Step By Step Acrylic Painting Demonstration by Lorraine Vatcher

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The following acrylic painting demonstration is by the very talented Lorraine Vatcher. Be sure to visit her website to view more of her work.

Lorraine invites you to paint along with this demonstration and send her images of your progress. Drop her a line if you plan on giving this a try. She would love to hear from you.

She also invites you to contact her if you have any comments regarding her work. Click here to contact her.

Nature’s Decorations - Painting Demonstration by Lorraine Vatcher

The picture I am using for a reference was one I took on a beautiful sunny day after a white blanket had covered our world and made it into a Winter Wonderland. Even though it was still cold, the sun had enough strength to start melting the snow on the branches of the spruce trees. As the water fell off the twigs, it froze into solid icicles which glinted in the sun; then the sun split the light into colours of the rainbow when you looked directly into the sun through the icicles.

I truly hope you enjoy this lesson. It really is more of a still life than scenery. I wanted to do something which isn’t a normal lesson. You can change placement of anything if you wish to make it more your own.

For those who attempt it, I would enjoy seeing the finished product so if you don’t mind, I would really appreciate an image of your finished product.

First, we will block in shapes of the background which will resemble branches of a spruce tree with snow on them. Mix Windsor Blue with Titanium White in varying dark tones. Do not make them bright because we want the icicle to shine, not the background.With a 1” blending brush, block in these colours in general shapes, fairly linear to resemble the look of snow gathered on branches.Then do the same with Payne’s Grey mixed with Titanium White in varying tones. The medium tones should be minimal. A light coat of Chrome Oxide Green in a few places gives the illusion of the under branches barely showing. Keep it muted with no real shapes and no light colours; nothing in this entire layer should pop out at you. Remember that the icicles are the focal point.They have to be much brighter than the background.

Block in the shapes of the snow on the foreground branches with Titanium White. Keep composition in mind. Too much white will detract; we want this snow and the icicle to sparkle over the top of the background. Think about where the icicles will hang and how long. Paint them in. Keep the amount of icicles in odd numbers. Block them in.

Use Windsor Blue mixed with white to give shadows in the snow on the branches. In the darkest areas, add just a hint of Payne’s Grey mixed in with the blue. Tops of the snow are always pure white with the bright sun shining on them.

Change to a liner brush to stoke in the buds at the end of the twigs with Burnt Sienna mixed with Cadmium red. Also, with the liner brush, stroke in the needles from the branches which hang down into the dark background area with titanium white. This will give you a place to paint your green needles. It would be of no use to just stroke them in greens because the colour would be drowned out by the dark background.Many colours are transparent or semi-transparent so the surface has to be prepared to accept another colour, otherwise it will have no impact.

Use three shades of green (Sap Green, Hooker’s Green and Chrome Oxide Green) and a liner brush to put in the needles of the branches. For the darkest green, mix Hooker’s Green with Cadmium Red in small amounts. This will make a much darker green. Stroke the needles in different colors. Keeping them the one colour would be boring, also sometimes vary the direction because Nature does not always make them go in the same direction. Don’t forget to stroke over most but not all of the white needles hanging off the twigs into the dark background. There will be white highlight in some of the needles because that is where the sun will be hitting and reflecting. Stroke in the needles which are on the areas of white snow. You have already prepared for these because the background of white will readily accept the green colours and show very well..

With a small round brush, very lightly place a small amount of Cadmium yellow mixed with Titanium White in places on the snow to give a sparkle to the snow as if the sun is bouncing off the surface. In the areas close to the needles, add a small amount of Chrome Oxide Green mixed with white. The green simulates the green from the twigs under the snow as showing through. Although the snow is newly fallen, the hot sun is melting it and turning it to icy pellets in areas close to the twigs. This ice will reflect what is underneath it, namely the green of the twigs.

Ensure that your icicles are pure white before you start to colour them in. Then with a small round brush, brush Payne’s Grey in areas down the length of the icicle. Do the same thing again with a mixture of Payne’s Grey mixed with Titanium White. And repeat it in small spots with Windsor Blue with Titanium White. The outside edges down the length should be bright white. Next, very sparingly, spot Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red and Diazinon Purple. These colours will give the same idea as when a light hits a piece of glass or crystal; the light splits into differing colours. A very little bit of paint will convey the idea.

