Acrylic Painting Techniques on Canvas
This demonstration shows acrylic painting techniques on canvas from a figure sitting from life.
This is done in a direct painting way, also known as Alla Prima approach. So not much planning or underpainting going on but pretty much working with colored paints early on from the start. This is done with acrylic painting techniques on canvas
, which can have advantages over using oils, which I will get into talking about as well.
In pic 1, I first toned the canvas using colorful paints of washes. Since it’s acrylics, it dried right away, allowing me to start painting on top without the slippery wet on wet experience had it been with oil paints. I started out by roughly sketching in only the head of the figure. For painting full figures, I usually try to get only the head quite good first then and only then move on to the body. I do this because the portrait is the most important part of the composition to me in most of my works. So if the body is painted very well but the head is not, it would be a failed painting for me. So I find it wise to get the head down solidly first instead of spending a lot of time on the other areas just to end up failing in the end because the head isn’t good. But this is just me. I’ve seen many great figure pairings where the head is just a blur of lay-in and the focus in on the body, including the make nudes by John Singer Sargent.
In Pic 2 of this acrylic painting techniques on canvas demonstration, I just kept working on the face..
In Pic 3, I began painting in the body. I used burnt umber paint to make some linear indications for the landmarks of the figure then started laying on the flesh mixture of paint from there for this acrylic painting techniques on canvas. This pose was way below my eye level looking down at the model on the sofa but I just relied on my eyes without any manual measuring. If you look at the brown initial markings, you can tell I nailed them at one shot and there were no erasing or fixing involved. This is because I very much relied on the spontaneity of my vision. Usually when working in this fashion, first very first spontaneous marks you out down as you see are often accurate. I’ve had incidents where of make these accurate first marks then over-observe it or measure and correct it only to realize that it is wrong and it was correct before. This kind of way of using blank-mind with pure observational spontaneity works well for doing very quick sketches.
In pic 4 of this acrylic painting techniques on canvas demonstration, I just filled in the figure more with paint. O left out the tattoos planning to paint them in last. Which is one of the advantages of using acrylics as the layer will dry, making it easier to paint the tattoos on top instead of being wet on wet had I used oil paints. If I was using oils I would probably wait until the painting dries to start painting on the tattoos. You can definitely get further developed into the painting in shorter time span with acrylic painting techniques on canvas than with oils.
In Pic 5: I began adding on the tattoos.
In pic 6, I revisited the face and refined it more, achieving better likeness etc. Again, the acrylic painting techniques on canvas allowed me to keep layering on top with details without the slipperiness of wet on wet texture had I used oil paints. I also fleshed out the sofa more.
Another good advantage of using acrylic painting techniques on canvas is that you can always rest your hand on the canvas surface for control especially when doing the details, when otherwise with oils you can’t do that or you’ll smudge the painting. You can use mahl stick or hold any stick to rest your hand on with oil paintings but I find that to be a hassle and not very comfortable.
I usually use Liquitex brand of acrylics, but sometimes golden. I only use water as medium and to thin the paints but there are mediums for acrylics like the gels to enrich the texture or for creamier consistency. I love acrylics paints also because it doesn’t come with a lot of problems that comes with oil paints. Such as oil mediums creating unwanted textures and streaks or smudges while it is drying, which weren’t there when you made the marks. Acrylic painting techniques on canvas can be disadvantageous if you are used to painting techniques that works specifically for oils, such as wet on wet approach, wet on wet blending or if you generally blend a lot. Also acrylics isn’t great for glazing or very refined detailing because as the paint dries immediately, it changes values and gets darker slightly as it dries and the water or moisture evaporates out of the paint mark. So it can be quite frustrating when you’ve mixed a perfect paint and looks perfect when you put it down but it changes up on you and gets darker. The more water you use such as with glazing, the more this will happen. But it’s something you can also get used to if you really want to stick with acrylics.
Acrylic painting techniques on canvas is preferable if you use more direct approach of painting and don’t use formulated approach of organized palette and color mixing, but play by ear to mix colors as you go. This play by ear approach is what I use, which works the same for oils and acrylics, allowing me to switch up between the two without noticing any major difference. This way of painting is also good for practice even for students wanting to use oils mostly because it keeps you from relying an specific formulated palette and color mixing but forces you to mix up colors at random as needed by more versatile knowledge of colors. If you observe closely, the surfaces all over the human figure it anything that you are painting isn’t the same all around and made of infinite variants of all sorts of colors, so it’s technically makes more sense to not stick with any pre-mixed colors to put down for the whole figure or whatever that you are painting, but with various different colors you constantly mixed as you observed the specific area you want to put that paint mark down. It could seem like colors might get too much and crazy but as long as you know your color theory, you’ll make it just right so that when you step back it’ll all come together. I prefer this way of approach when dealing with acrylic painting techniques on canvas in the alla prima style.
