Acrylic Watercolor Painting

by Wendon Blake

  Mixed Media

  More and more contemporary artists are turning to combinations of media to broaden their range of technical possibilities. Of all the painting materials available, acrylic is most adaptable to mixtures with other media. Here are a few possibilities worth exploring.

  Rooftops by John Maxwell, A.W.S., acrylic and collage on watercolor paper, 26”x32”. Thin, decorative papers and fabrics can be pasted to the painting surface with matt or gloss acrylic medium—or can be stuck right down onto the wet paint. If the paint has enough body, it will act just like an adhesive. To integrate the collage elements with the rest of the pictorial design, you can paint washes and strokes of color right over them, modifying the pasted patterns, but not obliterating them. It takes a good deal of looking to see where Maxwell has used bits of collage in this very subtle painting. Freely applied strokes of runny color move into, behind, and over, the collage passages and thereby knit the entire picture together.

  (1) Perhaps the most common mixed media combination is a blend of acrylic and traditional watercolor. Many painters find that they like to begin the picture with fluid, delicate washes of traditional watercolor, which establish the broad areas of the design. On top of this thin, washy foundation, they then build more solid shapes, textures, lines, and masses in the heavier acrylic paint.

  (2) Acrylic can also be combined with other water based paints. I know several painters who combine acrylic with tube casein, which yields an unusual crusty, matt texture, something like pastel. They actually mix casein and acrylic paint together, or they use the acrylic mediums to dilute and extend casein tube color.

  (3) Matt or gloss acrylic medium, all by itself, can produce glowing, translucent paint when mixed with liquid dyes, transparent watercolor, and colored drawing inks. This is a favorite medium of illustrators, who find these combinations particularly vivid for reproduction in magazines.

  (4) An even more surprising combination is matt or gloss acrylic medium with pastel. You can begin a painting with pastel on paper, then brush acrylic medium into the pastel strokes so that the dry pigment blends with the medium to produce a unique kind of paint. You can do the same with charcoal or chalk.

  This is only the barest hint of the possibilities of acrylic in mixed media painting and drawing. I’ve said nothing about the possible combinations of acrylic watercolor with pen line, brush line, pencil, wax crayon, and all the other drawing media that may be lying around in your studio. Once you get going with acrylic watercolor, it’s tempting to yank out every medium you find in your drawers and find out how the various combinations work.

  A Final Note on Collage

  Because acrylic medium—and the paint made with that medium—is such a powerful and permanent adhesive, many painters in acrylic have found ways of incorporating collage elements. Collage is really an independent medium, of course, and this brief, final note will hardly do it justice. But there are a few obvious ways of combining collage with acrylic watercolor—and these are worth trying as an introduction to acrylic collage.

  (1) The simplest collage medium is paper. Inexpensive white or colored tissue can be used to build up textures or your painting surface; over these textures, you can apply washes of transparent color, drybrush and scumbling effects, or opaque color as an underpainting for transparent color. Paste down the tissue with a generous layer of matt or gloss acrylic medium, then cover the tissue with another layer of medium, which thus provides a receptive surface to the paint that follows. The tissue needn’t be applied flat, but can be crumpled, wrinkled, or torn. This creates a much livelier texture to paint on.

  (2) Another way to use paper is to hold onto your old, spoiled paintings, cut them up or tear them up, and then paste them onto a fresh surface. I don’t guarantee that this collage of bits and pieces will give you a new and effective painting in itself. But it may give you some rough and unexpected color areas which will fire your imagination and give you the basis on which to build a new pictorial design.

  (3) You can also assemble bits and pieces of textured cloth, plain or patterned, and wash acrylic watercolor over these. Once again, paste them down with an underlayer of acrylic medium, and then cover them with some more acrylic medium to create a receptive painting surface.

  (4) Finally, you can incorporate all kinds of textural materials into your acrylic watercolor collage. There may be places where you want to apply a layer of acrylic medium and then sprinkle on some granular stuff like sand, coffee grounds, pencil shavings, or sawdust. You can then leave these textures alone, or you can apply washes of color over them.

  The complete vocabulary of possibilities is far too vast to summarize. What I do hope you’ll do is try a few of these ideas and then take off from there. The sky’s the limit.

  Edge of Light by Gerald Grace, A.W.S., acrylic on watercolor paper, 21 “x29½”. This unusual drybrush technique is less familiar in painting than in pen and ink drawing, where cross-hatching is a time-honored way of building rich tone and elaborate texture. The rugged, sinuous forms of the tree trunks and the winding roots in the foreground are methodically painted in a series of short, overlapping strokes that curve around the cylindrical shapes and accentuate their three dimensional quality. The hanging foliage is also expressed in ragged strokes that follow the direction of the form. Knowing that drybrush can be over-used—and can become overwhelmingly monotonous—the artist has wisely left spaces of bare paper to act as a foil for his brushwork.