The sparkles are created in two stages. The first is with a wash of Titanium White. The washes should be with very little colour and a number 4 round brush. A number of washes is much better than one solid. Start in the center of the sparkle and pull the brush out to a point. Next, use Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow and Diazinon Purple in the same way, although sparingly. After the washes, hit very lightly with a hint of pure colour.The small red buds which are hanging at the end of the twigs now get a bit of water hanging from them. Use a liner brush with a little Titanium white to outline the drop. Then fill it in with Payne’s Grey and just touch them with a colour in the background which is around them. Water reflects its surroundings.With a liner brush dot the snow in lines where the needles will be peeking out of the snow. In real life, as the snow melts, more will be visible.

Nature’s Decorations 16×20 Acrylic on CanvasBy Lorraine Vatcher

This tutorial is copyright Lorraine Vatcher.

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Acrylic Painting Techniques

The acrylic painting medium is a fairly new addition to the various painting mediums available to todays artists. It has been around since the 1950’s and has been continually under development and refinement ever since.

Acrylic paint is highly favored amongst artists because of its wonderful versatility. It can be applied thickly as an impasto having rich texture or in washes mimicking the characteristics of watercolor.

Another likable characteristic of acrylic paint is its permanence. Acrylic paint is not susceptible to yellowing or hardening with age. With acrylic paint, the artist does not need to be concerned with the order the paint is applied or other special techniques that ensure the paint film remains free from cracking. So it can be said that acrylic paint is much easier to use than oil paint.

Yet another characteristic that invites new artists to this medium is its fast drying time. Since acrylic paint dries so quickly, colors can be applied and overlaid quicker than with oil painting.

There are however a few downsides to the quick drying time of acrylic paints:

1) The paint will not remain workable for very long, so you have to work quickly.
2) The fast drying time of acrylics can also ruin brushes if the brushes are not cleaned immediately.
3) Acrylic paint is not the best medium for direct painting outdoors, especially on a bright sunny day. Whatever paint you put out on your palette will begin to dry quickly and form a skin over the surface of the paint making it very difficult to work with.

ACRYLIC PAINTING TECHNIQUES

Watercolor Effects

Acrylic paint works wonderfully as a transparent medium, similar to watercolor. Acrylics do have an advantage over watercolors. You can lay out a number of thin washes over one another without fear of disturbing the colors underneath. You must wait for one layer to dry completely before applying another of course. Once each layer dries it becomes insoluble in water. The only disadvantage to using acrylics as a watercolor medium is the difficulty in modifying the color. Once acrylic paint begins to dry it becomes rather difficult to work with. One of the biggest problems is the tendency for washes to dry with unwanted hard edges. You can avoid this problem in one of two ways. You can either dampen the paper before the paint is applied or you can use an additional brush dampened with water. Use one brush to apply the paint and immediately soften the edge with the other brush that has been dampened with the water.

Blending Opaque Colors

With watercolor effects, the acrylic paint is applied in transparent washes. With the opaque technique the paint layers are non-transparent. Blending opaque acrylic colors can be a bit tricky as you are kind of pressed for time. It is important therefore to only work on areas that you know you will have enough time to blend. To blend two colors, first paint a block of each color side by side on your support. Where the two colors join paint down that line with a clean damp brush to soften the edges. To blend the colors even further, move the blending brush from side to side or up and down, until the desired blending is achieved.

Sgraffito Technique

Sgraffito is a scratching technique. It got its name from the Italian word “graffiare” which literally means “to scratch”. Just as the name implies it involves scratching into the surface of the wet paint which reveals either the ground or layer of dry color underneath. There are a number of different tools that can be used for this technique. Tools like screwdrivers or the sharpened end of an old paintbrush handle should suffice. It really depends on the support you are using. For instance, a screwdriver may not be the best tool if you are using a panel as a support. The hard metal may damage the panel, so you would need to use a softer tool.

Using a Squeegee

A regular squeegee that you can purchase at any hardware or auto store can create some interesting effects when used with acrylic paint. First you would squeeze out some paint blobs directly along one edge of your support. You can layout whatever colors you wish. Then with one fluid motion you would drag the paint across the support with your squeegee, which will smear and mix the paint and create some very unique and interesting designs. You may need to alter your squeegee a bit as the rubber blade that comes with most squeegees may not be rigid enough to drag the paint. You can remove the rubber blade and in its place glue in a regular wooden ruler. This will give you a flat sturdy edge to manipulate the paint.

I hope you have enjoyed this article on acrylic painting techniques. Take some time today to experiment with these techniques and have fun. Happy Painting!

Ralph Serpe is webmaster and founder of Creative Spotlite, a free arts and crafts community. For more free art lessons like this, visit: http://www.creativespotlite.com today.

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