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Acrylic water-based paints for painting. Features of acrylic paints and drawing techniques

Acrylic paint is a versatile and vibrant medium with which you can create paintings of any style. But before you can create beautiful pictures you need to learn how to use acrylic paint.

If you've never used acrylic paint before, it may seem difficult to master. But, as you will see in this article, it is one of the most available ways drawing for beginners.
Let's explore the wonderful world of acrylic painting so you can start creating your own paintings.

Acrylic tools

What do you need to get started with acrylic paint? Actually, not so much. Here are some of the things you will need.

acrylic paint

Acrylic paint comes in a dizzying array of colors and textures. Which one suits you? In general, you will find two different types acrylic paint:

Liquid - it will flow out of the tube
Hard - high viscosity, which is more like a soft oil.

There are no good or bad. It all depends on the acrylic painting technique used. If you end up wanting to move on to thick Van Gogh style pieces, use solid acrylic. If you want to create light, magical landscapes, try liquid acrylic.
In terms of colors, for a beginner, it's good to start with mostly red, blue, yellow, black, and white tube paint. Using these colors, you can blend any color from skin tones to nature scenes.
In addition to choosing a minimum number of colors is the most economical way to get started with acrylic paint, it will also help you learn how to mix colors so you can achieve your desired hue and understand the meaning of each color in mixtures.

Acrylic brush

Before you get started, you'll need a few brushes suitable for acrylic paint. Acrylic brushes tend to be longer and more durable than watercolor brushes as they are often pressed harder against the work surface during painting.
To get started, use a minimal set: one large and one small round brush, or maybe one large and one small flat brush, are ideal.

acrylic palette

You need a mixing surface different colors paints. The paper is too absorbent and your paint will stick to it. You need a non-sticky surface. You can use palette paper, a professional palette, or even a china plate.

Palette knife

The palette knife is an inexpensive and invaluable tool for working with acrylic paint. It will help you mix paint colors as efficiently as possible. You can use a palette knife not only to mix colors, but also to apply paint to the surface - this will give a special effect to your paintings.
Technically, you can mix colors with a brush. But you will quickly realize that the paint soaks into the brush and ends up being lost and not mixing properly. In addition, vigorous mixing can damage the bristles, so it is not recommended to use a brush to mix colors.

Acrylic canvas

What kind of surface do you like to draw on? If you enjoy painting on canvas, then paper canvas is a great choice to start with. It is not expensive and has the texture of a stretched canvas. Plank, wood and plywood are also great.
Depending on your work surface, you may find it easier to use an easel. However, an easel is not suitable for paper or more flexible work surfaces.

Water

Put a cup of water to wash the brush and thin the paint. If you are using a drinking cup, use it only for acrylic painting.

Paper scraps

Scraps are ideal for wiping off excess paint from a brush or checking the quality of the paint. It can be a simple piece of printer paper.

Workplace

Correctly arranging workplace, you will simplify the drawing process.

Palette preparation

Once you have your workbench ready, you can prepare your palette. Whatever you want to paint, it can be helpful to have a serving of each primary color plus black and white.
Leave some space between servings so you can mix colors.

Surface preparation for drawing

If you're painting on a canvas, you'll need to process it before you start working. Gypsum priming is great for acrylic painting. But not all surfaces require processing. First, learn more about the surface you will be working with.

Acrylic mixing

Mix the colors you would like to use.

We draw with acrylic

Start drawing! Adjust the desired paint consistency using a small amount of water. Start with simple forms, gradually moving to complex ones.

Don't be afraid to experiment

You need to fill your hand and come to your drawing style. Experiment with different styles, with different surfaces and tools, including painting with a palette knife. These tips will help you succeed in painting with acrylics.

Cover acrylic in between work

Acrylic paint is not repairable once it has dried, so if you need to take a break, seal your paint in an airtight container to keep it damp. For a short break, you can simply cover the palette with a plastic bag, cling film, or a damp cloth; for a longer break, you can place the entire palette in an airtight storage container, or use a palette knife to transfer individual colors to airtight containers.

