Bonus Painting Demo-Intro to Drawing Bad Art (Patreon)

Full 2 hour painting session with commentary about what I'm doing. This is my painting "The Cardinal," which came out of a small watercolor sketch that I did about a year and a half ago. I painted this Alla Prima. This video starts with a timelapse of the whole process to give you an overview. Then I show the whole process in real time with no sped up parts while explaining what I'm doing and going on some tangents.

I've been trying to figure out how to start the next phase of the Intro to Drawing Bad Art Course. Kind of moving from the cold hard fundamentals into other techniques aimed more at creative thinking, play, experimentation and all that fun stuff. 

Anyways, I'm still working on the best way to go about doing all that so in the mean time here's a bonus demo. This was kind of an experiment in doing the narration after the video. 

Here's some notes about some of the stuff I talk about in the video.

Acrylic paint

What is Acrylic Paint

Acrylic paint is made up of three components: (From the Liquitex website)

1. Pigment - pigments are granular solids which give paint its color. They are milled to a tiny particle size and do not dissolve, but remain suspended in the paint. Pigments can be organic, inorganic, natural and synthetic. They have little or no affinity for the surface to which they are applied
2. Binder - a binder is the substance that keeps pigment in place after the paint dries. Acrylic paint has acrylic polymer as its binder and this forms a film after the water has evaporated
3. Vehicle - this refers to the part of the paint that carries the pigment and binder. Water is the vehicle for water-based acrylic and when combined with the binder, it creates a polymer emulsion. Once the water leaves the system via evaporation or absorption, the paint dries, creating a stable clear polymer film full of trapped colored pigment particles

Water to paint ratio (From Liquitex)

Acrylics should never be thinned with more than 25% water. Why? Too much water will upset the balance and spread the acrylic polymer too thinly so the molecules can't reconnect properly to form a stable film. Instead you should dilute with an acrylic medium, which is essentially the same as the paint but without the color pigment. This way you are adding more of the acrylic/water emulsion to keep the formula and film stable.

For me, I've found that most acrylic mediums only solve the problem of thinning the paint, but not the problem of keeping the paint wet. It's tempting to use more water to keep the paint wet if you are trying to paint into a wet surface. I've found that mixing water, some acrylic medium, and some Open Acrylic thinner made by Golden, does the trick.

Open Thinner (From Golden's website)

GOLDEN OPEN Thinner is a water-based additive designed to thin the consistency of OPEN Acrylics without altering open time, as well as maintain and adjust the workability of colors on the palette. OPEN Thinner can also function as a thin-bodied retarder when used with GOLDEN Heavy Body or Fluid Acrylics. OPEN Thinner contains no binders, does not form a film, and should never be used alone.

So after looking at this, I believe that the lack of binders in the medium is what enables it to stay wet longer. But that also means you should use some other medium with it as you paint so that you don't run into the same problem as you will with the water-lack of a binder to keep the paint on the canvas.

Local Value

I think I might have been confusing while talking about this in the video. It's not even really a huge part of the painting. Just a tangent that I went on. But here's James Gurney to clean up the mess I might have made in that tangent. This is  From his blog "Going beyond facts" 

"When dealing with local value, it's important to consider the overall perception of light and shadow in a painting. While the general rule states that the darkest light in the light should be lighter than the lightest dark in the shadow, there are cases where the local value of an object in shadow might appear lighter. In situations like this, it's crucial to observe and paint what you see. Realistic representation doesn't always adhere strictly to rules or guidelines. For example, in the case of Joaquín Sorolla's painting "Sad Inheritance," the coat in the light may appear almost black, even though it should technically be a mid-grey according to the rule. But if that's how it appears in the real scene or reference, it's perfectly valid to paint it that way. Ultimately, the goal is to capture the essence of the subject and create a believable representation. This may involve making adjustments to local values based on careful observation, lighting conditions, and the desired mood or aesthetic of the painting."

Let me know if there's anything else from the video you have questions about! thanks.

Have Fun Sweeties

Goodnight