Recently I decided to trial a new Artists' Acrylic manufactured by Winsor & Newton."IMPRESSION SUNRISE" is the result of my 1st dabble with these new paints.
Hailed to be the most scientifically advanced acrylic colour available offering a revolutionary and unique advancement in acrylic paint manufacture.
Features include:
Virtually No Colour Shift from Wet to Dry
New Transparent Binder for Exceptional Colour Brilliance
Unparalleled percentage of Single Pigment Colours
Outstanding Richness, Intensity & Depth of Colour
Well I can honestly say it is a pleasure to paint with. Lately I have favoured working with oils and pastels for the main reason that I have been doing work which required a lot of blending. These new acrylics have an extended open time and a lovely smooth texture making them ideal for blending.
If your would like an acrylic that feels more like an oil I would recommend you give them a try.
(By the way, I am not being paid to say all this) ....but hey.... if anyone from Winsor & Newton happens to read this blog post ... let it be known ... I am available for promotions... ;o)
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Recently I decided to trial a new Artists' Acrylic manufactured by Winsor & Newton.
This beautiful exotic flower is in a part of my garden where it is rarely seen. I just couldn't bring myself to pick it so on the weekend I took my easel down to the garden....
The cow and arms are blocked in and then finger blended into the paper, paying attention to the direction of hair growth. At this point I became unhappy with the progress of the portraits likeness. I knew the features were located accurately as they had been measured with the grid but I was not happy with the light and shading contours. These details are equally important to the location of yes, nose and mouth if a true likeness is to be achieved.
Rather than trying to continue to build up layers of pastel, I chose to remove most of the top layers on the face with a dry paintbrush. This left me with an underlying fleshtone on which I could start afresh. I decided to leave the face alone for a bit while I focus on adding in some of the other details of the picture.
Using a variety of flesh tones the lights and darks of the face are blocked in. The colours are then blended with fingers working around the contours and features. The eyes and mouth details are added and more flesh colours gradually built up. For the shadows and creases around the eyes, mouth, ears and jawline an eraser is used gently to reveal undertones of the paper. Next some dark and midtones are blocked in and blended for the hair.
This week we will look at painting a portrait story. The main focus will be on the face with just enough background detail to convey some personality and suggest a bit of a story. Step one is to choose, crop and assemble some reference photos. Milking time is always a bit of a community event at our place, with the foster calf waiting for her share of the milk and the free range chooks scouting about for dropped any grain. Even though I am working in a wide open space it can feel quite cramped when everyone wants to get in on the action.