Let the painting dry

Once your painting is complete, let it dry completely before placing it in a frame. For an artist, there is nothing worse than screwing up the work after creating a masterpiece.

Enjoy the process

You won't be able to create masterpieces right away, but with practice you'll begin to develop skills and confidence in your work. This is a wonderful process - enjoy it.

Alexey Vyacheslavov shares his experience with acrylic paints. The master works systematically, not a single trifle escapes his inquisitive gaze. The developments that the author captures on paper can be an invaluable treasure for other budding artists.

Palette and Palette knife.

Acrylic dries very quickly. This is its disadvantage at the time when it is on the palette. And the same property is its advantage when acrylic on canvas. With fast drying on the palette, you need to somehow fight. For myself, I chose the following path - I use a wet palette which he himself did. It is set up as follows

I have a box available. The size of the box is about 12x9 cm and the height is about 1 cm. The box opens on a hinge into 2 equal halves. My box is black. And the palette should be white. Therefore, in order to level (hide) the black color, I put a clean layer on the bottom of one of the halves of the box. white paper cut to size bottom. I make several layers of paper. Before laying on the bottom, the paper must be well moistened, so that it is saturated with water, but not so wet as to form a puddle at the bottom of the box. On top of several layers of damp paper, I lay an ordinary white napkin. The napkin should also be damp and cut to fit the bottom of the box. Wet tracing paper lies on top of the napkin. I tried different types tracing paper. Tracing paper, which is sold in stationery stores as tracing paper, I did not like. Over time, it swells strongly, a pile forms on the surface, and this pile then, together with the paint, falls on the brush, and therefore on the canvas. This creates inconvenience. Of all the types of tracing paper that I had a chance to try, this drawback is devoid of tracing paper from a box of chocolates "Samara Confectioner". According to my feelings, it has some kind of impregnation that prevents the formation of pile. Of course, pile will also form over time, but for six months or a year you can forget about this problem. Thus, it is necessary to use a good tracing paper that does not form a pile on the surface under the influence of water. In general, the palette is ready. I spread the paint from a tube or jar directly onto tracing paper using a small palette knife.

the same palette knife, if necessary, create a paint batch desired color . During the drawing process, when the palette is open, water evaporates from the surface of the palette. Tracing paper, napkin and lower layers of paper dry out over time. For wetting, it is enough for me to add a small amount of water, which I add to the edge of the box. By tilting the palette, the water is distributed to all edges. If during the work the tracing paper becomes too dirty, which prevents obtaining pure shades of colors, it can be carefully pry off the edge with a palette knife and removed from the palette, rinsed under running warm water and put back.

If paint is left on the palette...

It has never happened before that I completed a painting in one day (evening). Therefore, I have situations when a certain amount of paint remains on the palette. To save it for future use, I proceed as follows. If the palette is moistened enough, then I simply close the palette. If the palette is not moist enough, then I add a few drops of water to it. Then I put the box in a plastic bag, as if wrapping it in a bag. And then I lay down the wrapped box in the refrigerator on the top shelf. There it can be stored until the next use for at least a week.. I usually take my palette out of the fridge the next day. I open the box and see that the paint has not dried up, but on the contrary, it has absorbed a certain amount of water and has become diluted, such that it is just right to use, imitating watercolor effects. I conclude that the palette was unnecessarily damp before storage. However, with such wet paint, you can immediately paint or wait until some of the water has evaporated. I usually use this paint for underpainting.

Acrylic

Acrylic paints which I use is Ladoga and French Pebeo Deco.

Pebeo Deco

The first tests of acrylic showed that it lays down well and has good covering properties.

Acrylic Pebeo Deco — This is acrylic for decorative work. This explains such exotic names of color shades. Then it seemed to me that white and black were missing in the color palette to start drawing. It was not possible to buy these colors of Pebeo Deco acrylic. Then, to complement the color palette, the following colors of acrylic were purchased Ladoga

Used color paletteLadoga

Acrylic Ladoga has also been tested. Tests have shown that in terms of hiding power, it is inferior to Pebeo Deco acrylic. Otherwise, they were similar and can be mixed.

