November 19, 2009 - Day 101

Acrylic on Strathmore Acrylic Linen Canvas

First day of painting with acrylics after 3 years of painting exclusively with watercolor. I decided to do the same painting that I did yesterday to see what effect using a different medium would have on the outcome.

I had forgotten how to paint with acrylics after all this time. I think I re-painted the trees at least 4 times before I stopped. I still don't like them much but I think it is because I didn't have the colors on hand that I would have liked to use. I also think that I may need to buy different brushes. The watercolor brushes I was using seem to be almost too soft for the acrylic paint.

I attempted to create the painting using only the artist quality acrylics that I had on hand. These were Golden Acrylics in Naphthol Red Medium, Hansa Yellow Medium, Phthalo Green (Blue Shade), Cobalt Blue, Black and Titanium White. I also used Liquitex "Slow-Dri" Fluid Retarder to slow down the drying time.

I discovered almost immediately that I don't have the colors that I need. I was really missing Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Aureolina Yellow and Ultramarine Blue. I finally found a small sample tube of student quality Yellow Ochre that I used to finish up the golden areas in the grass and on the trees surrounding the house.

I also found it hard to paint on the pre-cut Artist Trading Cards from Strathmore. The cards are pre-cut to the exact size of 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches. There aren't any margins to tape down to prevent the card from sliding around while painting. More than once I had to touch up places where I put my finger in the wet paint.

It looks like it is going to take me awhile to get back into painting acrylics but I am hoping that my acrylic paintings will improve through the next 100 days as much as my watercolor paintings did.