Undercoat color as a tool of expression

I like to stablish a mid tone by means of an undercoat to avoid the glaring White of base canvas, So for this particular exersize I experimented with colored yessoed accordingly .--doing these with 3 base colors, instead just one, the importance is that the undercoat guides and inflects the final colors, is therefore the expresive element and should be selected carefully to match the overall intention of the painting .


                                  Ref PO626

Glazing in acrylic painting;
There´s no painting rule that say you must paint using glazes, but it´s something that shouldn´t  be rejected
A glaze is simply a thin, transparent layer or coat of paint , is simply building up color by applying transparent layers of coats ,.- each glaze modifies the color of what is already been painted over the canvas
Each glaze tints or modifies the color of the paint beneath, mixing optically and giving a rich color.- for the following excercise Ref PO623 I used tint over acrylic



                                       Ref PO623

 

Some tips for glazing

get to know your transparent colors

Be patient (each glaze needs to be totally dry before next)

Glazes work better in smooth surfaces

Use light ground to reflect ligth

Verify the glazing médium

Use a soft brush

Unify a painting with a final glaze

 

 

Integration toward a center of Interest;.-   Some times I like to try something different, with a history on it
the following painting has been trying to mimic nature evoking sound thru our own imagination
Here are some hints in how to organize a painting for additional impact;
- The greatest contrast of dark and ligth
- The most interesting light
- The largest or small shape
- The most or least defined área
- The greatest or least amount of detail
- The brightest or most intense color
- The direction of lines or shapes
- The use of human interest
- The roughest texture
to name a few of them, naturally there are many ways to créate a center of interest, but it is most often done thru carefull placement of the elements above indicated


     the music has been born free and its destiny has always been win freedom
                  The girl playing her violin  (oleo over canvas ref. PO621)

BLACK COLOR; comments

I´d rather the tonal contrast; making the darks lean, either toward cool or warm, which puts a lot more life into the work.
Alizarim crimson, quinacridone gold and french ultramarine, mixed in different proportions, produce either a warm, neutral or cool black
The black when feel transparent and appears to recede, it´s when I liked most
The addition of few spots of ultramarine or alizarin to a previous mix, even can make the difference.

--------------------
Watercolor with acrylic mixed excercise; ref.CO620
There are three fundamental values; dark middle and ligth, the highest values needs to be the paper, I start painting the darkest first to will give me the confidence to use stronger middle value colors, rather tan painting several tentative layers of pigments.
I was trying to integrate rather tan isolate so I kept the paint flowing
After watercolor addition, I emphasize with acrylic to give the stronger middle value I wanted, ----adding even white color to add some flowing texture

                                             Ref. CO620

Tackling texture;
 
Painting creatively, requires an open mind, development of keen observation, habits and the willingness to experiment, .---sometimes I like to experiment and I´m making several mistakes, I do not worry about because, always is part of the learning process, in the following excersice, I thougth I could do it better , nevertheless I had a good time, which is what it counts; 
 I started sculpting the dragon-fly aplying previous colored plaster into the outlined figure, then I complete the overall painting with an average color, following dark color to define, and highligting as required,
Like I said now I have some positive and negative lesson learnts from this painting, ---before I started I had already a sketch which I didn´t follow at all, because to encourage creativity I followed my intuition taking some risks, sometimes work sometimes not, but like I said; is part of the process

PO619, mixed media

COMPOSITION TACTICS: (painting ref. PO618)  

Painting inspired by photographs:

I search photographs thru internet, then I use photoshop deciding which elements to keep or discard.-  get to know the subject with lots of sketching, and finally start painting from what feels right to tell a story.

For this particular painting , I start with scrubbed-on color washes to keep edges soft in order to have certain amount of luminosity  and a sense of distance, then I build paint thicker on top

Opaque paint on top of transparent warm colors come forward and cool colors go back

Brushstrokes are added with rhythm to go with the flow its important the direction

Pick out some subjects to focus and suggest the rest

Planes should be clear with properly perspective, opaque "clear " paint over dark transparent paint to contrast shadow áreas

                                    Acrylic over texturized canvas  (PO618) 25x30 cm

 

In order to  start  painting a blog like this, in which I pretend to learn and improve myself , I´m going to start by fixing some objectives, divided in little steps to reach the main goal,  which will be  "represent emotional paintings either by brush handling or by color into the subject  painting projects, regarding the reality into the way I see it to be completed in higher  porcentage by Sept.2014;" the goal still is non objective at all ---but like I said I´ll start working with brush and color handling  chasing light and shadow .- making preliminary sketches, to conform a composition and give value scale to start painting my own feelings into the canvas area,

Therefore I´ll  start changing my current methods into the process where I  have not had results,------ I already identified some problems which now I´m calling opportunities  to work with:

Opportunity 01;   Shapes and color to make it vibrant; (excercise ref. C617)

I need to  focus on contrasting vibrant color so my first attempt  is to check how a painting;  from the ones I like,  has been painted.-  so I´ll try to make a painting reference to check on colors and contrast used ,  (my painting  reference is labeled as C617.-all things inside the picture  looks like a group of interlocking shapes and colors, and despite that the whole composition should be vibrant. )

C617

oil on canvas 25x30cm