Speaking about acrylic, I still want to mention one more property of acrylic, which is its disadvantage - this is its darkening after drying. Some call it tarnishing. But in essence it is one and the same. Darkening occurs by about 2 tones, and this property is most noticeable when working slowly with acrylic, when the next layer is superimposed on an already dried one, and is especially noticeable when making smooth color transitions on large areas of the canvas.

brushes

For acrylics, I only use synthetic brushes. I have at my disposal oval brushes from #4 to #14

These brushes feature soft synthetic hair that leaves no marks on the canvas. The largest brushes #8 to #14 I use to perform underpainting or final drawing on sufficiently large areas of the surface of the canvas, for example, such as the sky. Smaller brushes No. 4 and No. 6 I use for smaller work.

Also in my arsenal are round and flat brushes. From flat brushes are No. 4 and No. 2. From round brushes are No. 2, No. 1, No. 0. Very rare I use brush #00. Its tip quickly wears out, fluffs up and it becomes almost like No. 0. Therefore, we can say that brushes #0 and #00 are almost the same size.

Drawing technique

I am currently I draw only from photographs. These photos are stored on the computer. But I don't like to sit in front of the monitor all the time and draw from the monitor. So I go to the photo studio and I print my favorite photo on A4 matte photo paper, sometimes A3.

When the sketch is transferred to the canvas, I start painting. First of all, I think over the work plan, determine the sequence of manifestation of objects on the canvas. It is more convenient for me to start drawing from the background, then move to the middle ground, and finish with the foreground. Usually I outline the approximate amount of work that I can complete in one evening. Based on this, looking at the photo, I determine what paints I need. As I wrote above, I spread the paints on the palette with a palette knife. I wipe the palette knife on the palette. For finishing, I wipe the palette knife with a napkin, which usually lies on the second half of my open palette. In the process of drawing, I often have to wash my brushes, and in order to remove excess water from the brush, I touch this very napkin with a brush, thereby draining the brush. Thus, the necessary paints lie on the palette, the palette knife is wiped off and nothing dries on it. Next, there are two ways to mix paints.

First way— mixing paints directly on the canvas.

I use this method to perform underpainting, drawing some large objects. This method allows you to draw objects in one pass, bypassing the underpainting stage. In this way I draw, for example, large leaves. With a flat brush No. 2, I first take one paint, then another and transfer it to the canvas. It turns out that I, as it were, put paint on a section of the canvas, at the same time I mix and distribute it, making movements with a brush that resemble poking towards the canvas. If I see that somewhere the wrong color is obtained, then a different shade can be applied over the paint that has not yet dried, mixing with the bottom layer. At the same time, no brush strokes remain on the canvas.

The second way is mixing paints on a palette. I use this method to further develop a section of the picture when there is already underpainting or in areas without underpainting when making smooth transitions from one color to another, for example, in areas such as the sky. In doing so, I proceed as follows. I spread a sufficiently large amount of white paint on the palette, such that you can paint over the entire sky. Then I add a small amount of blue paint to the white. Along with blue, I sometimes add crimson or dark blue, depending on the condition of the sky. I mix it all up and get a blue tint. If the resulting shade suits me, then I take a brush and start applying it to the canvas next to the horizon. If the resulting shade does not suit me, then I add a small amount of blue to this mixture. I do this until the desired shade of the sky near the horizon is obtained. I apply the paint with an oval brush No. 14, 10 or 8, depending on the area occupied by the sky on the canvas. The smaller the area of the sky, the smaller the brush I use. With this blue mixture I paint over a section of the sky of a certain width, moving up from the horizon.

