Back to Back Issues Page
Acrylics Anonymous, Issue #014 -- Seasons and Sunsets
March 01, 2013

1st March 2013, issue 014



Passionate about painting with acrylics? Need a monthly fix chock full of inspiration? Need some help to take the pain out of your painting process? It's all here for you. Acrylics Anonymous. Zero elitism. Dive in.



If you enjoy Acrylics Anonymous, and you know someone who might also enjoy it, you can share by forwarding it to your friends!

If you are receiving this because a friend has forwarded this to you, and you would like to subscribe, click here!


Subscribers only…..shhhhhh…sealed section just for you!

Tip of the month

News

Links we like

Works in progress…..show us your paintings!



Every month, we will produce a Subscribers Only "sealed section". It could be a painting technique, a short video tip, or anything we can think of that we reckon you might enjoy.

Please let us know what you think, we love your feedback! To leave comments, click here.

Your Sealed Section this month is an exclusive look at Mark's Over The Shoulder studio lesson on injecting some realism into your sunsets with some tricks you may not have known about!

Click here to access!








Warm to Cool Transitions

The transition from warm to cool (or cool to warm) in a landscape tends to be more obvious on objects that are pale, for example tree trunks, clouds, sand etc.

Don't be afraid to exaggerate and accentuate these colours, for extra pow factor in your paintings.

Learn How To Paint A Sunset.

Discover which colours to add to your sunset painting, and where. Explore where to put them to make your canvas really sing.

Click here to read more…




Coming Soon!

The V-Logs... The first in our series of downloadable video tutorials is almost here! Learn how to paint a gorgeous, luminous, underwater tropical reef scene in two x ten minute episodes!

Click here to find out more...




Impasto. Building Texture With Dollops of Fun.

Thick, juicy gobs of colour. Impasto techniques will inspire spontaneity, depth and dimension. Explore our page on creating texture using impasto.

Click here to read more...




The lovely owner of this company contacted us and sent us some samples of this product! Yay, we love new stuff! Especially when it helps save our paint! Unfortunately Mark's approach to painting requires a different paint saving set up to these. (Read: he tends to be somewhat, ahem, messy).

However, you might just have a different set up which will work with these paint savers. I have a few other people out there in the world with different painty set ups testing this product at the moment. Watch this space!!

Save your paints? Maybe!



Wendy Puerto is a UK based artist who enjoys painting sunsets using movement, light and colour. What a coincidence, we love looking at art like that!!

Check out her website for a vivid colour and movement experience.

Wendy Puerto's sunset paintings.




If you have a link you like, please share it with us! You can contact us to let us know. Thank you!

This is the section where you can "get your name in lights!" (well at least out there in the internet world!).

If you have works in progress you would love to show off, or finished pieces you are particularly proud of, we would love to see them!

We especially like to hear about the story behind the creation.

This month's WIP is (one of) our Lennox Artspace co-conspirators, and artist Lesley Ryan. For this piece she has used the new Chroma product "Free Flow" acrylic.

From Lesley: "The process of painting my dog portraits is fairly simple, but even as I write that, each one presents a different set of problems. Firstly getting the dog to sit still while I take the photo. That actually took longer than the painting!!

I draw up a simple version. I don’t put a lot of detail into the drawings as I want them to be representational but not finicky. I exaggerate some areas and delete others. When I am happy with the drawing I transfer onto the canvas. In this case I used a watercolour canvas. The fine texture enables me to do some detailed work.  I love using bold, bright colours, and start working from dark to light. I also used a restricted palette; in this case,  white, black, red, and yellow.

I paint the eyes towards the end as I’m not keen on the subject watching me paint, but when they are painted I know whether the picture is going to work.  I was going to stop and leave the background white but after painting the red collar, I thought the whole picture would be brightened by a vivid red background.

I usually use gouache as a painting medium, but I was asked to try the new Atelier paint “Free Flow" as a substitute.  This painting is my first use of the new product. It took me a while to get used to the change, I found that it was important to use the correct brushes and ended up after several trials, working with nylon watercolour brushes. It has advantages over gouache, as it doesn’t lift the bottom layer and it is easier to make changes.  The colour range at the moment is limited but I believe new colours will be added shortly.  As I often work on canvas it also has the advantage of being easier to seal than gouache.  I am going to continue trialling the medium on a few more pictures."

Thanks so much for sharing Lesley!




Hope you enjoyed this issue of Acrylics Anonymous! If you have any suggestions, comments or feedback for the ezine or our site, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Until then, make sure you chuck some paint around!

Cheers from Frankie, Mark & Nic :)


Back to Back Issues Page