How to paint in Acrylic by The Art Sherpa Red Book & Coffee Cup Snowscape Window Fantasy Steps 10 | Difficulty: Intermediate (2 Hoots) PAINT COLOR & MIXING LEGEND: MATERIALS: • Fluid White Paint = FWP The Art Sherpa = TAS • Cad Red Medium = CRM • # 8 TAS Bright • Quinacridone Magenta = QM • #10 TAS Bright • Cadmium Yellow Medium = CYM • #4 TAS Round • Naples Yellow Light = NYL • Dritz Tailor Chalk Tool and/or Chalk Pencil • Phthalo Blue = PB • 16 x 20 Canvas • Ultramarine Blue = UB • T Square Ruler • Phthalo Green = PG • TAS #4 & #6 Hog Fan Brush • Burnt Sienna = BS • Mars Black = MB • Titanium White = TW TECHNIQUES YOU WILL USE IN THIS PAINTING ARE: • Gridding • Creating a good atmospheric perspective. • How to block in. • Use the paint legend above to understand the • Being painterly and loose. symbols that I use to give you important painting • Achieving good value. information. Sherpa’s Notes: are an artist, not a copy machine. YES, elements of painting that are fun and unexpected. You you are an artist. A key to success is not Remember that the steps in this booklet match the to rush. Follow the steps, breath and be relaxed with steps in the video. These are set up to go together yourself. I will demonstrate a concept in a step and so you can quickly refer to the video demonstration you should duplicate that concept before moving and the book together. It Is my deep belief that the to the step. At the end of all of the steps, we will marriage of these two teaching methods will result in a both have beautiful paintings, though they will not higher enjoyment rate for you, my community student. be identical. I truly believe that everyone can learn to paint but that some art skills take time to master. Included with this step by step illustration are technique Be kind to yourself and give yourself time to be a references at the end so that if you do not understand beginner. Your time of being “new” is shorter than a technique I am referencing, you can refer to it. You you think, so enjoy the discovery process. Don’t waste can also always go back and review the recorded time beating yourself up over mistakes. Be present tutorial in the video library on my website. and mindful of your successes. Pay attention to the just right. When The Goldilocks Zone applying strokes In painting, every technique or process has to the canvas, you what I call a “Goldilocks Zone”. As an artist, may find that you you will be constantly seeking this space to have too much achieve maximum results from any project you’re brush pressure, doing. Much like Goldilocks, you will go into too little brush each technique and try to find a space that pressure, or that is just right for you. When you’re loading your your brush pressure brush, sometimes you will have too much water, is just right. The sometimes you will have too little water, and Goldilocks zone sometimes you will find the amount of water is changes for Copyright: The Art Sherpa LLC - All Rights Reserved every technique and every process. You will know you have found it when something that seemed difficult suddenly becomes much easier. A little goal I’d like to set for you is to notice when you have found yourself in the Goldilocks Zone so that you can locate it again easier the next time you come across a particular technique. COLOR MIX EXTRA INFO: The Reds in the painting are a mix of Cadmium Red and Mars Black. To deepen, you would add more Mars Black; to brighten, you add more Cadmium Red to the mix. When you get to an almost pure cadmium level, then you can begin to add just a little bit of Cadmium Yellow Medium to create the brightest highlights. You don’t want to add the Cadmium Yellow to a mix where the Mars Black is strong in the color as this will take you into a golden brown more than a bright light red. THE SKY GRAYS AND REFLECTIONS The sky, distant mountains, and reflections are based in an Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna mix. These two colors, mixed together, make a beautiful neutral Gray. you can get a lot of variety by balancing out the blue to the brown. If you want to move more into the sky values, a little more blue and a lot of Titanium White. This is also true for the reflection on the book. Copyright: The Art Sherpa LLC - All Rights Reserved Step 1 - The