Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Tools & Materials
Let's begin by talking about what you'll need to complete the projects in this book — starting with, of course, paint!
ACRYLIC PAINT
Acrylic paint can range from inexpensive to break-the-bank pricey. Student-grade acrylics are more affordable, but they provide less coverage than professional-grade paints. I have found, unfortunately, that the more expensive a paint is, the better it performs. However, I always recommend starting with cheaper student-grade paints and working your way up to costlier professional-grade ones as your skills improve.
Acrylic paint also varies according to viscosity, or consistency. For instance, heavy-bodied paint is thicker and great for adding texture, while high-flow paint works well for details and line work.
BRUSHES
For brushes, I recommend keeping it simple and selecting a few sizes of round brushes and a few sizes of flat brushes. I prefer synthetic bristles over natural ones, but I recommend trying both to see what you like best!
PAINT COLORS
There are so many colors of acrylic paint to choose from! To simplify your shopping process, I've narrowed down your list to just 9 tubes of paint. With these 9 tubes, you can paint your way through the rainbow. Yes, you really can mix almost every color there is with these 9 tubes!
9 Essential Colors
Titanium white Black Ultramarine blue Phthalocyanine blue Cadmium red Quinacridone magenta Cadmium yellow Hansa yellow Burnt umber
PALETTE
A palette can be just about anything you have that's flat. If you choose to buy a palette, it can be made from plastic or porcelain. I tend to use a paper plate or some wax paper!
PAINTING SURFACES
When working with acrylic, you can paint on just about any surface! To create the projects in this book, I worked on three different surfaces.
CANVAS: This is considered the standard painting surface. You can buy pre-stretched canvases at any art-supply store.
BRISTOL BOARD: This is unfinished paper board, and it's great for many kinds of supplies. I often work on Bristol board when I'm painting smaller pieces, as it's easy to store and scan into the computer for reproduction, and it's versatile. It's also easier to frame than a stretched canvas. Unlike canvas, however, Bristol board will bow if saturated with too much water.
WATERCOLOR PAPER: Just because it's called "watercolor" doesn't mean it can only be used for watercolor paints! This type of paper comes either cold-pressed (textured) or hot-pressed (smooth). It's your preference! Try them both and see which you prefer.
PENCILS
You'll need a good-quality pencil for sketching. Drawing pencils range from very hard lead (labeled 9H) to very soft lead (9B). The harder the lead, the lighter your pencil will draw. When sketching your subject matter before painting, it's best to draw lightly, so use harder lead.
MATTE GEL MEDIUM
Gel medium is very adhesive and makes a wonderful tool for collaging. It's also easy to work with and dries clear, so you can mix it with your acrylic paint to create transparent colors and even out texture.
MODELLING PASTE
An acrylic medium that's filled with a solid material, modeling paste dries opaque white and can be used to add texture to artwork. Spread it on your canvas and paint over it once dry, or mix it with your paint and then apply to the surface. Because it is white, it will lighten the paint color.
PALETTE KNIFE
A palette knife is used for mixing colors. I usually mix colors with a brush, but for creating a large amount of color, a palette knife is a great tool to have on hand. It can also be used to apply paint to your surface, making it a wonderful tool for creating dimensional, textured pieces.
CHAPTER 2
Acrylic Painting Techniques
Painting techniques can be used to create different textures and effects in art. Here are some of my personal favorites.
WASH
Before slapping on thick layers of paint, I like to wash in color over my entire surface. This provides a first layer of paint and helps eliminate any fear of the white paper.
A wash is simply watered-down acrylic paint. To create a wash, mix a tiny bit of paint with a lot of water.
UNDERPAINTING
A wash can serve as an underpainting; however, a traditional underpainting is usually monochromatic (one color with many values) and applied thicker than a wash. The underpainting is the base layer of paint upon which subsequent layers build.
BLOCKING IN COLOR
This simply means painting in large areas of color. When building up a painting, it's best to work from less detailed to more so. Blocked-in color comes after a wash or an underpainting.
DRYBRUSHING
Add acrylic paint to a surface without first dipping the brush in water. Drybrushed strokes remain visible and have an almost scratchy appearance.
STIPPLING
Small dots or specks of color are layered upon one another.
Georges Seurat (1859-1891), the French post-impressionist painter known for A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, made this technique famous.
We will use it to paint "Pointillistic Panda," starting on page 104.
IMPASTO
Paint is applied thickly, resulting in a textured surface.
COLLAGING
Various materials, such as fabric and paper, are pasted onto a piece of art, creating an interesting, layered effect.
CHAPTER 3
Color Theory Basics
If you wish to express yourself with color in wild, spontaneous ways, there are a few basic principles about color that you should understand.
THE COLOR WHEEL
The color wheel is a tool for organizing colors. It consists of three primary colors (red, blue, and yellow); three secondary colors (orange, green, and violet), which are created by mixing the primaries together; and six tertiary colors (red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, and red-violet) that occur from a mixture of a primary and a secondary color.
