Big responsiblity! crap

[JATISME]

My stepsister is about to publish a book and she wants me to do the cover art and no one else. Although I can draw... I'm not much of a painter. I have acrylic paints and brushes because I was going to start painting but now I need a crash course. Anyone have any tips or know of any sites that can help. The painting has a barn and a house and trees and a garden. please give me any tips you can think of! lol You paint from the background to the foreground right? Do I need more acrylics? I just have basic colors. I'm freaking out because I've never been very confident but I like drawing. Thanx for any help again

[Serpian]

Make sure you have a good drawing of the scene before you start painting. If you just start smearing paint over a square that's supposed to be a house, you'll end up with a smeary square of paint. If everything is right in the drawing, the painting will be a lot easier. I don't know how to use acrylics myself, so I can't give you any specific tips about that, but maybe you can find some info in this thread. (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=101119)

[MyOrangeHat]

If you're that much more comfortable with drawing than painting is there any way you could do something like a charcoal drawing for the cover. I've seen very nicely done black and white covers before. Just a though.

Acrylics aren't too hard to learn though. They're pretty easy to handle. Perhaps transfer your drawing onto finished paper and then paint the transfer so you've still got the original in case your first attempt with the paint goes badly. Then you can transfer and try as many times as you need to get it right.

[JATISME]

Thats a good idea. I'll do a charcoal and transfer it and try a painting. I had a teacher once that had us put a clear coat over the charcoal and then paint over it. It gave it a really cool effect. I'll try to post the different stages for some criticism. maybe this is the push I need to explore my full potential. (I have a lack of motivation, a blank page is intimidating)

[meddling kid]

just remember that acrylic dries really quickly, and when it does, won't revert back to liquid. Use a retarder or multiple glazes if you want fades and smooth transitions, or get good at painting really fast!

Hope it works out for ya

[ijacobs9]

Disclamer: I am in NO way a professional or even remotely talented, nor do I call myself a master of painting. So whatever you read in this post is solely my oppinion of a couple years of experience in art, and if someone notices I am wrong please correct me so that I do not infect another mind with my evil ways.

Acrylics isnt that hard and if you got the basics down you should be OK, just remember that oils and acrylics are similar but, like meddling kid said, it dries quickly, but good news is you can pretty much always just paint over it.

Start with a wash of yellow or any neutral color over the canvas (if you are going to use one) ,the wash is just because you cannot go lighter from white, then make a basic outline sketch (from your already practiced and finished sketch you did earlier) with charcoal on the canvas, then start painting (I always do from dark to lighter until I get to the lightest, then start all over again, and again, and again, until I get where I want to be).
As colors go, I usually just use basic colors like red, yellow, blue, white, burnt umber ect. if I'm looking for a spesific color I'll just mix it with what I have (sometimes takes me hours :D).

Lastly, just believe in yourself! We all know how daunting a big project can be but just think where the art world would be if Da Vinci or Picaso were too scared.

Hope this was of some help.
Good Luck :yayca:

[JATISME]

Thank you. That's some much needed info there. I'm going to tackle this one way or another. ^^ I'll post the results...