Acrylic Painting

[Spinner]

I've had the question come up a couple of times lately via PM and email about what brand of acrylics I use and what colors to start out with for newbies.

I'll start out by saying that my collection of colors is a little on the obsessive side, mainly because I come across projects that require odd-ball blends & such and if I can get around custom mixing a color by buying something I will. The reason being is if you ever need to do a touch up or recreate the piece/color, having it premixed in a bottle is much better than trying to re-mix it. Some things you can't get out of a bottle though, like skin tone since it varies so much. very few companies produce a skin tone and even fewer produce a good one.

As you can see in the picture below, I prefer the Golden Fluid Acrylics brand but also use Angelus Leather Paints as a second choice.

Here is a good starting line-up for folks looking to start acrylic painting on a budget with as few colors as possible:

Black (Carbon or Coal)

White (Titanium and/or Zinc)

Naphthol Red

Phthalo Blue

Hansa Yellow

Burnt Sienna

Burnt Umber

For Brushes, my favorites are the Scholastic Wonder White Taklon brushes (with the long handles) from Dick Blick Art Supply. They are great brushes at a very reasonable price and are made for water color & acrylics specifically. My go to types of brushes are:

Round size 0 for fine details

Bright size 4 & 6 for large flat areas and for working color from/to edges

Flat Foot Wash size 1/2" for doing washes and large fades/shadows

Script size 2 & 4 for doing pinstripping, and hair that involves long highlights

Fan size 2 for various effects

Another handy brush that can be found at craft stores like Michael's is a "stippling brush" and is great for water spray, foam, clouds and similar effects. They can usually be found with the stenciling and tole painting supplies.

Back to the colors...the first 5 should be pretty self explanatory. Those five are the basis for pretty much any other color. Red + Blue = Purple, Blue + Yellow = Green, Purple + Yellow + Black = Burgundy, etc. it's all a matter of how much to mix and that's entirely up to you and what you're after. The last two are used for tonal changes.

A common mistake is to use black to simply make a darker version of a color. This isn't quite true in fact, some art instructors won't even let you bring black into the classroom until you've mastered color mixing without it. Umber and Sienna are used for shades & tones. What's the difference? Easiest way to explain it is to look at your own skin. Notice the various tones of color between your face, arms, legs, belly, etc. All started out the same color at one time but with age, sun, etc. there are a variety of colors now. These are "tones". Now, stand in the sun and hold out your arm so something is blocking the sunlight. This new area is "shade", literally and artistically. Sienna is used for the tones, which are generally lighter variations but still have a 'warm' aspect to them. Umber is used for shadows, shade, or darker tones...basically where you would normally think to use black. Due to it's brown base though, Umber has less a tendency to wash out the underlying colors and gives them a more natural brown/grey aspect to the underlying color suggesting shadow or shade.

If you really want to paint with a minimalist set of colors, do yourself a favor and buy a good color wheel. The type that move and allow you to see what the base colors for all the secondary & tertiary colors are the best and only cost about $8 but will uncover the mysteries of how to mix somewhere around 45 colors using just the 7 colors listed above.

That's the primer for now. I'll add a bit more on specific mixing when I have some more time later this week. In the meantime, here's what I meant about obsessive color collecting:

Enjoy!

Chris

Edited November 30, 2011 by Spinner

[Spinner]

Here is a great tutorial on mixing advanced skin tones using variations of the 5 base colors: http://www.paint-sculpt.com/tutorials/skintone_pallet/skintone-pallet-page-1.html

This link is a color mixing guide put out by Golden paints that allows you to see what color and how many parts of it to mix. The chart is based on their 8 color artist set. Notice the set doesn't include black! (but the chart shows how to mix black).

http://www.goldenpaints.com/images/ColorMixingGuide.pdf

[newfiebackflip]

I have one quick question. What would the result of cracking in the finished paint be caused by? Its only the white that gets cracked for me.

[Spinner]

I have one quick question. What would the result of cracking in the finished paint be caused by? Its only the white that gets cracked for me.

White paint has a heavier pigment than any other color simply due to the need to reflect more light and cover more of the spectrum, especially pure whites like Zinc and Titanium. This pigment is what sits on the surface of the leather and builds up as you work towards even coverage. Unfortunately due to this it has a tendancy to create a shell like structure whereas other colors don't need to be applied as thick (as many coats) to achieve the same brilliance or depth. This shell is what is cracking...long story short, the paint is too thick in that area. Best solution is to thin it 50/50 or 30/70 and apply dry brush or white wash coats. They will still build to a bright white but won't build it as thick as quickly. Another thing to do is to allow a little more time between coats to ensure they are totally dry. If a coat is left wet at all under the next coat, they essentially combine into one thicker coat. Letting each one dry completely ensure that each layer is separate and will help with the flexibility.

Cheers,

Chris

[leatheroo]

thanks for this chris

[abn]

A common mistake is to use black to simply make a darker version of a color... Umber is used for shadows, shade, or darker tones...basically where you would normally think to use black. Due to it's brown base though, Umber has less a tendency to wash out the underlying colors and gives them a more natural brown/grey aspect to the underlying color suggesting shadow or shade.

Never would have thought of this... Thanks for the tip! Looking forward to reading more as you're able to post it.

[newfiebackflip]

Makes a lot of sense.

Thanks for the help.

White paint has a heavier pigment than any other color simply due to the need to reflect more light and cover more of the spectrum, especially pure whites like Zinc and Titanium. This pigment is what sits on the surface of the leather and builds up as you work towards even coverage. Unfortunately due to this it has a tendancy to create a shell like structure whereas other colors don't need to be applied as thick (as many coats) to achieve the same brilliance or depth. This shell is what is cracking...long story short, the paint is too thick in that area. Best solution is to thin it 50/50 or 30/70 and apply dry brush or white wash coats. They will still build to a bright white but won't build it as thick as quickly. Another thing to do is to allow a little more time between coats to ensure they are totally dry. If a coat is left wet at all under the next coat, they essentially combine into one thicker coat. Letting each one dry completely ensure that each layer is separate and will help with the flexibility.

Cheers,

Chris

[Spinner]

Glad to help & share folks. I hope to come back to this in the next few days after I have recovered from the Christmas rush!

[Sylvia]

Glad to help & share folks. I hope to come back to this in the next few days after I have recovered from the Christmas rush!

Hey Spinner:

Have you recovered yet?

Sylvia

[Spinner]

Hey Spinner:

Have you recovered yet?

Sylvia

HAHA...I wish. Seems folks either got cash or gift cards to spend so business never slowed down, I'm currently booked though March!

I will see about making some time here shortly to add a bit more for those that are interested.

Cheers,

Chris

[Sylvia]

HAHA...I wish. Seems folks either got cash or gift cards to spend so business never slowed down, I'm currently booked though March!

I will see about making some time here shortly to add a bit more for those that are interested.

Cheers,

Chris

Well, you can't complain about that too much. I say you book yourself a week in April for a quick vacation somewhere fun.

[BurnTheBarrels]

I hope to see this go a bit more in depth! I remember all that painting stuff from a class last fall - oh, I miss painting but not on canvas for some reason... - but am still a bit lost about painting on leather. If you have any advice for horse tack, I'd love to hear! I'm still wondering about how to prepare a piece and how to seal it/prevent cracking from regular wear and tear of being on a horse.