Usually to white canvas did not show through the paint, you have to apply two layers of paint with drying between the layers. After that, a fairly large amount of the blue mixture remains on the palette. Next, I again add blue paint to this mixture, thereby obtaining a new darker shade. blue color. With this new mixture, I paint over the canvas above the already applied strip. The difference in shades of the stripes should not be significant. They should differ by about 2 tones. Earlier I wrote that acrylic darkens when it dries. This feature can be noticed just when drawing the sky. And so let's imagine that we have already painted a blue stripe near the horizon on the canvas and the paint has dried out. The fact that she darkened on the canvas, we did not notice. But if you compare the color on the canvas and on the palette, they will be different. The color is lighter on the palette. Now you need to make sure that these two colors are identical. To do this, you need to add such an amount of blue paint to the mixture on the palette so that the mixture on the palette is the same shade (or approximately the same) as the dried stripe on the canvas. Then you need to apply a new shade of the mixture next to the dried strip. At the time of applying a new shade of the mixture, it is clear that its color is identical to the already dried, previously applied one. And literally in a matter of seconds, right before our eyes, the new mixture becomes darker. To smooth the transition between the shades of the sky, I make small brush strokes on the first strip of the sky. At the same time, I use the same brush, but almost dry, almost without paint.

I make cross movements with the brush.

With this new mixture, I do exactly the same as with the previous ones. I end up with heaven. But the work on the sky does not end there. We can say that this is such an underpainting of the sky, although it is already quite traced. Usually the sky is not so perfect, so further I write various nuances on it in the form of barely noticeable cloud scatterings or more noticeable clouds. I also do all this with blue paint with variations in shades to a whiter area, or to a darker blue, or to a more crimson (see Figure 8). In this case, I use the smallest oval brushes No. 4 or No. 6, with a very small amount of paint, so as not to overdo it.

I want to pay special attention to the technique of drawing animal hair, in particular cat hair. The same techniques can be used to draw the hair of other similar animals and even to draw the plumage of birds.

The coat should look fluffy, voluminous and light. Therefore, when drawing wool, I use the imposition of several layers on top of each other. I start drawing wool with underpainting, using flat brush No. 2. At the same time, I try to get a color darker than the final coat color.

cat head underpainting

For drawing wool I use a brush number 0. I make the first layer over the underpainting with the lightest coat color. This color can be white (as in my case), beige, cream, light gray or some other light shade. With this color I cover the entire traced area of \u200b\u200bthe wool. I make movements with the brush in the direction of hair growth. One brushstroke corresponds to one hair of wool. Given the translucency of acrylic, you can see how the color of the underpainting appears through thin strokes. At the same time, the underpainting color spots do not lose their outlines.

First layer of wool (lightest)

At this stage, you have to wash the brush very often. I do 3-4 strokes and wash the brush. If this is not done, then the paint drying on the brush leads to its thickening, the fineness of the hairs disappears, the feeling of the splendor of the wool disappears.

I make the second layer of wool with a color that serves to display the shadow part of the wool. It may be some middle shade between the lightest coat color and the darkest. This medium shade should not be too bright. In my case, this is natural sienna diluted with white paint.

Second layer of wool (medium shade)

The third layer of wool is the layer in which the final work of the wool is done. The shades used can be very varied depending on the color of the coat. In my case, this is white, and shades of red, and shades of bright orange, and shades of brown. The more shades used, the livelier and more realistic the coat looks (see Figure 12). As an example, a drawing with a small worked area of \u200b\u200bwool on the left is shown.

The third layer of wool (final study)

When drawing wool, it turns out that a single hair of wool is made with a single brush stroke. The brush used is very fine, #0 or #00. Working with such brushes requires a lot of patience, but the result is worth it.

acrylic about new material V the art world and much younger than butter, but can be a great alternative. Acrylic paint is a water-dispersed paint based on polyacrylates (mainly polymers of methyl, ethyl and butyl acrylates), as well as their copolymers as film formers. This means that you can paint with water, no thinners or oils are required.

Depending on the technique, acrylic can look like watercolor or oil. After drying, the paint turns into an elastic film, does not fade over time and can even be exhibited on the street, as it is resistant to external influences. After drying, acrylic darkens a little, this should be taken into account when drawing.

