Painting In Layers - VERY BASIC instruction

BlueJude asked for more information - so I am going to share.

First of all when you paint in layers use liquid acrylics (I use Golden brand because they are mostly transparent) The transparency of the paint is important to the depth both of color and perceived dimension. I also thin these with water and Acrylic Glazing Liquid.

Each layer must be allowed to dry before adding the next layer. Otherwise the colors will mix rather than glaze. With each new layer you can also add or remove texturing materials OR paint around shapes (as in the bottles)

With the bottles I draw them with chalk (which washes away easily) then paint negatively around them. ON the next layer I add more shapes and paint around the new AND the previous shapes.

Remember, let each layer dry completely before adding another paint layer. Otherwise you MAY get muddy colors.

Fun paintings - different but still in layers

On Wednesday night of last week, our instructor did a demo for the entire group. (all three classes) Before the demo, in our class, she said "Pay attention, this is one of your lessons for tomorrow."

WOW what a great lesson and lots of fun. So I painted two of them tonight. Okay, I had a start on them already-because you have to have a "backgound" to paint on. It is best if it is a visually textured piece. This one had me stymied - so I did bottles on it. I loved the results. What do you think of my bottles?

Painting in Layers

My week painting in the woods at the McDowell Watercolor workshops was wonderful. Marie Cummings, the instructor now lives in Treadwell, NY on the edge of the Catskill Mountains. In our class we learned to use liquid acrylic paints to paint in glazed layers to create paintings with depth and mystery. Since the class was "non-representational" the mystery is increased. Here is a picture of my first painting. If you click on the picture you will be taken to my Flickr site where you can see a larger version.

We also learned many other techniques and ideas in this class. Now I need a few weeks off work to put them all into practice.

Workshop Update

I am finished with the workshop and had a wonderful time. I am completely exhausted right now but I will be posting new works that I painted and sharing my experience with the workshop.

I even sold a painting to another student before I left the workshop. (I hope I took a photo of it to share with you.)

peace
Gene