Acrylic University

52 Mini Paintings Challenge: Week #6

| cathmary1030

This is the week 6 painting for Jed Dorsey’s Mini Painting Challenge at Acrylic University. It’s based on a photo Dorsey took of a rocky beach at sunset. I used one of my last few 8×8 black canvases because Dorsey paints his version on a black background. (I think I’ve said this before, but I really struggle with a black background; it throws the colors/values off, and you need several coats of paint to hide the black say, against the sky).

I also struggle with beach rocks, and have a couple of PaintCoach Patreon lessons earmarked which focus on beach rocks that I need to do for more practice.

That said, this is my effort, and frankly, it looks quite abstract. Which is not necessarily terrible.

52 Mini Paintings Challenge: Week #5

| cathmary1030

Trying to catch up with the series of mini paintings… This is the week 5 painting for Jed Dorsey’s Mini Painting Challenge at Acrylic University. It’s based on a photo Dorsey took in a local state park in, I believe, Washington. Take that back, while the original photo reference was provided, the lesson was actually based on the painting (called “Dappled Light”) he did based on the reference photo. 

This was done on a 6×6 canvas panel, which was painted black. The only colors used were the 3 primaries.

(Acrylic University) Acrylics 101: Mini Practice Paintings #3

| cathmary1030

This was the third of the 3 mini practice paintings where we the students copy some of Jed’s paintings. In the next round, we copy bigger paintings which are more challenging. Then we move on to more detailed studies of subjects like color mixing, perspective, design/composition, etc. (All with practice paintings of course!)

I had bought some black 8×8 canvases during the holiday season so I used one of those rather than tone a white canvas with Mars Black. Same difference — I just don’t like the black canvas. It skews my sense of color. Ugh. I just want to paint all over it to cover it up!

(Acrylic University) Acrylics 101: Mini Practice Paintings #1

| cathmary1030

So I’m going through the Foundations classes in the library of Acrylic University — basically the reason I paid for a year’s subscription. In Acrylics 101 we cover the basic tools (brushes, easels, types of acrylic paint), the importance of thumbnail sketches, values, color (opaque vs. transparent, color mixing, etc.) and then finally we do some practice paintings. Three are minis (6×6) and three are larger sized (up to 16×20).

Jed Dorsey, our instructor, says that he has found that beginners do better — and gain confidence more quickly — when they attempt to copy a painting rather than work with a reference photo (or plein air) primarily, I assume, because the artistic decisions have already been made. He demos painting a copy of his own painting, explaining why he did what he did.

So, with that lead-in, here’s my painting of his painting. I used Diarylide Yellow as my toning color, and painted on 6×6 canvas paper using only a #8 flat brush.