Acrylic is a wonderful thing, it almost does not smell, it is cheaper than oil and you can paint with it on almost any surface. A paper sketchbook is also suitable (it is better to take sheets denser, because the paper can go in waves), and canvas on cardboard, and cardboard. If painting on a wooden surface, it is better to prime it first. It is most convenient to draw with synthetics and bristles, because the paint is heavy and delicate brushes like squirrels or ponies quickly deteriorate, plus the brushes must be washed immediately after work, otherwise the paint will dry out and the brush will be hopelessly damaged. It is better to pour cool rather than warm water into a jar of water - it can cause acrylic to harden at the base of the brush bundle. After work, make sure that all tubes and cans of paint are tightly closed, otherwise the paint will dry.

If use more water- acrylic can be transparent, although it is inferior to watercolor, but you can still paint with glazing. After drying, acrylic glazes do not blur, so you can safely paint on top. I prefer to imitate oil, so I paint with bold strokes. In this case, you can not use water at all, but I still wash the brushes in the process, though I wring them out so as not to carry excess water onto the canvas. You can write with transparent strokes on top of a dense substrate. The coolest option is to paint on canvas on cardboard. It is convenient to insert such a picture into a frame, if necessary, it is light and looks more presentable, while the texture completely imitates the canvas, which adds an illusion oil painting, especially if you use a palette knife.

The beauty and at the same time the complexity of acrylic paints is that they dry quickly, so even on the palette the paints dry out. You can use a drying retarder, but I can’t say anything about it, I haven’t tried it.
I use a custom palette to slow down the drying a bit.

I take a porcelain or glass plate (it is more stable), cover it with paper towels and urinate the entire structure under the tap. The water should be decent, but it's worth squeezing the towels a little. On top of the towels I put a sheet of ordinary tracing paper, I have it slightly glossy, which is convenient, the brushes glide better. I lightly press the tracing paper so that it becomes damp, but not completely wet. Now you can squeeze the paint onto the tracing paper, there will be water under it and the paint in this case dries more slowly. Do not squeeze out a lot of paint at once. After work, you can close the palette with cling film and put it in the refrigerator, the paints can remain liquid for up to several days. This method actually saves paint. It is very convenient to use a small spray gun in the process of wetting the paints on the palette. Before painting, brushes can be soaked overnight in water, so they will absorb some water and will not absorb it during the work process.

I tried acrylic from different manufacturers, foreign brands are undoubtedly cool, from domestic ones I really like the Master Class and Ladoga series, I draw mainly with them. If you come across acrylic Gamma - do not waste your money, it is terrible and disgusting. Acrylic comes in jars and tubes, in decoys the paint is more liquid, in tubes it is thicker. I prefer tubes, they are more convenient, take up less space and the paint is more unlikely to dry inside the tube. Ideal acrylic is slightly watery and at the same time thick, the consistency should be something like mayonnaise. It should not have lumps and it should not be quite thick, as toothpaste. In this case, it is very difficult to make smooth smooth gradients and it is difficult to smear it on the surface at all. Gamma is just lumpy and too thick, and in each tube the paint will be different in consistency.

It is not necessary to buy 100,500 colors at once to try it out, acrylic mixes well and a set of 6-12 colors may be enough.
In my experience, I advise you to avoid ultramarine as a base of blue color, it is better to take something like blue FC or cobalt blue. It is also worth picking up neutral greens - medium green for example. White is the best titanium, they do not turn yellow over time. Here is an ideal set for beginners in my opinion, very budget-friendly and excellent quality.

There is also such a moment - if you are supposed to have a dark background, do not paint over the entire canvas. It is better to leave unpainted those areas that should be a different color. Acrylic is very difficult to overlap dark colors like black and dark blue. Otherwise, you will have to paint over the objects with white and only after that write on top with the desired color.

Acrylic goes well with other materials, such as markers, ink, colored pens, the same watercolor, pastel. The possibilities are almost endless, which is why mixed-media artists love acrylic so much.

Acrylic is almost never washed off clothes, so an apron can be very useful.

Finally, in the gallery there are a few additional pictures in different techniques All pictures in this post are taken from Pinterest.

Acrylic - it is plastic, but the technique of drawing resembles watercolor. The only difference is that after drying, acrylic paints become waterproof. Consider some of the features of working with acrylic.

What to draw on?

