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Acrylics Anonymous, Issue #116 -- Finding the Order in Chaos. July 01, 2022 |
Passionate about painting with acrylics? Need a monthly fix chock full of inspiration? Need some help to take the pain out of your painting process? It's all here for you. Acrylics Anonymous. Zero elitism. Dive in. If you enjoy Acrylics Anonymous, and you know someone who might also enjoy it, you can share by forwarding it to your friends! If you are receiving this because a friend has forwarded this to you, and you would like to subscribe, click here! 
Every month, we will produce a Subscribers Only "sealed section" - just keep scrolling to see it. It could be a painting technique, a short video tip, or anything we can think of that we reckon you might enjoy. Please let us know what you think, we love your feedback! To leave comments, contact us here.
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Create Gorgeous Texture! Want some great texture for your rocks and boulders? Rough in the bones of your picture, then dampen the surface with a clean wet brush. Flick some “rock colours” around, darker and paler versions of the background, let them bleed a little, then let dry. You can then shape the rocks with highlights and shadows and get a lovely grainy surface texture. 
Meet The Wallers is Coming to Murwillumbah! Save the date if you're in the area - July 29th at the Regent Theatre. Follow the Facebook page to stay up to date with ticketing and info! New YT Short! Mark's new Youtube shorts series, "Thoughts from the Easel" continues with another blurt from Mark's brainbox. We hope you like this, the fourth in this series: "Gratitude". Click here for the short video. Just A Moment Exhibition Mark's exhibition and book launch are now on and running until 7th July. In case you can't get there, check out Mark's virtual exhibition via the link below. Click here to explore our virtual gallery. Woolgoolga Workshop Info Now Here! "Painting The Not-Waves" is our latest workshop coming to the lovely space at Woolgoolga Art Gallery on the 20th-21st August. Limited spots! Click here for all the info! 
Every month, we choose an Artist from our
forum
to showcase. You can even nominate someone if you like. (Or yourself!). To do this, check out the forum and then send us an email! It’s that easy. This month we're featuring artist Phil, from Cardiff, Wales, UK with his dynamic painting,"Bentley Speed 6". Thanks so much for sharing this with us Phil, we think you've captured that speed beautifully! Click here for more info on Phil's painting "Bentley Speed 6"
Jon Forman, a land artist from Pembrokeshire in the UK creates stunning, mesmerising sculptures in collaboration with nature. Check out Jon's incredible work here. 12 year old Aussie artist, Art Tui Bussenschutt, sells out his first solo exhibition of quirky, hand-drawn illustrations. His incredible instagram page is here. And the link to his ABC article is here. If you have a link you like, please share it with us! You can contact us to let us know. Thank you! 
This is the section where you can "get your name in lights!" (well at least out there in the internet world!).If you have works in progress you would love to show off, or finished pieces you are particularly proud of, we would love to see them! We especially like to hear about the story behind the creation. This month's submission comes, again from our very own Mark Waller with his painting "Adrift". From Mark: "My recent exhibition "Just A Moment" focussed on "those moments", the transience of them, and in fact the transience and impermanence of everything on this planet. Everything is in a state of change. This log, shoved in amongst the rocks, I felt, played into that narrative. The tree, a life, once lived. The rocks, being slowly eroded. New life growing. And decaying. There was something quite profound about that. It had to go in the show.
I started with some Dioxazine Purple, and roughed in the log, the outlines of the rocks, and the darker areas of the picture. I scrubbed some Burnt Umber and French Ultramarine Blue into the rocks. I then used some of that colour, although tending more towards the blue, and make some marks on the tree trunk to give a little bit of volume. I mixed up some Dioxazine Purple, Forest Green and a bit of French Ultramarine Blue and scrubbed into the areas behind and underneath the log and the rocks. After that was dry I lay the painting on the floor, and started flicking blue/greys, oranges, and combinations of Dioxazine Purple and Burnt Umber, and combinations of Cadmium Yellow Medium, Dioxazine Purple and French Ultramarine Blue into the rock areas. I wanted an old, weathered granite kind of look.
I mixed up the French Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber combination again, and used it to give both the rocks and the log some volume, by creating soft gradations into the shadows. I then grabbed a finer brush, and used it to define some of the grain in the log, and used the brush on it's edge here and there to create undulations in the rock.
I mixed up a combination of French Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Dioxazine Purple and White, to create the highlights on the log, and started to define the areas of grain which would be exposed more to the light. Once that was done, I used the edge of the brush to suggest that lovely pale lichen that grows on rocks. I worked backwards and forwards over the log here and there, tightening it up using combinations of Burnt Umber, Dioxazine Purple and Cadmium Yellow Medium. Once I was happy with that, I lay the painting back on the floor, masked it up with rags, leaving only the rocks exposed, and repeated the flicking process from earlier. Once that was done, I mixed up Permanent Alizarine and Pthalo Blue and pushed it into the deep, dark shadows. I wanted a lot of contrast.
I then came back with Forest Green, Cadmium Yellow Medium, White and Dioxazine Purple, and began with a fine brush, brushing in all the grasses. I repeated that process creating some highlights on the grass, adding White and Cadmium Yellow Medium to that colour. I then came back and painted miscellaneous pieces of grass of varying hues and tones through the grassy areas to create the impression of chaotic, weatherbeaten growth.
I put a coat of Heavy Gel Gloss (Impasto Gel) over the image to lock everything in, and to give it a bit of build, and then stood back. I had gone a little hard with the lighter colours, and so the picture had lost some of the "somber" tones that had drawn me to it. I mixed some glazes of pure French Ultramarine Blue, and used them to shape the log, then used a very thin glaze (when that was dry) of French Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber, to diminish the creams in the log, and tie the whole picture together. I put a couple of finishing highlights on the log, the rocks and the grasses, and finally stuck my signature in the bottom corner. A coat of Atelier Gloss Varnish to finish off, and on the wall it goes!
Follow Mark on the Explore Instagram page! Click here for his Facebook And here for his Website! We hope you enjoyed this issue of Acrylics Anonymous! If you have any suggestions, comments or feedback for the ezine or our site, please don't hesitate to contact us. Until next time, make sure you stay safe and well, and don't forget to chuck some paint around! Cheers from Frankie & Mark :) For our Youtube channel, click here. To join our Youtube channel as a member for a few bucks every month (in exchange for even MORE awesome perks, click here. For our Instagram, click here. For our Website, click here. For our Facebook page, click here. For our Pinterest, click here. For our Tik Tok, click here. |
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