COLOR CUES
In art, the word "value" refers to how light or dark a color is. To darken the value of a color, you add black to create a shade. To lighten a color, add white to create a tint.
Colors also vary according to intensity, which refers to how dull or bright a color is. To dull a color, add its opposite, also called its "complement." For instance, the opposite of red is green. To dull a shade of red, mix in a bit of green.
The color wheel is also organized by temperature.
Green, blue, and violet are considered cool colors.
Consider water, the icy blue reflection of snow, a dreamy rainforest — these colors tend to have a calming, peaceful effect. Yellow, orange, and red are warm colors. Think of fire and the sun. These colors give off warmth and energy.
Mix It Up
The color wheel is just a helpful diagram, not a comprehensive guide for mixing colors.
In theory, red plus blue will equal a perfect violet. As you'll find when working with acrylics, however, there are many blues and reds. And they have names like phthalo blue and alizarin crimson. That can get confusing and overwhelming if you've never shopped for acrylics before.
On page 7, I've listed nine foundational colors that you may want to start with. You can accomplish everything in this book with just the nine colors I've listed, but of course, feel free to add as many paints to your palette as you'd like. The more, the merrier!
Once you have your paints, I recommend trying as many combinations of colors as possible. Make a value scale for each color.
You'll find that phthalo blue and ultramarine blue look very different. You'll stumble upon discoveries, like that cadmium red is warmer than alizarin crimson. And, depending on which red or blue you choose, you'll create a different violet with each combination.
You can study color theory as much as you want, but the best way to learn is to get your paints out and experiment!
CHAPTER 4
GETTING STARTED
JUST PLAY!
One of the most important lessons I hope to teach you in this book is not how to paint a perfect animal or become an expert on color theory. Instead, I want you to learn to let loose! Let go of working stiffly and don't be afraid to make mistakes.
Loosen up and play!
Both color and animals can be playful elements in art: animals in their own cute and furry ways, and color in surprising manners. As we combine these two topics, I hope that your own artistic playfulness will expand as you learn to paint and use color in exciting, unexpected ways.
I spent six years teaching high-school art classes, and I became famous for saying, "All right, let's play!" when my students began working.
The idea of approaching my work in a playful way has been with me for some time — probably as long as I've been making art.
But I also believe in establishing artistic boundaries that will push and challenge you. For that reason, we'll work through some color theory basics as we go from project to project, essentially getting more and more playful as the book proceeds. Try to work within the boundaries for each project, and let it inspire you to try color combinations and techniques you may not have thought to use before.
WORKING WITH REFERENCE PHOTOS
I encourage you to source your own images to work from as opposed to trying to emulate my art exactly. My approach to instructing is to instill as much creativity in you as I can. Let my examples inspire you, and avoid the temptation to copy exactly what I've done. For this reason, I've included only basic sketches of each animal with the step-by-step projects. I encourage you to research and discover what inspires you.
Of course, unless you spend lots of time at the zoo, you might not have that many animal images to work from. Now and then I'll take a photo of an animal that I want to paint, but usually that's not the case. Instead, I rely on the internet. My favorite sources for animal photos are royalty-free websites, which provide images that anyone can download and use for free.
SKETCHING
If you are comfortable with your drawing skills, I encourage you to sketch each animal freehand. Some animals are easier to draw than others. We aren't striving for "perfect" in this book; we want colorful, expressive animals. If your sketch isn't an exact replica of your image, that's OK! Instead, try to capture the essence of the animal in the image you are using.
If you need a little help with your drawing, use transfer paper or a light box to trace your image onto your painting surface. Keep in mind that these tools only work if your painting and your reference photo are the same size.
If you aren't confident with sketching freehand and would like to enlarge the image you're working from, you can try the grid method. This is a technology-free, inexpensive way to reproduce and enlarge an image. It involves drawing a grid over a reference photo, and then drawing a grid of the same ratio onto the painting surface. For instance, if your reference image is 4" x 5", draw a grid on top of it that consists of one-inch squares: four across and five down.
If your painting surface is larger, increase the size of your grid while maintaining a 1:1 ratio. For instance, to double the size of your image (8" x 10"), draw a grid made up of two-inch squares — again, four across and five down. To quadruple the size (16" x 20"), draw four-inch squares, and so on.
ORDER OF OPERATIONS
When painting in acrylic, it's best to work from general to specific. Think of painting as building a house.
First, lay the foundation (the wash or underpainting). Next, build the frame of the house (blocking in broad areas of color). Finally, add the drywall, crown molding, and hardwood floors (the details).
You wouldn't build a house by constructing one wall at a time, from start to finish. In the same way, avoid painting tiny sections of details in your piece before building up each layer together.
CHAPTER 5
STEP-BY-STEP PAINTING PROJECTS
(Cool) Analogous Dolphin
An analogous color scheme is a great place to start if you're just learning to paint and explore color. It features colors that sit near each other on the color wheel, such as red, orange, and yellow, or blue, violet, and green.
