New to acrylics

[Erik]

Hey people,

I've recently started to paint on real media, using acrylics. I have real-media experience only with colour pencils and pen/ink stuff, and some pastels. I have done a lot in painter the last months learning about color and such.

I'm now working with acrylics on both paper and MDF, but i SUCK! So i need to practice and get better. However it's discouraging and i'm temped to get back in my computer ;-)

What i would like to know is, how to translate skills from painter into the real world. I mean, which techniques can be translated and which cannot?

In painter i like to
- mix on the work (i.e. colorpick)
- use very low opacity brushes to work over the picture
- work from dark to light (which is not very traditional i think)
- work from back to foreground
- work with basic large shapes first then more details later

As i have found that mixing colors on a palette is difficult i now plan to use monochromes first. (B&W and other color ranges)

I'm not sure about the other 'techniques' -- i have a tendency to use very opaque paint in real media which i don't want. But that conflicts with dark-to-light.

Please help me out here!

Thnx,
E.

[Rohan]

I have used acrylics on and off for quite a few years . I find they are good for doing quick sketches and fast drying block ins to be overlayed with oils or pastel for further sculpting forms and detail. you prob want to get some medium like retarder (if u havent already), which will delay drying and allow you to rework and mix the paint for much longer, and flow control which thins the paint so it flows more smoothly across your canvas/board. make sure u have a well primed grounds too.

[Danilo]

Hres mine thots about this:

1- I dont know how to colour pick from work
2- You need acrylic meidum, and water to make colour transparent. That is how you will imitate opacity.
3- Leonardo have that metod, And lot of classic painters have, but try to start from light blue or from brown. I noticed that back fill colour is always dominant.
4- You can make layers with some transparent plastic, and acryl is good to paint on plastic, but its bad to washing out, but you also can cut with paper knife...
5- i think old greeks are painting this way. Onley that is better with some longer dryer medium, or you can use more opacity colour.

Maybe it is hard at beggining, but you will see good sides of classics, like extra large paintings, cool day light relax you, You dont have to zoom in or out, brush moves, witch cannot been imitated with best wacom table.

Dont use yust acrylic, use tempera, watercolours, ink...

[Erik]

Hey thanx!

[Johannes]

Hi Erik
I just wqanted to add:

1 - Maybe take a piece of cardboard and cut a hole in it, place it over the area U want to "colorpick" and mix beside the hole on the cardboard until the new mix and the color seen through the hole is looking right.
But in real life I think U eventually learn hoiw to mix.
I would recommend that U maybe for example take a look in the Book Färg (color?) by sisefsky for learning a bit about mixing.
Real life and computorcolors ara made up by two totally different processes - additive and subtractive (I never can seem to remeber which is which thoug...). I dunno maybe painter imitates real life way of blending colors.
Im a lazy sod - I mix my favourites in cans...

2 - nuff said

3 - yeah, "smudge" painting with layers and highlights - U could start from green, red, blue or brownish
However, as I remember this is mostly done with temperapainting. Im not entirely sue that acrylics is suitable for this.
And in real life theres always trouble getting the lighter paint to cover the darker ones.

4 - probably a good idea but even better is maybe to work on everything all the time to get a whole of the thing

5 - nuff

6 - color is hard - but U could always sketch the thing in small thumbnail colorskteches first - -that helps.

Keep it up! :D