Acrylic Painting student examples

Student example #1

Senecio, Paul Klee

sketch

final work

For this project we experimented with acrylic paints and different techniques in order to replicate another famous work. We also learnt about the color wheel and how to create color palettes and identified the original color palette of the artwork to then change it. I decided to replicate Senecio by Paul Klee and recognized the analogous color scheme he used of red to yellow (colors next to each other on the color wheel). I decided to use an analogous color scheme as well, however. using red to violet to change it up. I first identified the shapes and colors used by the artists in my sketch to get a basic idea of what I wanted to do with my acrylic painting. I used five different techniques in order to achieve my desired result; masking, sponging, scraping, palette knife painting, and a little bit of scumbling. I used masking to create the geometric shapes in the face and I used sponding to blend colors over each other to get a similar effect to the original Paul Klee. I used scraping to do this as well to blend and overlap colors. I used the palette knife painting technique to add texture to the edges of the painting and add more colors. I used scumbling to add extra texture in the face on the bottom.


I enjoyed using acrylic paints as I could experiment with texture and mixing colors to create my desired effect. I think i did well at incorporating different techniques that can't be seen the in original painting, such as palette knife painting, where I incorporated it on the edges to add more techniques to my work. I think I could have done better at blending the whites of the painting with other colors, similar to Paul Klee's technique of painting a color under the white. I also could have created a more perfect circle using a similar method to masking and better shown the geometric shapes of the original. Overall, this was one of my favorite projects as I loved experimenting with the thickness of paint and created 3D texture and I can see myself using these techniques again.

Student example #2

CHOOSING AN IMAGE:

First, I had to choose a picture from online. This was the picture that I chose, called Hydrangea, by James Aponovich:

Then, using a color wheel, I had to try and identify the colors and color combinations, if any. Color combinations include primary (red, blue and yellow), secondary (green, violet and orange), complementary (colors opposite each other on the color wheel, such as red and green), analogous (three-four colors next to each other, cool color schemes, warm color schemes), split complementary (a color, and the two colors next to its complement), tetrad (a square or rectangle on the color wheel), and many more. 

This particular painting includes a cool color scheme between the blue flowers and the green leaves.  It also includes some form of a complementary color scheme between the blue flowers and the oranges lying by the flower pot. A complementary color scheme can also be identified between the green leaves and the red raspberries. The raspberries bring a bright pop of color to the painting. 

After this, we had to try and change the color scheme of the original painting, or change some elements of the painting, similar to if the artist had decided to make a second or different version of the painting. 

What I decided to change:

• The color of the flowers to both blue and red
• The color of the sky to orange-red, to resemble sunset
• The add clouds in the sky
• To change the color of the bottom part of the painting
• To change the fruits to juices

As you can observe, the flowers are painted both red and yellow. This is a sort of 'double complementary' scheme. The red flowers are paired with the green leaves, its complementary color, and the blue flowers are paired with the orange sky, its complementary color. I added some clouds as another element to make the painting more interesting and engaging. 

On the bottom part of the painting, I wanted to create a completely different sort of texture, so that the bottom and the top look like two separate paintings, which makes both the top and bottom parts stand out more. At the bottom, on the gray fabric, I first painted it a red layer, let it dry. Then I painted it a silver-gray layer, and while still wet, carved a pattern into it. The outside I painted green, and the red curvy pattern in the fabric and the green also create a kind of complementary color scheme. 

I also used various techniques during this project, in which we had to use a minimum of four acrylic painting techniques. Here are all the all the techniques I used and all the places I used them in:

• Impasto: This is a technique that has been borrowed from oil painting and uses thick paint that stands out on the surface. It has highly visible brush strokes and has a stronger presence than thin paint. I used this technique to paint the red and blue flowers, and also the green background in the bottom part of the painting. 
• Sgrafitto: This technique has also been borrowed from oil painting and involves scoring into the paint to either reveal the white of the canvas below or another color below. The places where I use this are when I am scratching the veins into the leaves in the flower pot, and also the silver-gray fabric at the bottom of the painting, where I first painted a red layer of paint, let it dry, and then painted a silver-gray layer of paint on top of that, and while it was still wet, scratched out a curvy pattern on it to give the painting more character. 
• Texturing: This techniques involves mixing the paint with various substances such as sand, sawdust, or combing on the paint, or pressing objects such as coins into the paint while it is still wet, or also pressing textures like bubble wrap into the paint to create patterns on it. I used this when painting the flower pot, and mixed sand with the paint to make the pot look more realistic and imitate a real pot, which is rough.
• Scumbling: This technique involves scrubbing an uneven layer of paint over an existing color. It is important to not cover the color underneath with the second layer of paint, and also to let the first layer of paint dry before painting the second layer. I used this while painting the blue flowers, by painting a darker shade of blue over the original lighter blue. I also used some form of scumbling when painting the green background in the bottom part of the painting by mixing two shades of the same color, but didn't paint one on top of the other, rather mixed them together when both colors were still wet. 