  Demonstrations

  DEMONSTRATION 1:

  TRANSPARENT WATERCOLOR TECHNIQUE

  Good Harbor Beach, October by John C. Pellew: Step One

  The artist begins by sketching in his composition with diluted burnt umber. He works with a No. 5 round sable brush and simply indicates the large, abstract shapes of the composition. The big shape of the cloud shadow in the foreground “contrasted nicely with the sunlit area beyond, ” says the artist, “so I gave it plenty of space.” For this reason, Pellew explains, “I kept my horizon line well above the center.” At this preliminary stage, Pellew draws the absolute minimum number of lines necessary to rough in the major shapes, but makes no attempt to indicate details or even a touch of tone.

  Good Harbor Beach, October by John C. Pellew: Step Two

  The sky is the first thing painted. “After wetting the area with clean water, applied with a 1 ” flat oxhair brush, I waited until the shine was off the surface.” Working with diluted thalo blue, he finishes the sky, ”keeping it very simple, so that it won’t compete with my interesting busy foreground. ” Next, he puts in the big mass of the headland with its clutter of houses; he uses mixtures of thalo blue, Payne’s gray, raw sienna, and burnt umber. This is purposely left unfinished. Now, working down the sheet, he puts in the blue of the ocean, leaving white paper for the surf, and then paints the bright, sunlit part of the beach. When this is dry, he mixes a puddle of yellow ochre, warmed with a little burnt sienna, and paints in the middle tones seen above on the curve of the distant beach; this also goes over most of the foreground. Finally, some yellow-green is added for the beach grass atop the dune.

  Good Harbor Beach, October by John C. Pellew: Step Three

  “Time out for a smoke while everything dries, ” says Pellew. Now the headland is given its finishing touches “taking care not to overdo the details,” the artist emphasizes, “which were all too plainly visible. ” The tone of the ocean is darkened and some drybrush is used to give textural interest to the distant beach. “A few cool green tones are introduced into the beach grass on the sand dune, leaving only the large foreground to deal with. Of course, I knew when I started that the cloud shadow would disappear from the landscape as I painted, so I studied its color and tone at that time, and finally painted it from memory.” The cloud shadow is Payne’s gray, a little thalo blue, and a touch of burnt umber, grayed with a little opaque white. This is painted over the warm underpainting and allowed to dry. Finally, a darker mix of the same colors is used to give the shadow area
some variety.

  Good Harbor Beach, October by John C. Pellew: Step Four

  The last steps in the painting are details, like putting in the seaweed left by the outgoing tide, and indicating the small figure. A No. 9 round sable is used for the seaweed and a No. 2 round sable for the figure. The seaweed is raw sienna, burnt umber, and Payne’s gray, rather loosely mixed. The girl’s shirt, of course, is opaque white. Except for that one opaque touch, the picture is entirely transparent. Pellew points out that: “This painting is a good example of one of the many problems that bedevil the landscape painter: the change in light. Sunlight and shadow won’t stand still. That first impression—the effect that attracted you in the first place—must be captured. The landscape before you changes so fast that you’ve got to keep that effect in mind and face the fact that most of the picture will have to be painted from memory. I liked the cloud shadowed foreground and kept this first impression in mind even though the actual effect lasted only two or three minutes.” The painting is a half sheet (15”x22”) of 300 lb. cold pressed paper.

  DEMONSTRATION 2:

  TRANSPARENT, SEMI-TRANSPARENT, AND SEMI-OPAQUE COLOR

  Boats by Hardie Gramatky: Step One

  The artist begins by sketching in the composition entirely in line, with a few dark notes to indicate prominent touches of shadow. These dark touches are sparingly placed on the central boat and on the wheels. The rhythmic forms of the boats are indicated with swinging, gently curving lines. The abstract basis of the composition is clearly indicated at this stage. The division of the picture plane is the result of very careful study and nothing is left to chance: note how the area above the boats is divided by the masts into a variety of shapes, no two of them the same. Although it’s easy to correct acrylic by resorting to opaque painting, Gramatky doesn’t leave compositional decisions to chance or to last minute impulse, but begins with a complete pictorial design. This actually allows him to work more spontaneously when he begins to apply paint, because the basic framework of the picture is complete from the very beginning.

  Boats by Hardie Gramatky: Step Two

  The next stage is to establish the color areas. Gramatky sets the color key to the entire picture with the bright “spring green” foreground, which is a luminous, transparent wash. Notice the interesting texture of the wash, which has the lively, scrubby, bubbly quality of an acrylic wash on gesso. (The picture is painted on a sheet of illustration board coated with acrylic gesso, applied with a slightly streaky texture.) The deep green shadows under the boat are related to this basic foreground color. The artist then concentrates on the excitement of harmonious local colors: the red and light blue sterns become foils for the dark blue boat and the red pulley at the center of the picture. Gramatky says that he “relates these colors as carefully as if they were the dominant notes in a symphony.” A blue-green tone is thrown over the entire background to set off the lightstruck forms of the boats. Throughout this phase of the painting, colors are essentially transparent, and no attention is given to such details as the cast shadows on the boats themselves, or the masts that will loom up before the mass of trees. Gramatky still concentrates on the large shapes.