Suitable for acrylic painting:

canvas;
cardboard;
plywood;
board;
glass;
paper.

Also prepare brushes with long handles, a palette and water.

What to draw?

Do not puzzle over the idea of drawing for a long time. If it's hard to come up with something original, create a still life from improvised items. You can also buy flowers or pick field ones. A beautiful stone, a view from the window - everything can serve as kind.

Drawing abstractions can also serve to improve skills. Draw a spot and think about what it looks like. Develop the idea, add details. Gradually you will learn to feel the colors.

1. Acrylic dries quickly, so keep a spray bottle of water handy to wet the paints on the palette.

2. Use paint in small quantities.

3. Acrylic squeezed out of the tube is opaque. Experiment with the transparency of colors by adding water to them. A large amount of moisture will allow you to use watercolor technique drawing. But you can not break the proportion of 50/50, otherwise the acrylic will not be able to fix well and will crumble.

4. Start painting with large color spots using large brushes. Gradually move on to work small parts and take thin brushes.

5. When washing off paint from brushes, do not forget to blot them to remove water.

6. Reflection of work in the mirror will help to notice errors.

7. Practice mixing colors with each other. It's not easy, but with practice it's possible to learn how to do it faster.

8. Adding thinner will help slow down the drying of the acrylic.

9. To achieve a perfect straight line, use adhesive tape.

10. To make the color lighter, mix the paint with white. Do this carefully and little by little, kneading thoroughly.

11. Mixing paint with black will make it darker.

12. Dried paint looks darker.

13. For safety, the work can be varnished.

How to paint with acrylics on canvas or paper?

1. You need to choose a basis for drawing. You can draw on paper, canvas or board. You need to choose the basis on which the acrylic can easily be fixed.

2. Collect all the necessary materials. For painting, you may need items such as: 1-2 cups of water, an old rag (you can use a cloth), a palette knife, soap for cleaning brushes, a spray bottle for water.

Acrylic paints dry very quickly, so you need to spray your palette with water to keep the paint wet.
Use newspapers or junk paper for your desk so you don't have a big mess.
You can wear a work robe - this will keep your clothes clean.

3. Choose a good location. Many professionals recommend painting in natural light. Good location near open window as well as an ordinary room with good natural light.

4. Prepare materials. Bring cups of water, brushes, paints, a palette. Put on an old bathrobe and cover the workplace with newspapers.

5. Idea for drawing. It is difficult for beginner artists to decide what to draw. Think maybe you want to draw a specific subject or 3-D object. What can be painted with acrylic paints:

photos;
vase with flowers;
a bowl of fruit;
sunrise/sunset;
items from your home;
something from your memory.

6. Sketch with a pencil. Use a regular pencil to roughly sketch the main shapes of the drawing onto the canvas.

7. Mix paints. Prepare all the colors you need to work with the drawing.

8. Analyze your composition. Put the subject so that it has some kind of nice background on the back. Pay attention to every detail. As you work, you will need to recreate everything you need for your drawing.

9. Paint the background. First of all you need to start drawing the background. Drawing from the background to the front is one of the most simple ways create beautiful drawing. Throw in the midtones first, then the dark ones, and then the brightest ones to make it easier.

10. Make time for the little details. Draw all the main details of the background. Apply shadows, highlights, little unnoticed details, add texture, etc.

11. Draw the main object. Draw it with solid colors, break the object into simple shapes or parts. When you work out the basic shapes and parts, your drawing will start to look great.

Remember how tones are applied, first medium, then dark, and then light.
Apply the paint with a dotted line, hold the brush vertically and tap it on the paper.
Use a palette knife to smudge broad strokes of color.
To create a blur of color, you need to dilute the paint with water. So the paint on the canvas gradually becomes lighter. In this way, you can create a good color gradation effect.

12. Cover your painting with a layer of varnish. When the picture is covered with a layer of varnish, it is protected from various damages.

13. Clean your brushes, objects, and work area.

14. Leave the painting for a while to dry. Usually the painting dries in 1-2 days.

How to draw with Acrylic paints in stages - video

Palette and Palette knife.

