Choosing and Using Acrylic Paints
Acrylic paints are one of the newest painting mediums, being introduced as 'recently' as 1955. They have come a long way since then, with an ever-widening range of paints and associated art materials.
The acrylic paint technique thus offers both the new and experienced artist a very versatile method of painting.
Pros & Cons of Using Acrylic Paints
As in all painting, the acrylic paint technique has benefits and drawbacks. The good things are that:
- It is easily diluted with water, so there's no need for special thinners
- Brushes are cleaned with soap and water
- By and large you use the same brushes and knives as with oil paints, so you don't need to re-invest in this area
- If you prefer however, an increasing range of 'acrylic-specific' brushes is coming on the market which gives you extra options
- It dries fast - often within minutes - unlike oils which can take weeks or even months
- Once dry, you can instantly put additional layers on top without ever muddying the ones below -as can happen with watercolor paints
- You can paint on a wide range of surfaces including art canvas, watercolor and other types of specially formulated oil and acrylic paper, wood, various types of board - or even use your room walls as large murals!
- Colors change very little from their wet to dry state - unlike watercolors - so the strength of colour you see first is what you end up with
- It washes off clothes and carpets when wet, just by using soap and water
- There is no solvent-type smell, as there is with oils and turpentine
- Thinned acrylic paint makes an excellent underpainting if you're using oils
What Are Acrylic Paints?
A water-based medium, the usual texture and consistency is similar to oil paints. However, unlike oils, you can get acrylics in various densities.
These range from an ink-like consistency thin enough to be used in airbrushes through various degrees of 'flow' very much like oil paints, to the consistency of soft cream cheese.
This allows really heavy 3D (impasto) effects.
Various substances are available to be added to the paint to create all sorts of textures.
Or you can use your own, such as plaster or sand, for a further variety of textured effects.
All the brands and thicknesses can be thinned back down using water. Some artists I know actually use thinned down acrylic in a pure watercolor style. This gives subtly different but important qualities
However, like all paintng mediums, there are downsides when using acrylic paint. These are mainly around one of its main virtues... its quick drying properties. Here are some things you need to consider:
- Drying so quickly makes it difficult to subtly blend paint, as you can with oils - when painting a cloudy sky or portraits for example
- You have to keep all your brushes moist as you are painting. Never let them dry with acrylic paint on the bristles or you'll end up with a nice-looking set of short garden canes.
- Paint which dries on the blade of a palette knife is very hard to get off. This can leave a film which may adversely affect the ability of the knife to make a smooth mark
- You need a special palette to stop your paints drying out as well. These aren't cheap for what they are. (However, read the article on acrylic paint techniques to find out how to easily make one for next to nothing)
- If acrylic paint dries on carpets, clothes etc, you'll be lucky to get the stain off. So wear old clothes and/or cover the table and floor with an old cloth!
- If there's any grease on the painting surface, acrylics will not adhere, unlike oil paints.
- Acrylic paint tends to be quietly abrasive and soon takes its toll on softer brushes. Try using it with a small nylon 00 watercolor brush, for example, and you'll be lucky to get more than two or three good sessions out of it
- If acrylic paint gets inside the ferrule and dries it's almost impossible to get out without damaging the brush hairs. What then happens is the dried paint makes the bristles spread and the brush loses much of its value as a quality tool
- Don't leave the tops off tubes of acrylic paint, the contents will go rock hard in no time. If this happens, you throw them away. Full stop
- Some brands of acrylic paint have small tops on the tubes. They are extremely difficult to get off as the paint dries in the threads.
- If you have problems gripping small items, you may want to choose tubes which have large caps - or buy a good pair of pliers!
- Acrylic paint is a close cousin of PVA glue and as such, quite an effective, if somewhat colourful, adhesive.
DoneBy: Desmond/Nyan Wun Paing (30) & Wayne (39)
Characteristics of Impressionist paintings include visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, the inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles. The emergence of Impressionism in the visual arts was soon followed by analogous movements in other media which became known as Impressionist music and Impressionist literature.
Impressionism also describes art created in this style, but outside of the late 19th century time period.
· Short, thick strokes of paint are used to quickly capture the essence of the subject, rather than its details. The paint is often applied impasto.
· Colours are applied side-by-side with as little mixing as possible, creating a vibrant surface. The optical mixing of colours occurs in the eye of the viewer.
· Grays and dark tones are produced by mixing complementary colours. In pure Impressionism the use of black paint is avoided.
· Wet paint is placed into wet paint without waiting for successive applications to dry, producing softer edges and an intermingling of colour.
· Painting in the evening to get effets de soir - the shadowy effects of the light in the evening or twilight.
· Impressionist paintings do not exploit the transparency of thin paint films (glazes) which earlier artists built up carefully to produce effects. The surface of an Impressionist painting is typically opaque.
· The play of natural light is emphasized. Close attention is paid to the reflection of colours from object to object.