Summary:

• We chose a painting 
• We learnt about the various color schemes on the color wheel
• We identified the color schemes in our chosen painting
• We decided what we would change in our rendition of the paintings, either elemens of the painting, or the colors or color schemes themselves
• We painted our paintings using four acryclic painting technqiues
• We wrote this blog post

Challenges:

• A real challenge was when I was trying to paint the glasses of orange and rasperry juice on either side of the flower pot. It was very hard to try to get them to look real. Even after the painting was finished, I wasn't very happy with how they turned out. 
• Another challenge was evening out the paint with the sand in it for painting the flower pot. The sand made the paint coarse and it was hard to smooth it out on the paper. However, I eventually managed to make the paint look neater. 
• Another challenge was painting the silver-gray fabric and carving out the pattern inside it. I had to be careful to not scratch out the red paint underneath too, and to not smudge any of the paint. I managed to overcome this challenge eventually also. 
• Overall, the only challenge I didn't overcome is the one where I had some difficulty painting the glasses of orange and rasperry juice. 

Successes: 

• I really like the way that I painted the red and blue flowers. I think I used the impasto technique very well here, and the flowers look very vibrant, neat, and stand out in the picture. 
• Another success, in my opinion, is the orange sky. I think I got the shade for a sunset quite right and managed to make it glow and contrast very well with the flowers. It makes the painting very bright and vibrant to look at, and gives the viewer something to observe. 
• Another think I like about my painting and think was a success is the way the top and bottom parts of the painting contrast and look very different from each other, giving the painting a unique character. I like the way the green background on the bottom and the orange background on the top contrast and complement each other. I also like how intricate the red pattern on the silver-gray fabric looks on the bottom part of the painting. 

Final Reflection:

• Overall, I think that even though I did have a fair amount of challenges while working on this project, I did a good job, and when looking at the painting, the successes outweigh the challenges, and the painting is quite pleasing to look at. I successfully managed to use four techniques and execute them quite well too.

Watercolor/Tempera painting student examples

Student example #1

During this project, I had actually struggled quite a bit. I had originally wanted to do yellow as my background monochromatic colour. When I saw that instead of a dark yellow, adding black turned yellow to more of a grey, I wanted to change colours. I decided to use yellow-orange as my main colour which I would change the value of throughout the piece by mixing yellow and orange. However, Mr. Lawrence informed me that using two colours wasn't the point of the project since the background was a monochromatic blend. I then decided that it would be best to use orange as my colour so I painted over the already painted yellow-orange squares underneath since the poster paints were opaque.

The orange turned into a brown when I added black to it so I decided to mainly use the white to change the value of the orange and make multiple tints of it. I wanted to add multiple points of darker values of the orange that connected in a lighter area which is why I made three points of browns that blended into a lighter orange which met in the middle. I wanted to do this to give interest, make the center of the painting where the seal was brighter to draw attention, and because I didn't like how blending from dark to light throughout the entire piece once looked. The darker areas are the top two corners and the middle of the bottom which forms a triangle.

The original seal stencil didn't have the separation between the two fins in the tail so I searched up images of a sea lion and used them as a reference to draw the fins. I kept the angular shape of the original stencil because I thought it would go well with the squared background. As for the inside of the seal, I wanted to use the techniques to make it almost look like the sea since they are sea creatures. I started from the top of the head and pointed towards the tail without going to multiple spots at the same time since I wanted to make the entire seal a blend of different hues of blue, also heavily using bleeding in the process. Most of the painting was wet on dry, except for the dark patch of the tail that was the dry brush. The first technique I used was rock salt on the neck, however, it didn't come out how I wanted. I tried using it again on the bottom part of the left fin but it still didn't lift the paint how I wanted. Other than that, I really liked using the other techniques, such as the water blooms on the back of the seal and the plastic wrap on the fin which I wish had used more than once because they added to the sea look. I also used masking fluid which you can see on the bottom by making circles and I used a graduated wash on the right fin. I wanted to make it kind of hectic looking so I used many other techniques as well. I used lifting out on the lower part of the tail, wet on dry (the darker lines on the chest) and feathering. I didn't like how the feathering looked because it clashed with the flowy feel of the rest of the painting so after it feathered, I used my brush to mix the paint around so it came out more swayed and blurry. It is one of my favorite parts of the painting, it is under the face on the left side.

Overall, I like how the painting turned out and I like that the background is a lighter, warmer colour and that the main component is darker because you have a clear point of interest.

Techniques:

Graduated Wash

Bleeding

Wet on Wet

Dry Brush

Wet on Dry

Lifting Out

Water Blooms

Masking with Masking Fluid

Rock Salt

Plastic Wrap Texture