Carol Carter

01 October 2008

Tobacco Sunflower Floral

Here is another acrylic tutorial. I like to share the various stages it takes to make a painting. I find it fascinating and helpful myself.

Each stage takes time.. and over all -- I think there's about two week's worth of work here.





I begin with a slight outline-- and under paint with Cadmium Orange.

I then add the deeper purples -- mixed in with Liquitex Baltic Gray and Baltic Green.

After most of the passages are defined according to value and weight-- I am free to add the background.

The subject flower is then "taped off" -- so that the image will be protected as the background gets painted.

There were a couple of attempts to get the background color right. I took great care to blend the right softness to add volume of space.

The first background had more orange. Subsequent layers took that away-- but you can always see little remnants and underpinnings of previous layers.


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2 comments:

carol said...

Thank you for your tutorial in acrylics as well as watercolor. Have been trying to get to grips with acrylic in a more watercolorey way and love your work. Are you working on watercolor paper?
Carol in UK

Carol Carter said...

hi carol, than you for your comment. my acrylics are all on treated panel. this give a stiffer surface to paint on. i am going to try to paint on treated paper.... but have to be careful, because the varnishes i use.. cannot be rolled or bent ---

acrylic is tough... i have no handle on the medium. i always feel a bit 'lost' when using it!

happy painting!

~carol