferring the Image to the Canvas

In part 2 of this acrylic portrait painting tutorial, Eric will show you how he transfers the image he printed from the Gimp software, to his canvas.  He turns over the printout and using a pencil, he covers the back of the image completely using a lot of pressure and making it as dark as possible.  Then he places the image on the canvas and begins to trace it. Make sure you press hard and try not to move the paper. If you want, you can tape it into place so that it doesn’t move.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AKKlhKryLY

Begin to Paint

In part 3, Eric starts the layout process. When he created his image using the Gimp software, he used a feature known as “Posterizing”  which enabled him to break up his image into 4 different values.  So now he creates those four different values with his acrylic paint. He lays in his darks first and works his way up to his lightest values.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilMHerJrqcE

Adding More Layers

In part 4, Eric begins adding more layers to the painting making things more opaque. As he is painting, he refers to his printout to add things he may have overlooked.

Blending

After the paint has dried somewhat, Eric now begins the blending process of his painting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Omi_z4bM54

Final Touches

In the last part of this acrylic portrait painting demonstration, Eric does some more blending, adds some highlights and adds some final touches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8dOHWJcza0

I found a really interesting acrylic painting video tutorial today from a very talented artist by the name of Rudy Kistler. This is a still life painting lesson using a subject that I do not see many artists painting, a cactus.

This tutorial is broken down into 10 different steps for your convenience making it easy to follow. Below is a short summary of the steps in this video.  Please watch the video below to follow this tutorial in its entirety.

Follow this link to visit Rudy’s YouTube Page to watch more of his videos.

Step 1 Priming the Canvas

Rudy begins his painting by priming his canvas with an orange color.  This orange color is not part of the final composition but it adds a nice complimentary undertone to the finished piece.

Step 2 Mixing Your Palette

For this painting, Rudy will be using an analogous color scheme which is based on colors that are next to one another on the color wheel.  The colors he has chosen are between yellow and blue. He will only be using a limited palette of three colors to mix all of his colors and those are Yellow Deep, Magenta and Thalo Green.

Step 3 Blocking in the Composition

Rudy then begins to block in his composition.   He starts by painting in the background and then the cactus and pot.  This is just a quick rough block in of the subject. We are not looking for detail at this stage.

Step 4 Toning the Background

Roughly block in the background at this stage. No need to be overly detailed as of yet.  Add a darker grey background toward the tip of the cactus since it is the lightest. This creates a nice contrast.

Step 5 Adding Color

Here you begin adding color starting with a dark blue for the pot.  Then a neutral color for the soil followed by a green for the cactus. Working all colors from dark to light.

Step 6 Filling in the Background

Now the background receives some more attention.  Here the colors are added more opaquely and any traces of the background are covered. Other  adjustments are made.

Step 7 Adding the Details

Now some of the finer details are added starting with the spine of the cactus…

Step 8 Filling in the Background Again

We go back in the background again to make the paint even more opaque. Some magenta is now added to warm up the gray a bit. The warmth of the background will now contrast with the cool green of the cactus. A foreground is suggested by adding a lighter color toward the bottom.

Step 9 Detailing the Background

More lights are added to the foreground to make it stand out a bit more. Other adjustments are made.

Step 10 Making Final Corrections

The artist steps back to assess the painting.  He sees that the overall value of the cactus is too dark so he lightens that up a bit. He also neutralizes the green somewhat. He also makes some adjustments to the cast shadow.

Watch the acrylic painting video below to see the demo in its entirety.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKpjmKrJk4U

About Brian Simons

Being a self-taught artist, I have derived much of my inspiration from the “Group of Seven”, the French Impressionists and the Writings of Baha’u'lla’h (Bahá’í Faith). My family and I moved to Vancouver Island from Alberta, where I first began to paint approx. 25 years ago. Prior to that time, I focused mostly on drawing and sketching. I began showing my work in 1988 and have been represented by numerous galleries on the Island. From 2006 to the present, I paint on a full-time basis and have had many successes and confirmations in that period, including numerous commissions for a television production company, architects several corporate and private collectors both in Canada and the United States. I also conduct acrylic painting workshops British Columbia, Alberta and the United States….

Follow this link to visit Brian’s Website

“7-STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL PAINTING”

A 125-page, full-colour ebook (pdf) Acrylic Painting Course by Artist Brian Simons. Only $29.95 Can.

This Acrylic Painting Ebook is based on the artists highly successful painting workshops that have been running in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, for the last 6 years. It is an inspirational, thought-provoking, instructional book for both beginner and expert alike.

NO PREVIOUS DRAWING OR PAINTING EXPERIENCE IS REQUIRED!

Having seen literally hundreds of people, (many with no experience) go through this course and come out inspired by the works they produced, Brian feels anyone can paint.

A lot of emphasis is placed on the spiritual aspects of painting and helping the painter to get out of the way and allowing the painting to work, as well as diffusing many of the myths that surround art and artists. 7-easy to follow steps from start to finish.

Follow this link to learn more…

The Progress of an Acrylic Painting – Demonstration by Brian Simmons

(Click images to enlarge)

This is the original photograph I used from www.morguefile.com. Thankyou to the contributor! At this step it is very important to study the image and identify shapes, colour etc.

The second step is to underpaint the canvas. Here I used “burnt sienna and a large house brush. The idea is to simply cover the canvas in a “painterly” manner without any regard for the subject!

At this point, using burnt sienna and a large artist brush we simply “map out” and identify the big shapes we see in the image. Squinting is required to see the big shapes. No real drawing, just mapping in a few shapes and breaking up the format of the canvas into pieces of a big puzzle.

Then, before everything dries, we pull paint away from the lightest areas only. If the underpainting has started to dry, we wet the rag. Interesting how the painting is already coming to life!

Once were happy with the “big shapes” and have pulled paint away from the lightest areas, we then start our “value study”, a study in lights and darks only. We do this by starting with the darks and use a bit of dark purple to darken the burnt sienna for the darkest darks. Then with we establish the other values , paying special attention to the value differences. We are looking for 4 or 5 different values.

Once the “value study” is complete, we then start blocking in the colors starting with the darks and working towards the lights. Keep the paint thin, this is only an estimate. Let lots of the burnt sienna show through.

Here the “block in” is nearing completion. We cannot assess any colours until we get them all “roughed in” and see them in relation to all the other colours.

Now, we go back and strengthen any darks we may have lost during the color block-in and begin keying up those lights. We should use thicker paint for the lighter tones and refine things a bit more include a small amount of detail.

Here is the finished painting with all the colours established, keyed up. Notice how you can still see some burnt sienna showing through! I then sign and varnish the painting.

“7-STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL PAINTING”,a complete course in acrylic painting. The book is available in three different formats on this site! You might also consider a workshop!