Acrylic Painting of Cumulonimbus Cloud

"Orange Nimbus" done in acrylic using liner and filbert brush 5x7 © DWeaver Art

Mixed Media Abstract Painting Process

It has been a while since I posted any abstract art on my blog.  This is for all you who love abstract art painting like me. I don't know if I shared this with you all or not but I really enjoy painting in abstract. There is so much freedom and such an opportunity to be spontaneous when creating abstract that you can never mess up.  For all of those who has every seen abstract paintings before and if your response has been, "how is this art?"  "I just don't get it."  Perhaps you also said to yourself,  "That's just a bunch of paint all over the place."  Well guess what? You are not alone.  I must admit that I was one of you who said the same things until I got educated on the elements of design.
There are so many elements and principles of design which are also used in interior decoration, fashion, architecture and ect.  My abstracts most of the time deals with 3 to 4 colors that compliment one another on the color wheel with there tints and shades.
My goal in my abstract painting is to invoke an emotion through the use of colors which excite the eye or grabs your attention. Basically, expressing to the viewer of my abstracts what these colors has done to me emotionally.
 My other purpose in painting abstract is the create  emphasis with the use of texture.  I just love texture in my abstract paintings whether it is broken up color through splatter or the use of a palette knife and many other ways.  I hope you enjoy the piece which was produced last week.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

This is my reference thumbnail drawing done in prismacolor pencil.  The colors I used was purple, gray, lavender the tint of purple, baby blue, and a light dark aqua green.  If you are familiar with the color wheel these are secondary and tertiary color with one neutral which is gray.  By doing a thumbnail drawing design at the beginning it gives you a preview of which it my look like before totally committing to the color and composition.  However, in this piece later I deviated from the original composition and altered it some.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

I used canson watercolor paper and used liquitex matte super heavy gel which goes on white and can be mixed with paint.  In this case I applied the gel medium onto the paper.  I don't know if you can see the pattern or compostion drawn out on the surface with a pencil before there was paint applied. The gel gives the surface texture.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Next I added a light amount of  watercolors to the surface and I continued to add more color to darken it. I could have went dark to began with, but instead when I work with watercolors I start out light in tones of color.  You can see where the pattern or composition is going.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

I continue to add watercolors to the designated areas which was predetermined beforehand.  If you look closely you can see the texture coming through the colors.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                                                 

This is the final stage of the process as you can see there are colors that are broken up to produce more texture.  I added the same colors to the piece using only acrylic now.  I created my own stencil design out of watercolor paper which is stiff.  Your stencil has to be stiff enough to hold its pattern or design. I used a filbert bush and large round brush in the final stage.

Thank you all for taking the time to view my art blog.  If you are interested in my works of art please email me at deeweaver15@gmail.com.

Still Life Painting in Acylic

 Apple and Pitcher Still Life Painting

  

One Sunday afternoon this past summer I set up this still life of a apple and pitcher.  I had the purpose in mind to start do a painting of a still life.  I had been doing a few drawing of still lifes but this time I wanted to paint one instead.  When I set up most of my still lifes I use a dark back ground. I love the use of values and tones with the use of reflected light on the subjects.

Step 1 The Underpainting 

For the first step I began with a underpainting in a water down acrylic brown with a filbert brush.

I normally began with a drawing but in the case I chose not to. When I start my realistic paintings I use a filbert brush.  I just lay in the dark tones and block in the lighter values with a more watered down brown color.

Step 2 Adding Color 

Next I added color to the subject in the picture, this happened after I mixed the desired colors that were needed.  When I darken my colors I use blue or brown and sometimes I use black.  In this case, I took acylic red and darkened the tone with some blue.  When it came time for me to lighten the color I just used white.

Adding Color Continues

I repeated the same process with the blue sheet in the fact that I lighten with white and darkened it with black or brown.  I was still using the filbert brush during this stage of the painting.  However when it was time for me to paint the edges I used a flat brush and a liner brush to create a straight edge.

Finished Work

Landscape Painting of Red Barn and Storm Clouds

Approaching Storm

"Approaching Storm" is a painting that I'am pleased to share.  This painting depicts my intrest in storms and barns.  I really like storms and barns.  Partically, old run down barns.  However this painting shows a red barn in good condition. This is a painting I finished this past weekend. It took me a week to complete it.  Althought about 5hrs went into it.  "Approaching Storm" was done on an 18x24 inch canvas with acrylic paint.  I painted this from imagination something I really don't do. I usually go by a image. I had a lot of fun like most of my art work.  This painting is the only one I have this at this size.  I do plan on painting more at this size and larger.  I wanted to share with you my process in creating this peice. 

Sky and Clouds

I first drew in the barn mountains and tree.  This created my blueprint for what and where I need to paint. I started out with a flat brush with blue acrylic paint to create the sky.  I preped canvas with water by spraying water on it with a fine mist.  I applied the paint with a large 1 1/2 flat brush and went in a horizontal motion left to right to smoothly coat the canvas.  Next I mixed some blue, black, and white to create the clouds. I used a filbert brush to paint the tones and values of the clouds.

Base of the Cloud

Next I mixed more of the blue black and white to apply and blend in the darkness of the base of the cloud.  I still used a filbert brush to apply the paint mixture.  At this point you can see the contour of the horizon line of the mountains and the barn. 

Underpainting of Landscape

Well here I am. Next I used brown acrylic paint with a light wash to create the underpainting.  At this stage and with most underpaintings I just wanted to block in the dark tones and mid tones.  Now at this stage you can see the mountains the barn and the paths layed out.  Whenever I do an underpainting I alway use most water into my brown paint.  This is how it creates a very light tone. Usually I allow this to be the highlight tone in other paintings.

Adding Hue and Details to Landscape

Finally this is the last process picture showing most has been painted except barn being painted.

Whenever you do a landscape paint you always paint sky background to the fore ground.  I laid down the tones of color for the distant mountain.  The atmosphere away form the sun has a cool tint to it when the sun is out of object from a great distance.  This gives your painting depth (the illusion of distance) on a flat 2 dimensional surface.  I used a flat brush to paint the mountains. The furtherest mountain I used more blue and white in my mixture of green.  The mountains more upclose I used more green and this created a tonal contrast of the 2 mountains. Next I used my filbert brush to apply yellow paint to give the illusion of yellow flowers.  Next I used the same filbert brush and apply brown paint and darkened the paths in the meadow. Next I used a fan brush to paint in the peaks of grass.  I only applied green paint on the tip of the fan brush.  Next I used a small liner brush and created the trunk and branches of the tree.  Finally, I used my fan brush once again to apply different shades of green to my tree to create leaves. Note whenever you paint leave make sure you have a sense of light direction.  If your light is coming from the right then let your leaves be the brightest on the same side of the light source and vice versa.  I hope you like my painting "Approaching Storm". Please feel free to like, share, or comment on this blog. Thank you.