Dragon Stack WIP #3

I know this looks like I'm going backwards, but really it's progress. After completing the underpainting, I covered the painting with several layers of a translucent white glaze called a velatura. Zinc white is best to use. The velatura diminishes contrast, lightens up the whole painting, and brings the darks down to mid tones, so that when you glaze over them, the colors will still show.

Then the fun began! The yellow glaze is transparent yellow oxide. There is a very faint red glaze over the clock tower. Also the dragon's eye and nostril have been touched up to darken again. 

I want the sky to be orange as before, but to be a transparent, glowing, orange. The dragon will be turquoise, as before.

The underpainting is in pthalo blue and titanium white. The glaze colors are transparent yellow oxide, cadmium red medium, pthalo blue, and titanium white.

Click on the image to see it enlarged. Acrylic on 12x16 canvas.

WIP Back yard underpainting grisaille

This is what I've done so far:

1. I put a "velatura" over the entire painting, of zinc white plus glaze medium. This this translucent layer of white pulls the darks up into medium value range, making the contrast very subtle. Use zinc white, because it's transparent. Do not use titanium white. It's too opaque. In some parts of the painting you can still see this, such as the cat's face.

2. Then, a faint green glaze over the entire piece, wiping off parts of it like the bird, the cat, and the little dragon.

3. I started in on the tree trunk, glazing greens and reds over it, and darkening parts of it. I also put some highlights on the tree trunk with zinc white, impasto.

4. There is a very thin glaze of magenta on the bird. Also the squirrel has been lightened up with some white/gray impasto.

You can go back and forth with thin glazes and impasto. For glazing with acrylics, I use

Matisse "Flow" acrylics (the Jerry's house brand) or Liquitex soft body. I like the Golden glazing medium because it dries slowly and allows you time to smooth in and wipe off an over-all glaze. I also like the Liquitex glaze mediums for glazes that don't have to be smoothed so much or wiped, because these mediums dry fast.

NOTE: Acrylics dry darker, so I add very little color to my glaze medium.

For more about velaturas, read "How to Paint Like the Old Masters" by Joseph Sheppard. He's talking about oils, so you'll have to translate it into acrylics. But it works the same way, to put a velatura over the finished underpainting, and also paint back and forth using impasto for highlights, and thin glazes.

Backyard Fantasy Grisaille underpainting

"Back Yard Fantasy" 8x8 acrylics on wood.

This is another of Daily Paintworks challenges: the view out your window. There is a big, beautiful pecan tree in our back yard and plenty of squirrels & cats, so that part of the picture is accurate. The rest, well, who's to say what else someone might see in their yard besides ordinary reality?

This is an underpainting done in violet oxide and will be glazed over in various colors. Hooker's green for sure, maybe also magenta and transparent yellow oxide. We'll see.

Treasure Map value study, imagination, and Kafka

"Treasure Map" value study, 8x10 acrylics on canvas. Value study for Daily Paintworks values challenge. I started this in alizarin crimson, but found it too intense, then switched to violet oxide, which I've used before in underpaintings. There are still traces of aliziran on face and hands.

This composition will be developed with more detail, then used as an underpainting and I'll glaze over it in acrylics.

Many times when I do such paintings, people ask me where I get my ideas. I did a post last year on this blog about stretching your imagination. I believe that imagination is a skill, and just like other aspects of art, it can be cultivated and developed.

That, and I'll leave you with a quote from Franz Kafka: "You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet."