Acrylic, Oil and Ink

Here at Squidoo, I have been helped and encourage, and especially motivated to write from the heart, to write about something that I am passionate about, because of course, the reader will sense this and I agree.

It's difficult to keep the balance though between what I feel is a subject that someone would be interested in and what I think.

Being an artist can sometimes be a lonely place, especially when, also searching for a subject or materials to interest and create an excited flurry, something if only slightly different in which to delve into.

For me it needs to be interesting, and new, to keep the excitement level up long enough before the interest runs out, and something else is searched for.

Eventually by accident I found it.

I love using oils on large canvases, and always have one on the go in my studio, but oils take time to dry and sometimes the process can be a little too slow, which is why I turned to acrylics on canvas or board -- not water colour paper.

Even when thick and stretched, water colour paper can buckle if over worked. I want to finish in one or two sittings and move on or work on several things. I found a water colour pad that for some reason years ago I had wasted by practicing sketching Caricatures on.

I had some bits of oil paint tubes, and squeezed them out into a tub, and added some oil paint thinners. I washed over the used paper to seal it, and creating an abstract background. After it had dried, which didn't take long, because of the thinners and the heat, I sketched an outline.

After that, I could paint over and over and it had no effect on the paper, also I using ink for the outline, which stayed wet and bleeds into the watery acrylic, this is a good way to stop being shy about using your fingers for blending.

Acrylic is great for finger blending, loading your brush with different colours without mixing, try to get that perfect colour by accident, gets you there, and then you learn how to control it.

Below are some examples of this process, together with examples of other Acrylic paintings, but mostly on oiled water colour paper.

I have kept this simple using Ink outline and some shading in the inner leg area and a touch of red acrylic, white and yellow.

The sparse use of ink highlights her features, her posture still gives the impression that she is contemplative I could of maybe used less colour in her dress but this was one of those pieces that I went for it and live with what I created and then put on the breaks and said that it is it.

Knowing when to stop is the toughest thing sometimes because you know that you can always improve but if you did in this case it becomes something else.

The young woman is watching her daughter play the guitar, but if you look carefully she is not actually watching her, more rather thoughtful staring in to space and the reason could be walking towards them in the background, from the bunch of flowers in his hand and the fact she has decorated her home with flowers would suggest he knows her well so he could be her husband coming home.

Large Wall Decoration