Friday, May 6, 2011

A Painting A Day: Working the Land

I felt adventurous.
I decided to use my acrylic paints on my old watercolor paper that is defective.


Some people probably would think I am silly to think that is adventurous but I have never used acrylic to complete a serious painting myself.

Although I teach the techniques of acrylic painting to my students daily I have never been a good advocate for the medium.  I prefer watercolor or oil.  Watercolor is difficult for beginners and oil is not a logical choice for high school considering all the properties of the medium which makes acrylic a logical solution.  

Acrylics are inexpensive, dry quickly and can easily be painted over in a matter of minutes if you change your mind. 
On the other hand they dry darker than when wet making corrections extremely difficult once the color has dried, they dry too quickly for ease of blending in large areas  and they are hard on paint brushes.

So here it is... my first serious acrylic painting on watercolor paper.  
Working the Land is 9" x11".
I worked from a photo of one of my grandchildren when he was just a baby.  
Hum-m!  
Another leftie in the family.

3 comments:

  1. Nice! Aren't you glad you tried the acrylics?In college, acrylics were all they let us use. I missed out on learning watercolor and oil. :o(
    Times have changed, though, and I'll bet now they introduce all mediums.

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  2. It is possible that it depended on where you attended, also. Of course, it was years later when I got my degree after marrying and kids but I had all mediums,; oil, watercolor, charcoal, photography, printmaking and no telling what else. Of course that was my major so I took more hours in art than you got but painting classes were generally oil. But drawing classes varied the media more. Of course, I really learned outside of college and the continued practice now keeps me learning more now.

    I think I learned most by teaching it myself. Then it was daily practice and having to find solutions to the students' problems so I got a lot of practice. Some years more than others.

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  3. I found the same problem with acrylics. They dry way to fast and the true colors don't show until it is dry. I like oils but they dry too slow but are much easier to blend and shade. I prefer using a combination of watercolor and tempra paints then apply a good fixer when the painting is complete. If the backing is hard I will only use oils or enamels. Ain't it fun?

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