A Wisconsin Waterfall in Acrylic (2/4)
or, How to Paint an Oil-Like Acrylic Piece That Will Fool 'em All!
Author: Larry Seiler, Contributing Editor
 |
| I use my homemade painting knife (image above), and use mass quantities of a dark pigment I made to block in darker masses and shadows. All this tool is was a thin gauged plaster knife that I shaped on a sharpening stone, and then bent in a vise. The painting moves along quite rapidly here. I love the sound of the knife scraping the texture of the canvas, and the absurdity it really feels to do something that appears so haphazard and free. |
 |
Here you see much of the darks and shadows blocked in. It may be difficult to believe I have not used black pigment, but I have not. I refrain from using black, (except in illustrations) because it has the tendency to react with colors I'm not prepared for. Black to appear blacker has a blue added to it...thus a gaudy green when it meets the path of yellow pigment. Plus, as you paint outdoors with atmospheric light bouncing all about, you don't really see a true black. You are able to see into the shadows...and color.
I think of shadows as an absence of light. Absence of light is an absence of detail, perceived texture, color. So, I resist the urge to put too much details in my shadows. At best, I'll suggest something is there. I have worked cool purple and crimsons into the foreground rock to impress the sense of shadow. Later I will build on this with some values and textures to suggest rock. |
|
|