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0313 AcrylicPaintingTechnique PDF
0313 AcrylicPaintingTechnique PDF
ACRYLIC
PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
Methods on
How to Paint with Acrylics
for Acrylic Landscape
Painting and Interiors
ACRYLIC PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
This painting won first prize in the acrylic category of the American Artist/Utrecht painting
contest in 2009. All images this article collection the artist unless otherwise indicated.
This content has been abridged from an original article written by M. Stephen Doherty. F+W Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
F+W Media grants permission for any or all pages in this premium to be copied for personal use.
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ACRYLIC PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
It took Jeanette Chupack a couple of in my mind. I had to find a way of Sparkling Waters
2008, acrylic, 8 x 10.
years to adjust to the landscapes she seeing the spaces and vegetation in a Private collection.
observed while kayaking along the completely different way, and I had to
waterways near her home in Cape consider a new approach to composing
Coral, Florida. The new locales were the elements into acrylic paintings.
quite different from the rolling land- About the same time Chupack
scapes she used to observe and paint moved her studio, she changed from
in Vermont. The Florida landscape using photographic film to digital
presents its own challenges because memory cards in her camera. Ive
it is flat, filled with wildlife and tropi- always used photographs as a key piece
cal plants, and saturated with moist of source material, but in the past I
atmosphere during most of the year, relied on slides and prints to catalog
Chupack explains. I was excited about potential images, and I had to adjust
discovering the scenery, especially as for the differences between what I
my husband and I spent more time remembered and what the film and
kayaking along the network of water- processing presented. With digital
ways. It took me two years to develop a photography, I have instantaneous and
good painting from the images logged complete control over the informa-
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TECHNIQUES
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simplify and focus the composition. myself by sealing them with several Grand Old Cypress
of Prairie Creek
It is important for artists to work layers of acrylic gesso mixed with a 2007, acrylic, 20 x 30.
from life so that they can bring an small amount of yellow ochre to give
in-depth understanding to their inter- the painting surface an off-white tone,
pretations of photographs, Chupack she explains. When the surface of the
insists. Photographs flatten the spaces canvas is dry, I secure it into one of two
and distort colors and values, and Richeson easels I have in my studio
unless one has drawn and painted from one handles small paintings and the
life, he or she wont know how to com- other can hold big ones.
pensate for those distortions. Before I apply a coat of retarder over the
I could ever work from photographs entire canvas to slow the drying time
I put in years of time working on-site of the paint, and then I block in all the
from still life arrangements and from areas of the picture with an approxima-
the figure. In fact, I ran a life-drawing tion of the local colors so that I can
class every week for about 15 years quickly assess the strength of the com-
when I was living in Vermont. position, Chupack says. Continuing
Once Chupack is satisfied with with Golden heavy-body acrylic paints,
the edited photograph and has the I focus on building up the layers from
basic outline of the forms projected the background shapes to those in the
and traced on the canvas, she begins foreground. The exception to that pro-
building up layers of acrylic paint. gression is when there is a large body
I stretch and prepare the canvases of water in the painting and I need to
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TECHNIQUES
block that in fairly early in the paint- I do switch to bristle brushes when I Clear Day, Prairie Creek
2008, acrylic, 20 x 30.
ings development so that I can judge want to push the paint harder when
the balance of colors and values. I painting something like clouds, or I
always avoid getting caught up in paint- use sable brushes when I want to add
ing details because I have to make sure linear details. I also have a fan brush
the picture holds together before I start available for painting grass and one
fussing over details or applying glazes giant sable brush I can use for painting
of tone. big areas quickly.
