The Iris: Part 2 - introducing acrylics to our flower

If this is your first time at Paint with Me,

"Welcome!"

 Please feel free to join in!

The previous sessions for this subject are found

here

I promise you will not be left behind!

I am right here ready to help and answer any questions! 

  

Hello again my lovelies and greetings to all my new followers; I am thrilled you have chosen to stay.

So far the progress made has been super! I am really excited and impressed with what I have seen: and yes, that includes the before photos :-)

First things first: HUGE apologies for taking too long with this second session.  No excuses other than there are no more hours in the day.  I may look at breaking the sessions into smaller chunks so that; a) you don't have so much thrown at you at one time and b) we can paint more often together. 

Let me know what you think of this idea!

Right!  Everyone ready!!

Overview

Introducing Acrylics:

This week we are going to use a very similar approach as last week, only we are going to introduce white acrylic.

Both watercolour and acrylics are water based paint, so using the different techniques that we tried last week (here), we can introduce our acrylics in a similar way.

There are a few items to note when introducing acrylics with watercolour:

• once dry, watercolour can be re-wet for continued wet-on-wet applications or blending;
• once dry, acrylics can not be "reactivated" again.  Once dry, they're dry.
• you can not paint watercolours over acrylics. Some brands of acrylics have quite a high gloss finish  and others a matte: watercolour just doesn't seem to dry and set on either.  At best they may stain.  You may like this - so give it a try to satisfy your own curiosity.

What this simply means is:

The only way to correct any mistakes with dried acrylic is to paint over the top in more acrylic. Now this is fine, but is often the one thing that leads to over painting and frustration. If this happens, take a breather for a little while or even overnight and come back with fresh eyes

In addition to the watercolours you chose to start last week, we are only going to use white acrylic. One; it will work in beautifully with your watercolours to soften and assist in beautiful shading, but two; it saves you from potentially spending a wee fortune in buying up acrylics.

Just white!! Nice and neat

Practice first!

1. Okay, starting off with your dry paper method, use your white acrylic paint, though do damp it down with water (just a little).

• Paint your white into the “white” areas of your flower that you may have accidentally painted in.
• Take the paint up to the edges of your watercolour
• Reactivate your watercolour edges and blend with your white acrylic to create soft edges.

Do you like this, or did you prefer the harder edge of watercolour?

2. Use the acrylic again on its own then add watercolour on a separate brush, or using your crayon/pencil dipped in water.

• Consider the movement of the petal you are working on and create patterns with the mix.
• Add a little more water colour and water to the wet acrylic.

Do you prefer a little more control over your paint?

What if you try all this on a wet paper base?

…trust me, you have to play to know what you like, or don’t like because this is your painting!

3. Damp your paper first, and give a moment for the water to soak a little.
4. Try the different variations again;

Remember to consider your actual flower petal and the movement of each one – are you painting to support the unique direction and patterns within each petal?



I love blending, but when it comes to interesting textures, I loved creating the pattern of the flower petal edges:

Here’s what I did:

1. Add watered down white acrylic to the same area, so that it almost forms a bubble of water on that area of paper;
- if you are using a brush, load it up with colour - if you are using a pencil/crayon, dip it in water
2. put the very tip of your colour into the watery white on your paper, watch it bleed into the white…

Did you like it?

I used the crayons, both in "crayon-like" application and by washing with a brush.

• Can you see where I have left only watercolour?
• Can you see the acrylic white highlights? 
•  Do you see where I have included some pink and orange with the white, blended softly with my blue and purple? 

Now the other things I want you to consider during this process is your background and foreground. I will go into this in more detail next session, as I think you have a lot to take in.

However, consider this:

• where each unique shape and colour meets, is it brighter or darker?
• Is it dull?
• Is it blurry?
• Is it sharp and crisp?

 All of these things need to be considered to “manipulate” our painting to create interest through light and depth.

So please practice these two mediums together and I will be back with some more tips very soon. I promise.

And remember, I am but an email away if you need any help.

Big hugs

Cath

PS - please let me know if anything appears to be missing from this post: I have had a real battle with blogger the past couple of hours where I lost paragraphs when previewing. Very frustrating!