Small Works

(Acrylic University) Primary Palette 101: Exercise

| cathmary1030

These paintings are from Part 1 of an color-study exercise I’m doing on the Acrylic University site. The class is taught by Jed Dorsey; it is his reference photo and his follow-along painting vids I am using for my own studies below.

Part 1 focuses on a warm yellow (I used Liquitex Cad-Free Yellow Medium), a cool blue (Phthalo) and a warm red (I used Pyrrole Red). 

Part 2 will feature different versions of the primary hues; I’ll be using Liquitex Cad-Free Yellow Light (cool), Ultramarine Blue (warm), and Anthraquinone Red (cool).

Cottonwood Tree

| cathmary1030

For this I used my own photo of the neighbor’s cottonwood tree as I view it from my backyard. I was struck by how white the tips of the branches were in the early morning sun.

At first I used Liquitex Light Blue Permanent (which is a 3-pigment mix, including Phthalo Green). At first it seemed a decent match for the sky — the lower half of the panel includes more Titanium White – but once dry it seemed too green. 

I drew out the tree using willow charcoal, and then painted it using Raw Umber (Golden Acrylics) with some Matte Medium to keep it flowing, and then mixed with that color with white for the sunlit parts. The immediate painting looked awful — the greenish sky made the tree colors look wrong to me — but now that it’s dry it doesn’t look so bad.

In any case, that’s what prompted my second effort (on Soho canvas paper) in which I used cerulean blue (Utrecht Fluid) mixed with white, and painted the sky after painting the tree. The tree was done using the same paints as above.

Exercise: Colors as Values

| cathmary1030

This is an exercise from one of the foundational courses (Acrylics 101) at Acrylic University wherein you do a value map of your painting using black, white and gray, and then applying color on top of the different value areas, using care to make sure your values — post-color — remain. It’s a more detailed version of the quickie free course I mentioned here.

Here’s my original painting done in grayscale, done as part of the Acrylics 101 online class, using their reference photo.

I did a value check on my primary colors and mixed secondaries.

The next task was to choose colors that aligned to the value map/painting I already did. This was my first effort. The abstract trees were a bit too dark, compared to my original (above), pretty much the same as the (abstract) forest.

This was my next attempt, which I think is better. Also I turned on the grid function on my Pixel camera; it makes a real difference!

Acrylic University – Freebie class & Small Paintings

| cathmary1030

I mentioned the other day that I signed up for a Clouds Challenge on Acrylic University. I have since signed up for Jed Dorsey’s mini painting challenge which starts in January 2024. There’s also a freebie class: “Acrylic Painting for Total Beginners – Everything You Need to Know in Less Than 2 Hours” which I’m also doing. These days I’m not a total beginner, but a free class lets me check out the instructor, Jed Dorsey.

The class covers basic suggested supplies, brushstrokes, values, the grayscale, color mixing, and 3 small paintings.

The first two paintings from the class are below. You paint the moon scene in grayscale first, and then paint color over it, keeping with the value map. The last photo is of the color painting, but in black & white to validate the value map.

The second set of paintings is a sunset, and the last one (not yet completed) will be roses.