This is done in a direct painting way, also known as Alla Prima approach. So not much planning or underpainting going on but pretty much working with colored paints early on from the start. This is done with acrylic painting techniques on canvas
, which can have advantages over using oils, which I will get into talking about as well.
In pic 1, I first toned the canvas using colorful paints of washes. Since it’s acrylics, it dried right away, allowing me to start painting on top without the slippery wet on wet experience had it been with oil paints. I started out by roughly sketching in only the head of the figure. For painting full figures, I usually try to get only the head quite good first then and only then move on to the body. I do this because the portrait is the most important part of the composition to me in most of my works. So if the body is painted very well but the head is not, it would be a failed painting for me. So I find it wise to get the head down solidly first instead of spending a lot of time on the other areas just to end up failing in the end because the head isn’t good. But this is just me. I’ve seen many great figure pairings where the head is just a blur of lay-in and the focus in on the body, including the make nudes by John Singer Sargent.
In Pic 2 of this acrylic painting techniques on canvas demonstration, I just kept working on the face..
In Pic 3, I began painting in the body. I used burnt umber paint to make some linear indications for the landmarks of the figure then started laying on the flesh mixture of paint from there for this acrylic painting techniques on canvas. This pose was way below my eye level looking down at the model on the sofa but I just relied on my eyes without any manual measuring. If you look at the brown initial markings, you can tell I nailed them at one shot and there were no erasing or fixing involved. This is because I very much relied on the spontaneity of my vision. Usually when working in this fashion, first very first spontaneous marks you out down as you see are often accurate. I’ve had incidents where of make these accurate first marks then over-observe it or measure and correct it only to realize that it is wrong and it was correct before. This kind of way of using blank-mind with pure observational spontaneity works well for doing very quick sketches.
In pic 4 of this acrylic painting techniques on canvas demonstration, I just filled in the figure more with paint. O left out the tattoos planning to paint them in last. Which is one of the advantages of using acrylics as the layer will dry, making it easier to paint the tattoos on top instead of being wet on wet had I used oil paints. If I was using oils I would probably wait until the painting dries to start painting on the tattoos. You can definitely get further developed into the painting in shorter time span with acrylic painting techniques on canvas than with oils.
In Pic 5: I began adding on the tattoos.
In pic 6, I revisited the face and refined it more, achieving better likeness etc. Again, the acrylic painting techniques on canvas allowed me to keep layering on top with details without the slipperiness of wet on wet texture had I used oil paints. I also fleshed out the sofa more.
Another good advantage of using acrylic painting techniques on canvas is that you can always rest your hand on the canvas surface for control especially when doing the details, when otherwise with oils you can’t do that or you’ll smudge the painting. You can use mahl stick or hold any stick to rest your hand on with oil paintings but I find that to be a hassle and not very comfortable.
I usually use Liquitex brand of acrylics, but sometimes golden. I only use water as medium and to thin the paints but there are mediums for acrylics like the gels to enrich the texture or for creamier consistency. I love acrylics paints also because it doesn’t come with a lot of problems that comes with oil paints. Such as oil mediums creating unwanted textures and streaks or smudges while it is drying, which weren’t there when you made the marks. Acrylic painting techniques on canvas can be disadvantageous if you are used to painting techniques that works specifically for oils, such as wet on wet approach, wet on wet blending or if you generally blend a lot. Also acrylics isn’t great for glazing or very refined detailing because as the paint dries immediately, it changes values and gets darker slightly as it dries and the water or moisture evaporates out of the paint mark. So it can be quite frustrating when you’ve mixed a perfect paint and looks perfect when you put it down but it changes up on you and gets darker. The more water you use such as with glazing, the more this will happen. But it’s something you can also get used to if you really want to stick with acrylics.
Acrylic painting techniques on canvas is preferable if you use more direct approach of painting and don’t use formulated approach of organized palette and color mixing, but play by ear to mix colors as you go. This play by ear approach is what I use, which works the same for oils and acrylics, allowing me to switch up between the two without noticing any major difference. This way of painting is also good for practice even for students wanting to use oils mostly because it keeps you from relying an specific formulated palette and color mixing but forces you to mix up colors at random as needed by more versatile knowledge of colors. If you observe closely, the surfaces all over the human figure it anything that you are painting isn’t the same all around and made of infinite variants of all sorts of colors, so it’s technically makes more sense to not stick with any pre-mixed colors to put down for the whole figure or whatever that you are painting, but with various different colors you constantly mixed as you observed the specific area you want to put that paint mark down. It could seem like colors might get too much and crazy but as long as you know your color theory, you’ll make it just right so that when you step back it’ll all come together. I prefer this way of approach when dealing with acrylic painting techniques on canvas in the alla prima style.