I have a box available. The size of the box is about 12x9 cm and the height is about 1 cm. The box opens on a hinge into 2 equal halves. My box is black. And the palette should be white. Therefore, in order to level (hide) the black color, I put clean white paper cut to the size of the bottom on the bottom of one of the halves of the box. I make several layers of paper. Before laying on the bottom, the paper must be well moistened, so that it is saturated with water, but not so wet as to form a puddle at the bottom of the box. On top of several layers of damp paper, I lay an ordinary white napkin. The napkin should also be damp and cut to fit the bottom of the box. Wet tracing paper lies on top of the napkin. I have tried different types of calico. Tracing paper, which is sold in stationery stores as tracing paper, I did not like. Over time, it swells strongly, a pile forms on the surface, and this pile then, together with the paint, falls on the brush, and therefore on the canvas. This creates inconvenience. Of all the types of tracing paper that I had a chance to try, this drawback is devoid of tracing paper from a box of chocolates "Samara Confectioner". According to my feelings, it has some kind of impregnation that prevents the formation of pile. Of course, pile will also form over time, but for six months or a year you can forget about this problem. Thus, it is necessary to use a good tracing paper that does not form a pile on the surface under the influence of water. In general, the palette is ready. I spread the paint from a tube or jar directly onto tracing paper using a small palette knife.

the same palette knife, if necessary, I create a batch of paint of the desired color. During the drawing process, when the palette is open, water evaporates from the surface of the palette. Tracing paper, napkin and lower layers of paper dry out over time. For wetting, it is enough for me to add a small amount of water, which I add to the edge of the box. By tilting the palette, the water is distributed to all edges. If during the work the tracing paper becomes too dirty, which prevents obtaining pure shades of colors, it can be carefully pry off the edge with a palette knife and removed from the palette, rinsed under running warm water and put back.

If paint is left on the palette...

Acrylic

Acrylic paints that I use Ladoga and French Pebeo Deco.

Pebeo Deco

The first tests of acrylic showed that it lays down well and has good covering properties.

Used color palette Ladoga

Acrylic Ladoga has also been tested. Tests have shown that in terms of hiding power, it is inferior to Pebeo Deco acrylic. Otherwise, they were similar and can be mixed.

brushes

For acrylics, I only use synthetic brushes. I have at my disposal oval brushes from #4 to #14

Drawing technique

First way— mixing paints directly on the canvas.

Usually, in order for the white canvas not to show through the paint, it is necessary to apply two layers of paint with drying between layers. After that, a fairly large amount of the blue mixture remains on the palette. Next, I again add blue paint to this mixture, thereby obtaining a new, darker shade of blue. With this new mixture, I paint over the canvas above the already applied strip. The difference in shades of the stripes should not be significant. They should differ by about 2 tones. Earlier I wrote that acrylic darkens when it dries. This feature can be noticed just when drawing the sky. And so let's imagine that we have already painted a blue stripe near the horizon on the canvas and the paint has dried out. The fact that she darkened on the canvas, we did not notice. But if you compare the color on the canvas and on the palette, they will be different. The color is lighter on the palette. Now you need to make sure that these two colors are identical. To do this, you need to add such an amount of blue paint to the mixture on the palette so that the mixture on the palette is the same shade (or approximately the same) as the dried stripe on the canvas. Then you need to apply a new shade of the mixture next to the dried strip. At the time of applying a new shade of the mixture, it is clear that its color is identical to the already dried, previously applied one. And literally in a matter of seconds, right before our eyes, the new mixture becomes darker. To smooth the transition between the shades of the sky, I make small brush strokes on the first strip of the sky. At the same time, I use the same brush, but almost dry, almost without paint.

I make cross movements with the brush.

The coat should look fluffy, voluminous and light. Therefore, when drawing wool, I use the imposition of several layers on top of each other. I start painting wool with underpainting, using a flat brush No. 2. At the same time, I try to get a color darker than the final coat color.

cat head underpainting

First layer of wool (lightest)

Second layer of wool (medium shade)

The third layer of wool (final study)

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