Chupack says she does a lot of glaz- Chupack says she usually has four
ing with Golden or Utrecht brands of or five paintings in her studio that are
paint thinned with semigloss soft gel in various stages of development, but
medium. I layer closely related colors once she has a clear vision of how a
and values, not painting needs to be completed she
complimentary colors, she says. Its will concentrate on that one image
my way of unifying the brushwork of until it is resolved. I tend to concen-
the fast-drying acrylic paint that has a trate on a painting until I finish it,
tendency to look fractured and dull if and then I sketch ideas for several
it isnt adjusted. Layering and glazing other paintings on stretched, toned
give the painting more resonance and canvases, she explains. I may leave a
depth of color. I use synthetic brushes work unfinished for as much as a year
for most of the painting process, but before I decide what it needs. I seldom
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TECHNIQUES
Telegraph
Creek Oak
2008, acrylic,
30 x 20.
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TECHNIQUES
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THE ARTIST
Jeanette Chupack earned a B.F.A.
from Syracuse University, in New
York, and an M.F.A. from Indiana
University, in Bloomington, and
she attended the Yale Summer
School of Music and Art, in
Connecticut. She taught at a
number of institutions, includ-
ing the University of Vermont, in
Burlington, and she has conducted
painting workshops. She currently
maintains a studio in Cape Coral,
Florida. For more information, visit
www.jchupackart.com.
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TECHNIQUES
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TECHNIQUES
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TECHNIQUES
Demonstration:
Reading Chair, Sims House
Step 1 1 2
After making a
rough graphite
drawing on acryl-
ic-primed canvas,
Lewis applied a
thin underpainting
of burnt sienna
and burnt umber.
Step 2
He then blocked
in the walls with
cadmium orange,
yellow oxide, and
titanium white.
Step 3
The fireplace and
hanging pictures
were then painted
with Hookers
green and yellow
oxide. He toned
the picture down
3 4
with dioxazine
purple and tita-
nium white.
Step 4
Next, Lewis
painted the
chair. He added
some Goldens
acrylic retarder
to increase the
drying time of the
paint so he could
blend details
before the paint
dried.
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ACRYLIC PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
Step 5
This detail shows how Lewis
used a white charcoal pen-
cil to draw the table and
books more carefully before
painting them.
Step 6
Finally, he blocked in the
bed and rug using blue,
red, purple, and burnt
umber with titanium white.
6
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TECHNIQUES
5 Acrylic Artists
Share Methods, Materials,
and Techniques by Karyn Meyer-Berthel
Diligent
by John Garrison,
2007, acrylic, 48 x 36.
Private collection.
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TECHNIQUES
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TECHNIQUES
control, which in turn allows him to work time of acrylics, I mix them with matte Convergence
more quickly. Because he knows how medium. Although the paints normally by John Garrison, 2007,
acrylic, 36 x 36. Private
his materials will behave, he can focus dry to a matte finish, I coat some areas collection.
solely on realizing his visionsomething of the dry painting with gloss medium
he likes to do as fast as possible. Im so that the final piece has a visual play
impatient, so I often work with a brush between the two finishes.
in one hand and a blow-dryer in the other
to speed up the drying process, the artist For more information on Garrison, visit his website at
explains. If I need to extend the drying www.garrisonart.com.
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TECHNIQUES
LJ LINDHURST
Brooklyn artist LJ Lindhurst creates
large-scale paintings of everyday objects to
record details of our culture.
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TECHNIQUES
Lock No. 3
by LJ Lindhurst, 2005, acrylic,
48 x 24. Collection the artist.
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TECHNIQUES
The Diver
by Dan Mandish, 2006,
acrylic on board,
21 x 21. Courtesy
For Artsake Gallery,
Newport, Oregon.
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TECHNIQUES
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TECHNIQUES
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TECHNIQUES
Jewel
by Jeanine Leclaire
2008, acrylic, 32 x 24.
Private collection.
JEANINE LECLAIRE
Philadelphia artist Jeanine Leclaire chose
acrylic paints and mediums because she wanted
to have complete flexibility in designing her
pictures and expressing her concepts.
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TECHNIQUES
Fragile
by Jeanine Leclaire
2009, acrylic, 6 x 5.
Collection the artist.
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