· In paintings made en plein air (outdoors), shadows are boldly painted with the blue of the sky as it is reflected onto surfaces, giving a sense of freshness and openness that was not captured in painting previously. (Blue shadows on snow inspired the technique.)
Done by Siaw Chishuen of class 2e3
General Watercolor Techniques
Watercolor Flat Wash - A flat wash is one that is a solid color from the top to the bottom of the page or area in which you need a flat color.
Watercolor Graded Wash - Each stroke should be slightly lighter than the one before.
Glazing With Watercolor So many beginning artists are afraid to put color on the paper. We all want to jump right in and paint a subject before we think about what is going on around it.
Wet-in-Wet Watercolor Technique - Applying color to a wet surface. Usually I wet the paper or surface first, and while it is still wet, I apply the first color of the painting. …Usually Quinacridone Gold (as it mixes with other colors beautifully).
Dry Brush Watercolor Techniques - This is a detail technique, when you do not use much water on the brush, but apply the color with a brush that is not dripping wet. You have quite a bit of control with this method, but it should be used for textures and detail. You cannot paint a sky with a dry brush without it taking a week!
Lifting Wet Watercolor - When watercolor is still wet on the paper, it is easy to blot and lift. If it is so wet that it is still shiny, you will possibly lift all the color
Splattering Watercolor Tips - For texture in certain situations, watercolor techniques such as splattering paint can be quite effective. This can be done in several ways. One…with a toothbrush, dipped into paint, and using your thumb, scrape over the bristles to let the paint splatter over the painting (mask off the areas where you don’t want the splatter. (and be sure you aren’t going to a dinner party that night if you have use a staining color like Sap Green. It will be underneath your fingernails!
Another way is to dip a damp (round) brush into a pool of color, and tap the brush over a finger of the opposite hand, allowing the paint to splatter on the page.
For a heavier spatter, use a brush dipped in pigment. Tap it against a finger to release the pigment onto the paper. The spatter will be rather bold spots as shown. The more water in the brush, the larger the spatter.
Spraying Watercolor Techniques - I use a trigger type sprayer to put droplets of water on the painting surface and then drop in color. The paint follows the droplets across the page, and since the droplets run into each other, the paint does not appear to be polka dots! I use this for painting all kinds of tree foliage.
You can also sprinkle water into paint that is already on the page (if the paint is still damp) and then blot if necessary to create texture. On canvas and Claybord, the paint is easily lifted by blotting, as these surfaces do not absorb the paint.
Back Wash Textures - Also called “Blooms”. As stated above, the blooms can be very effective. They are caused when the paint on the paper is still quite damp, and a drop of water or pigment that is very wet, is dropped on the surface. The excess water makes the pigment float to the edge of the puddle, creating a dark, jagged line around it. Sometimes this is good! Usually it is an accident, but I have been known to use if for certain effects, especially when painting flowers.
Alcohol Textures Watercolor Techniques - Of course, you know that alcohol and water don’t mix, therefore, alcohol, when sprinkled into a wet wash of color creates a texture. It repels the paint and pushes it aside. The effect is different if you sprinkle alcohol first, and then add the paint. Quite an interesting phenomenon.
When alcohol is sprayed onto the wet pigment, it causes a "foam" appearance and is great when painting water that is rushing over rocks, ocean waves, etc.
When it is applied to dry paper, and then the paint is applied, it seems to leave dark spots on the page. This is not always the case. It may have to do with the sizing in the paper. You just need to try it first on a scrap of paper like the one you are painting on, so you can better see the result you will get.
Tissue Paper Texture - Tissue paper is useful in creating textures in foliage, rocks, etc. The paint on the surface should not be so wet that it is still shining or you would pick up all the paint with the tissue. Paint that has “lost its shine” is still damp enough to have textures created by the blotting of tissue.
Here's what the tissue paper technique looks like when I'm finished
Plastic Wrap Texture Watercolor Techniques - Plastic wrap can be applied when the paper is wet, but must stay on the surface until the paint is dry.
First, create wrinkles in the plastic by wadding it up, and then flatten it out on the surface of the paper. It can be pulled and stretched in different directions to alter the texture.
To add to the texture, salt can be applied under the plastic. When the plastic is removed you will have a texture much like this
If you need directional lines in your texture, it can be pulled and stretched in different directions to alter the texture.
Plastic wrap can also be used on heavier pigment as a blotter like the tissue. It will pick up the pigment and leave wonderful textures.
Make sure that the pigment is not really shiny and wet with lots of water. It needs to be juicy, with only a tiny bit of water added, so that the plastic can pick up the pigment to create texture.
If the pigment is too wet and thin, the color will just run back together after you lift the plastic off the surface. Timing is everything when using these techniques.
I am a firm believer that these watercolor techniques are only a means to an end, and should be disguised if possible, so that the viewer has something to think about. It is like the rule in flower arranging…Hide your mechanics! I usually paint back into these textures to fool the viewer into believing that I created it all by myself.
Masking Fluid Watercolor Techniques- I seldom use it, but the brand I prefer is Winsor Newton Liquid Masking Fluid (with the yellow color so you can see where you have painted it on the page). It should be applied to totally dry paper, and allowed to dry totally before applying paint over the top.