Background COLORS AND MATERIALS FOR STEP: MB TW • Paint your canvas a slate gray made from a mixture of MB & TW with a large brush and allow to dry; repeat if necessary. It must be dry and completely cool before proceeding. TRANSFER THE IMAGE MATERIALS & COLORS FOR STEP: T SQUARE CRETACOLOR PASTEL WHITE PENCIL, DRITZ CHALK TOOL, OR CHALK • For this project, because of the size, I chose the gridding method and marked the canvas with 2” horizontal and vertical squares, numbered by 2’s. • Both the gridding method and the transfer method are discussed in more detail in the Technique Reference section of this booklet. SKETCH IN THE IMAGE • Use your favorite method to sketch out chalk lines of the contours of your subject. You can use freehand, the tracing method, the gridding method or projection. How you personally choose to put your subject matter on the canvas is up to you. There is no right or wrong here only process. Choose a method that you’re comfortable with and gives you a result that you’re happy with. • It’s important that your mountains not be pyramids; they are formed by wind and geology, so they are really rounded rocks. Copyright: The Art Sherpa LLC - All Rights Reserved Step 2 - Roughing In Base Values COLORS AND MATERIALS FOR STEP: QM, PB, UB, BS, TW #10 TAS BRIGHT section that peeks in under the cup holder ring. Aqua turquoise with PB & TW for the snow. • You may want to change out your water before Step 3. • The winter-blue-gray sky is put in with a #10 Bright and a mix of UB & BW + TW. Ok to allow some of the background gray to peek through. Come back with white for highlights. • Add a little PG to the sky mix and fill in the furthest mountain; deepen a little for the middle mountains. Mountains should be lighter at the top and darken as they come closer to earth. This creates Atmospheric Perspective - the way objects work in the real world to tell us how close or far objects are from us. My brush strokes are directional, but very loose, working in the sky color creates a sense or organic being. As you paint in the background, know that we will have some trees peeking through. • Snow is UB & TW and I can always add a bit of QM into it if it is too blue. Don’t forget the Step 3 - Blocking in Window, Table Top, and Teachable Moments COLORS AND MATERIALS FOR STEP: CRM, QM, CYM, BS, MB, TW #10 TAS BRIGHT • The window sill is a loose mix of RS + QM + TW with a touch of CYM. The reason for the red is to capture the reflected light from all of the red influences. BS, MB & TW for the table top, add a little CYM. • This step was a real teachable moment when I had to move the lower window sill up and adjust the table top, and go back into the mountainscape and adjusted the mountains. These moments happen to us all, it’s not just you. Happy little mistakes that are fully correctable because acrylic is so forgiving. Copyright: The Art Sherpa LLC - All Rights Reserved Step 4 - Blocking In The Reds COLORS AND MATERIALS FOR STEP: CRM CYM NYL BS • Scarf is MB + CRM; darkest in the folds of the fabric, MB lighter as it moves away from the fold or is in the light. TW Add a little TW where the fabric is in direct light. #10 TAS BRIGHT • TW + NYL on the inside rim of the cup. • BS + CYM + NYL and rough in the side book pages; darken mix with BS and paint the bottom book pages, which are darker. Add a little TW to mix for highlights. CRM & MB for the leather book cover. I put CRM on the top of the book nearer the window to reflect light coming onto the book from outside. More TW to the color where the book is in fuller light. • CRM + MB for the bottom of the cup holder and the bottom of the cup by the book (it’s the shadow of the cup on the book). Less MB as it moves up the side of the cup, but again, it’s still in shadow. CRM around the tip of the cup rim in back and at the top of the cup handle. Step 5 - The Window’s View COLORS AND MATERIALS FOR STEP: FWP CRM WM CYM NYL UB PG BS MB TW #10 TAS BRIGHT #4 TAS ROUND TAS #4 HOG FAN BRUSH #6 HOG FAN BRUSH Copyright: The Art Sherpa LLC - All Rights Reserved Step 5 - continued • This will be your longest step, so take a breath or • Dry. a break if you need to. Or, you can just be like me Try to remind yourself of John’s speech on why and say, “OH NO, my cup is cool! JOHN...?” you don’t use high heat.