  Boats by Hardie Gramatky: Step Three

  “Now for the fun,” says the artist. Here’s where he establishes the final forms—painting the bright white areas on the boats with a loaded brush and fluid, opaque color. The opaque gray shadows on the hulls complete their rounded, rhythmic forms, while free swinging strokes of transparent and semi-transparent color convert the dark background wash to the shape and texture of a clump of trees. The masts of the boats are indicated in decisive strokes of opaque color. Gramatky points out that he avoids using black as much as possible; note that his shadows are as richly colored as the rest of the picture.

  Boats by Hardie Gramatky: Step Four

  The final painting is on an 11”x15” sheet of illustration board, coated on both sides with gesso to prevent warping. Gramatky has made full use of the varying degrees of transparency, semi-transparency, and semi-opacity of acrylic. The foreground is a completely transparent wash, with the white gesso ground shining through every stroke. The trees and shadows under the boats are a fascinating blend of semi-transparent and semi-opaque strokes with one color shining through another to create an effect of unusual richness. The masts and the shadows on the boats are heavy, opaque colors. Observe how the streaky texture of the gesso enlivens the washes and strokes applied over this surface. Because gesso is less absorbent than watercolor paper, this specially prepared surface encourages free, spontaneous brushwork as the brush glides swiftly over the painting ground.

  DEMONSTRATION 3:

  TRANSPARENT COLOR WITH OPAQUE DETAILS

  Abandoned Farm by John Rogers: Step One

  After a precise pencil drawing, the flat tone of the sky is laid in first, covering the mass of trees to the left and even running over the smaller architectural forms that protrude from the roof. While the sky wash is drying, Rogers washes in the tone of the foreground. Next come the tones on the side of the house itself. The sky mixture consists of cerulean blue, cobalt blue, Payne’s gray, and a little alizarin crimson. The foreground mixture is yellow ochre, raw umber, and sepia. The side of the house is cerulean blue, cobalt blue, and just a hint of cadmium orange.

  Abandoned Farm by John Rogers: Step Two

  Rogers points out that “the entire painting was still done in much the same way as conventional watercolor, working primarily from light to dark, adding darker and darker details as I proceeded. ” The mass of the trees to the left is painted directly over the sky. The dark tones of the house are added and touches of detail begin to appear, like the shapes of the bricks and the texture of the foreground. The posts in the foreground are painted with masking fluid, which will later be peeled off to reveal the white paper beneath. Aside from the posts, the artist pays no attention to other light areas which may be covered up at this stage, but which can be re-established by touches of opaque color later on.

  Abandoned Farm by John Rogers: Step Three

  Now still more detail is added as the foreground tones are deepened, strengthened, and more clearly defined. Further architectural detail is added to the house. Note, in particular, the refinement of the architectural details that protrude from the rooftops. However, at this stage, the artist is still working mainly with flat shapes and flat color areas. The painting is not yet fully three dimensional.

  Abandoned Farm by John Rogers: Step Four

  Now the painting really springs into three dimensions. The tones of the trees to the left are deepened and enriched. More complex tones are added to the rooftops; the foreground tones are deepened and made more precise. The shadow planes of the architecture are established in more final form. Details of windows and stonework are added, with opaque touches for the light foliage in the foreground, the scrubby trees in the middle distance, and the strips of light on the architecture. A wet-in-wet tone is also added to enliven the sky.

  Abandoned Farm by John Rogers: Step Five

  The final painting is mainly transparent, with touches of opaque color added for crisp detail in the foreground foliage and in the architecture. The sky is painted wet-in-wet and the color has tended to settle into the texture of the paper, which lends it a lively, granular quality. The foreground runs the full gamut of textured effects from fluid paint to drybrush. The deep tones of the architecture demonstrate the unique capacity of acrylic to produce dark washes—built up by a series of light washes—which are both deep and transparent. Abandoned Farm is on a 20”x28” sheet of watercolor paper.

  DEMONSTRATION 4:

  PAINTING ON WET PAPER

  Dried Flower Still Life by Arthur J. Barbour: Step One

  A full sheet, 22”x30”, of rough Arches watercolor paper is soaked in a tub of water for about twenty minutes, then taped to the drawing board and allowed to dry for several hours. After the paper is “stretched” in this way, the entire composition is lightly drawn in penc
il; the lines are faintly visible here. Barbour selects a palette of burnt sienna, raw sienna, raw umber, cobalt blue, Hooker’s green, cadmium red light, cadmium yellow, thalo crimson, and black India ink. The lower portion of the picture is wetted down with clear water, using a natural sponge. Various grays (mixed with raw sienna, burnt sienna, and cobalt blue) are introduced into the wet paper, and these colors soften and diffuse. When these tones are settled into the moist paper, India ink is mixed with the pigment and added with a small brush to retain or sharpen edges here and there. The area is allowed to dry and the process is repeated several times until the full color density is developed. The little saffron flower in the center is also painted wet-in-wet—with cadmium yellow, Hooker’s green, burnt sienna, and cadmium red light, with touches of black India ink.