Artist Name: Walter Mercado

Location: Philadelphia Pa

Title of Artwork: Apples And Orange On A Plate

Dimensions of Artwork: 14×11

Medium: Acrylic

Support: Canvas

The following is an acrylic painting technique that you probably have not seen before. I never did until today. This is a very interesting approach to working with acrylic paint.

In the video below, a representative of Blick Art Materials takes advantage of the strong, flexible, quick drying properties of acrylic paint to create some very interesting works of art.

She first lays out a layer of acrylic paint over some parchment paper. It is allowed to dry for 48hrs.It is then easily peeled from the parchment paper, leaving you with a flexible piece of dried paint from which to work from.

From this point, the possibilities are endless as you will see after watching the video below. Everything from mosaics to jewelry can be created. And with the addition of various mediums, even more interesting things can be done. Pretty cool stuff! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aTy_aXEuJQ

Buy your supplies over at Blick Art Materials Today and see what you can create! Click the banner below…

Ever visit a museum and notice how some paintings just seem to capture your attention and draw you in more than others?

One of the true challenges of painting is learning how to create a compelling center of interest.  There are a number of things that work together in a painting to accomplish this strong center of interest, but one in particular that works very well is a painting technique known as “The Spotlight Effect”.

In the free video below, Richard Robinson talks about this technique and how you can use it to give your painting a powerful center of interest.

Painting Lesson – The Spotlight Effect

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1RrEVyk9RY

Richard Robinson is the Webmaster of LivePaintingLessons.com where you will find a range of video painting lessons suited for beginner AND advanced painters ranging from painting beaches and skies, to waterfalls, lakes and mountains, light and atmosphere, still life, color and more.

My absolute favorite product of Richard’s is his course on Mastering Color. It’s a  DVD workshop with over 40 breakthrough color techniques. It also includes 240 pages of printable notes & other indispensable resources.  Read my review on Mastering Color here.

In this video, the folks over at Blick Art Materials talk about one of the most popular Acrylic Paints on the Market called Liquitex Acrylic Colors. Liquitex was the first company to offer a water based acrylic paint for sale in 1955 and since then, it has become a household name in the art industry. Artists Andy Warhol and David Hockney were early supporters of Liquitex Acrylic Paints.

In the following video, a representative of Blick Art Materials demonstrates how to use the 4 unique viscosities or consistencies that these paints are available in.  It is important to note, as the gentleman in the video points out:  All of these paints are made with the same pigments and they can all be intermixed and mixed with all of the various mediums that Liquitex has to offer. The only difference are the consistencies.

• Ink – Very fluid pigment based acrylic formulation.  Very good for doing calligraphy, stamping and airbrush to name a few.  Also great for laying out very broad flat areas of color.
• Soft Body – Thicker than the ink but still has great coverage.  It retains little to no brush strokes.
• Heavy Body – Thicker yet and more suited for impasto work.  Will retain brush strokes.
• Super Heavy Body – The thickest consistency paint.  Will retain the most brush strokes. Great for use with a palette knife.  Excellent for impasto, mixed media or collage.

Blick Presents: Liquitex Acrylic Colors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWrr43TqnAM

Buy Liquitex Acrylic Colors Online at Dick Blick

I thought it would be helpful if I included links to where you can purchase the four different paints spoken about in the video above.

Liquitex Professional Acrylic Ink These extremely fluid colors contain super-fine pigments suspended in a state-of-the-art emulsion. Quick-drying, permanent, water-resistant, and non-clogging, they’re ideal for a variety of techniques. Use for watercolor effects, color blocking, and under-painting. Since they don’t require dilution, they’re also ideal for airbrushing, calligraphy, and stamping. Used alone or mixed with other Liquitex Professional Acrylic inks and mediums, these bold, intense acrylic inks offer unlimited artistic possibilities.

Liquitex Soft Body Acrylics The paint you’ve previously known as Liquitex Medium Viscosity Acrylic Artist Color is now called Liquitex Soft Body Acrylics. Liquitex Soft Body Acrylics were the first fine artist’s acrylics sold commercially in the United States. These concentrated acrylics contain rich, pure pigments that produce intense color without opacifiers or fillers. They have twice the covering power of ordinary craft acrylics! Liquitex Soft Body Acrylics are naturally creamy and fluid. That makes them just right for tole and decorative arts, stenciling, murals, silk-screening, calligraphy, printmaking, graphic design, sculpture, photo retouching, hard edged painting, watercolor techniques, fabric painting without heat setting, airbrush illustration … you name it! They’re great for all surfaces, including wood, fabric, ceramics, canvas, or any porous surface.

Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics, 2 oz Tubes Liquitex Heavy Body Artist Acrylic Colors (previously called High Viscosity) are professional-quality acrylics that have an exceptionally smooth, thick, buttery consistency, ideal for traditional art techniques that employ brushes and painting knives, as well as experimental, mixed-media, collage, and printmaking applications. A high pigment load produces rich, brilliant, permanent color, combined with good surface drag that provides excellent handling and blending characteristics with increased open working time. When used for thick and impasto applications and techniques, Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics retain crisp brushstrokes and knife marks. Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics remain flexible when dry, and thick films remain free of cracks and chips over time. Multiple Sizes Available — Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics are also available in 4.65 oz Tubes , 7 oz Tubes , 16 oz Jars , and 32 oz Jars .

Liquitex Super Heavy Body Acrylic Liquitex’s latest is an extra thick-bodied paint for the highest peaks, best brush/knife stroke retention, and dramatic sculptural, textural effects. With extremely low wet-to-dry shrinkage and clean color mixability, it’s a superb addition to your acrylics arsenal. The highly pigmented colors are vibrant, and dry to a permanent satin finish.

Are you an artist who struggles with color? Do you find yourself unable to achieve color harmony in your artwork? Well you are not alone. Did you know that over 70% of artists admit that color is one of their biggest obstacles? Chances are that you are amongst those 70% or you would not be reading this article right now.

If you take the time to work on the exercise below, you will have a new appreciation and understanding of color, and it won’t take years of practice either. You can become more knowledgeable about color after only one session.

What exactly am I talking about?

I am talking about an exercise that will greatly increase your understanding of the properties and interactivity of the colors on your palette. I am talking about creating color charts and lots of them.

You see, the problem with many artists, myself included at one time, is that we tend to just jump right into our work haphazardly without learning proper foundational skills. This will only create frustration and waste lots of your time and materials.

So how will creating color charts benefit you as an artist?

Well apart from understanding how colors interact when mixed with one another, you will also have a resource or tool that you can reference over and over again.

Lets say you have a particular color scheme in mind…say a complimentary scheme of red and green. Just pull out your red and green color charts and you will instantly know what colors you could use and how to mix them. No more guesswork or wasted paint!

You will also be introduced to color mixtures that you never thought were possible. Far too often, we fall into the habit of using the same colors over and over again when something else may work better. Why limit yourself when you have an almost limitless palette of colors at your disposal?

Ok lets create our first color chart…

Here is what you will need:

1. Paint – It doesn’t matter what colors you choose to begin with. When I did my first color chart, I wanted to start by mixing greens. I love landscape painting, so I wanted to see how many different versions of green I could create from various combinations of yellow, blue, black, red and orange.
2. Support – I like to use canvas boards for my color charts. They are inexpensive and strong and will last a long time if you take good care of them.
3. Brush or Palette Knife – I prefer to use a palette knife to make the swatches if I am using oil or acrylic paint. This way you can just wipe the knife clean when creating a new swatch. Obviously if you are using watercolor, you will need to use a brush.

That’s all you are going to need to get started.

Step 1

To begin with, we need to create a grid on our canvas board. You can use a ruler or other straight edge to create the grid. Make the grid so that it is divided into one inch squares with five rows. Leave some room at the bottom of each column so that you can label it with the specific colors that you used or take other notes.

Step 2

Next, lets pick a color as our starting point. As I said earlier, it doesn’t matter what colors you start with, but for arguments sake, lets begin with Cadmium Yellow Light. Hopefully you have this color in your palette, if not, just use whatever light yellow you have.

Step 3

With your palette knife, fill in the top left square of your grid with your light yellow, straight from the tube.

Step 4

Next fill in the very bottom square of the same column with a mixture of titanium white and a touch of light yellow.

Step 5

Now create a mixture of light yellow and titanium white with a value that is half way between the top and bottom values and put that in the middle square.

Step 6

Now create a mixture of light yellow and white with a value that is half way between the first and third squares and put that mixture in the second square.

Step 7

Repeat the same process for the remaining squares and you have your first column of color swatches completed. You now have five different values of light yellow.

Step 8

Now you can move on to the next column. This time try mixing light yellow with another color from your palette, like orange for instance, with the light yellow predominating slightly. Then you adjust the values of each swatch with white like you did for the first column.

Then just continue the process using all of the colors on your palette. You will now have a ton of new colors that you never knew existed before to breathe life into your next painting.

As Artists we shouldn’t be afraid of color. It should be something that we embrace with open arms. You can master color and become the artist you have always dreamed of. You can learn how to think about color in a whole new way, a way that you never thought was possible!

Follow this link now and learn how to Master Color with over 40 breakthrough color techniques!