It is used for keeping the white of the paper in difficult areas, so that you can paint freely without destroying the white. However, when removed (either by rubbing it, or using a rubber cement eraser) the edges are never quite what I thought they would be. Then I have to go back in with a scrubber to adjust the edges. I might as well have painted around the whites to begin with!
It also can be splattered to maintain small spots of white (like in a snow scene) or other such subjects.
Intensity Scale - For making grays, we use the complementary colors on the color wheel. Start with one color; let’s say a blue. Paint a solid square of this blue. Then in the next square, add just a touch of its complement (orange) Then in the third square, add another touch of the complement; and so forth, until you come to the end when the last square is only the complementary color. In this group of squares you will have varying shades of gray.
Gray is not just a color out of a tube. You create interesting grays with complementary colors. They can be green grays, purple grays, reddish grays, blue grays. This is the way we make our paintings interesting to the viewer. There is nothing more boring than a gray straight out of the tube!
Using a Blow Dryer - There are times when we need to hurry a painting along, so I use a blow dryer. Remember, however, do not use it full force on a wet passage, as you will push the pigment into areas that you might not want it to flow. Some people seem to think that a dryer changes the look of the paint, but I haven’t found that to be true.
Painting A Snowy Landscape - It's more than blue shadows on white paper! These are more advanced watercolor techniques.
Reflected Light - Reflected light is created by light from a source, like the sun
Done By : Desmond / Nyan Wun Paing (30)
Task: Sculpture
Sources: youtube and google
This picture shows a girl remembering how her mother had
showered her with care and concern, relating them to what she feel
and see when she gazed at what was around her, when kneeling in the water.
Across the sea so wide
gazing at the island basking in the moonlight
with the moon so pure and white
setting at the apparent horizon.
The water rippled softly at my legs
just like your hand carressing my wounds
the gentle breeze blew in my face
so gentle like you, filled full of emotions.
You are like the moon
so pure and gorgeous
you guided my way
and lighted up my world.
You are the boat that protected me
from waves so merciless and free
and brought me back ashore
so i could walk on land once more.
Although i know that you love me
but i kept silent from it all
in the inside i yearn for them
your love, care and concern.
You showered me with all the above
without fail every single day
so here i write this poem for you my mother
the one i want to thank all these times.
Done by: Siaw Chi Shuen
Register no.: 14
Class: 2E3
ATrue Mother's LoveA mother's love is consistent and patient, it will never fade.
A mother's love is warm and compassionate, even in the shade.
A mother's love will always help you through the weakest hours.
A mother's love is always like a bouquet of flowers.
A mother's love is strong and will never steer you wrong.
A true mother's love is beautiful in many ways.
A true mother's love is sincere and it takes a mother's love to conquer our fears.
A true mother's love knows the depth of love.
A true mother's love is contentment,,just like God's love.
My mother's love is absolutely all of the above.
This show how mother love their child
Done By: Nyan Wun Paing (30) 2E3
My mother's love is so great,
she work hard for me to eat.
Her love is so alive,
giving me a lively life
My mother's love is so great,
even though she nag, scold or even beat me,
but it is all for my own good,
to tell me from right or wrong.
My mother's love is so great,
she provide help in my studies,
she provide counselling for all my troubles and,
she provide everlasting and everbounding love to cherish.
My mother's love is so great!
My mother's love is so comforting!
My mother's love is so heart-warming!
My mother's love is so compassionate!
This picture shows what my mother had done for me.
Done by:Wayne
No:39
Without her I will not be me,
She is part of my soul,
Without her I will be all alone.
All mothers tried to give their children peace,
So that we all can live with ease,
When we were young we promised to give them peace in return,
But have we done that when it is our turn?
All mothers will be there for us like a Sun,
But have we been a good daughter and a son?
We knew they are always there,
But have we care?
All mothers never show to us their sadness,
But instead their happiness,
We knew something strange happening when they are all the time smiling,
But have we try to know their problems by asking?
Time flies very fast,
But have we done our task,
The task to give them peace,
So that they will not suffer but instead live with ease.
Class: 2e3
No. 15
Examples: " She swims like a dolphin"
" When he got the tools out, he was precise and thorough as a surgeon"
" Katrina run as fast as a cheetah"
A metaphor is an anology between two objects or ideas
Examples: "Death is a sleep"
" Life is a struggle"
" A lifetime is a day"
A personification in which an inanimate object or abstraction is given human qualities or abilities.
Examples: " The wind stood out and gave a shout."
" Only the champion daisy trees were serene."
" The road isn't build that can make it breathe hard."
A rhyme is a close similarity of sound between accented syllables.
Examples: " His house is in the village though, to watch his woods pile up with snow."
A rhythm is a movement or procedure with uniform or patterned recurrence of a beat, accent or the like.
Souces: Wikepedia and About.com
Done by: MARYAM
Class: 2e3
No. 15
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