Painting a Dolphin

Lesson #2

Drawing the Dolphin Now after experimenting with the application of acrylic paint, it is best to repeat what you have learned and add some more techniques. This time we will start with a painting of a simple dolphin on a blue background. To start I will paint the background a solid blue. We will be using a mixture of one part brilliant blue and one part Turquoise Deep. I will let you decide to draw your own dolphin or copy mine. I prefer to teach you a little drawing skills first. Not that you need to make this dolphin realistic, but this exercise may be very helpful in future marine life paintings. Look at the drawing below and I will explain it further. Don't be afraid, it is easy to learn. I separated the parts in this drawing to make it simpler to see. I start with a large oval. Then I attach a circle to the front for the head. The hind oval is elongated. The dorsal fin is on top. The tail fin is to the rear. Both pectoral fins are on the bottom front. The mouth and eye are positioned at the head. Not to complicate it at this time, I am leaving the deeper explanation to the future lesson on perspective drawing and foreshortening. Draw this a few times until you get it. OK. It is time to start another painting lesson. Get out another canvas. You can do this on a smaller canvas of about 11x14. Mix only enough to cover the canvas once. Use your large 1 1/2" china bristle. This is a common hardware store brush. The cost is usually about $1.50. Now after giving it one coat, you will notice that it does not look very good. So let it dry for about 10 minutes. Now it is time to put on a second coat of paint. Remember, I am trying to make this easy for you to learn, so I have had you paint a solid background color. If you are raring to try something harder than this, then try this. Mix three piles of paints. One medium dark blue. One dark blue and one very dark blue. Try starting at the top with your brush and as you paint down the canvas, slowly add another darker blue until you get near the bottom with your darkest blue. As you are painting, you will need to blend with a second brush right behind your first brush. Make sure it is a dry brush. Blending is done in a cross hatch brush stroke. This is done by making short little X patterns. You need to blend fast enough to stay in the wet paint before it dries. I will go through this in another lesson called Acrylic Blending. Now after your second layer you will see a much better coat of paint. You may start to do a sketch over this as soon as it dries. I sketch with a light colored conte' chalk. This is soft and if the paint has had about 1/2 hr. to dry, it should be ready for the drawing. If you live somewhere that is cold, then you may want to help it dry by holding it near a light bulb and moving it around the canvas until it is warm. Do not leave it near a hot bulb very long. It may burn. Now draw your dolphin where you want to put it and the size you like. Here is my drawing on the blue background:   From here I start painting the dolphin. Now remember this is just a lesson. Not a great painting. Just a lesson. So relax and have fun with this. You can add other dolphins on your own. But keep it simple to start with. I mix a little more Turquoise Deep to the same mixture of the background color. About 1/3 Brilliant Blue to 2/3 Turquoise Deep. Then I add Ivory Black to this mixture to make it a lot darker. Then fill in the drawing with a solid coat of this mixture. What you will end up with will be a blue background with a dark dolphin. Now I start to do some light shading. That is what you will be learning in the next lesson. You can try it now if you think you can do the shading by yourself . Here is what it should look like:   But if it looks to hard, then go to the next lesson.To get this shading may be difficult for you. But here is the mixture I use. Add a little white to the color you used to paint the dolphin. Use this to shade a little of the top of the dolphin. Now at this point, it is a process of detail and dry brush blending or scumbling to make it look finished. Well, your one step closer to becoming another Picasso!