In this project, I've chosen to use cool analogous colors: green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, and violet. Let's focus on pushing the values of those colors. This means featuring a full range of values, from very light (white or almost white) to dark.
Here you can see my color palette. I've included not only the main hues, but also the full range of values for each. This gives me a clear sense of the colors I can choose from as I work.
1
Sketch the dolphin freehand, or use the grid method (see page 23) to transfer the animal's main shapes onto your paper. Your sketch doesn't need to be perfect; simply try to capture the dolphin's main features.
2
Wash in the broad areas of color using a large round or flat brush (whichever you prefer!). Look for the main shapes in your composition, and block in washes of color on the dolphin and in the background.
3
Block in broad areas of color over the wash.
I recommend starting with the darkest values and working your way from dark to medium to light.
4
Begin building up detail. As mentioned on page 24, it's best to work from general to detailed when painting, as opposed to diving right into the finer details.
I add another layer of paint and then incorporate more colors and values into the piece. I also blend the colors on the dolphin's body.
5
Paint the background details. You can be as creative as you want with the background. Paint expressively, or try an ombré effect, smoothly transitioning from dark to light.
I leave the horizon line in my piece to add realism and paint the water with horizontal brushstrokes.
6
Now, build up details. This is when you will make your animal stand out, so add as much detail as you want. Look for the little things: the shine on the dolphin's wet skin, the glimmer in its eye, and the slight curve of its mouth.
7
Fine-tune your piece. Step back and critique yourself. Do you have a full range of values?
Does the dolphin stand out against the background? Is the artwork visually interesting?
(Warm) Analogous Chicken
This project uses an analogous color scheme as well, but instead of cool colors, let's switch to warm. I chose to work with red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, and yellow. And don't forget all the values of those hues!
1 The process for this piece is similar to the other projects used in this book. However, for this piece, I work on an 11" x 14" stretched canvas.
First, sketch the rooster. I use the grid method (see page 23) to make an accurate rendering.
2 Next, wash in the broad areas of color. A wash gives you a good sense of where to place each color, but don't fret over color placement. One of acrylic paint's best qualities is that you can paint over it. Go with your gut (you are going to hear me say that a lot!), and rest assured that you can always change what you don't like.
3 Block in areas of color, working from dark to medium to light.
Remember to look for broad shapes as opposed to delicate details.
4 Move to the background. I paint the background yellow, with white and light yellow highlighting the darker chicken. Yellow is a more transparent color, so it takes a few coats to cover the pencil marks.
5 I approach the chicken much differently than the dolphin. A chicken features so many fun textures to play with: feathers that go in different directions, various shapes, and so on. Instead of blending colors seamlessly and keeping the painting nice and neat, as I did with the dolphin, I paint the rooster more expressively as I build up the details.
6 Layer small brushstrokes of color, moving your brush in free and even messy ways.
7 Add the fine details. Decide how detailed you want to get!
8 I am very specific with the chicken's eye and head, but otherwise I add details by layering more and more expressive strokes of paint.
COMPLEMENTARY COW
A complementary color scheme is one of my favorite ways to make a bold statement.
Remember: Complements are colors that sit opposite from each other on the color wheel — for example, red and green, orange and blue, and violet and yellow.
Extremely high in contrast, the complementary color scheme grabs the eye and makes an impact.
This time, let's look at the intensity of the colors in addition to their values. If you recall, intensity refers to how bright or dull a color is. To change the intensity of a color, add its opposite. You can also change the value of the intensities. Every color you mix features a full range of values, so even though your palette is limited to two colors from the color wheel, the possibilities are still endless!
In this piece, I'd like you to try being even more expressive. Think in terms of broad brushstrokes and expressive mark-making. Don't worry about creating a realistic-looking cow; instead, try to capture the essence of the cow in a colorful, funky way.
Here's the color palette that I worked with:
1 This portrait focuses mainly on the cow's head and shoulders. Begin with a simple sketch.
2 Wash in your colors like you did in the previous projects. This time, however, try washing in the opposite color of what you think the final piece will look like. For instance, if you imagine a bright red background, wash in a dull green instead. You can always change your mind later!
3 Block in the dark values first, followed by the medium ones, and then the light. Be sure to block in the opposite color of your wash (unless you've chosen to do something different, in which case, go for it!).
4 I decide to get even funkier with this piece and use a flat brush to apply different hues of dull green, purposefully leaving small bits of the red wash showing through. The drybrush technique (see page 12) is wonderful for capturing expressive brushstrokes and gives a scratchy look to the paint.
5 To make the cow's face pop forward, use duller hues for the body and brighter hues for the face. Work with a fast and free painting style.
As you paint, keep your movements loose and expressive.
I use linear strokes to give the piece an edgier, more impressionistic feel, instead of trying to capture a realistic cow.
6 Add more details! Remember: Acrylic painting is about layering and building from the ground up.
I use a smaller brush to add detail to the cow's eyes, ears, and nose.
However, to keep the expressive feel, I continue to work with linear brushstrokes.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Acrylic Animals"
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