Acrylic Painting Links

• Art Renewal Center Over $30,000 prize money in five categories: landscape, figurative, still life, sculpture and drawing. Open to all artists, members and non-members. All entries must be original artwork, conceived and created by the entrant. Representational work only, abstract works will be disqualified. Acceptable mediums include oil, watercolor, acrylic, pastel, graphics (graphics refers to all drawing media) and sculpture.
• RBC Canadian Painting Competition aims to foster the innovative vision of Canada’s emerging professional visual artists.
• Country Energy Art Prize for Landscape Painting is fast becoming one of Australia’s most celebrated landscape painting competitions.
• The Archibauld Portrait Painting Competition is one of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious art awards. J.F. Archibald’s primary aims were to foster portraiture, support artists and perpetuate the memory of great Australians. Since its inception in 1921 the prize has been awarded to some of Australia’s most important artists, including George Lambert, William Dobell and Brett Whiteley.
• Allied Artists of America Their goal is furthering the cause of contemporary American artists through its Annual National Open Exhibition in New York City, open to all members and non- members. Over $22,000.00 in prize money.
• BP Portrait Award is the most prestigious portrait competition in the world, promoting the very best in contemporary portrait painting.

In order to mix your paints, you have to know some basics about the color wheel. There are three primary colors: red, yellow, and blue, and we use these to mix the secondary colors: red and yellow make orange, yellow and blue make green, and red and blue make purple. If you mix all three primary colors you get anything from brown to black. For a good color wheel diagram, see The Artist’s Toolkit.

At least that is the theory. However, if you have tried to mix acrylic paints, you know that this is not always true, and that mixing two colors can just as easily make a pile of mud brown. This is because acrylic paints are not always pure colors, each one has what is called a bias. A bias is a touch of another color mixed in with the base color to get a color variation. For example, French Ultramarine is a blue with a red bias and Prussian Blue is a blue with a yellow bias. Cadmium Yellow has a blue bias, and Cadmium Yellow Deep has a red bias. This means that you can mix Prussian Blue and Cadmium Yellow to get a good green, but if you mix Prussian Blue with Cadmium Yellow Deep you will get a muddy green because you are actually mixing all three primaries, not just two of them. For more information on colors, see the Winsor & Newton website.

If you are a beginner, use six colors so that each primary has a different bias. For example, use French Ultramarine (red bias) and Cobalt Blue (yellow bias), Cadmium Yellow Light (blue bias) and Cadmium Yellow Medium (red bias), and Alizarin Crimson (blue bias) and Cadmium Red Light (yellow bias). If you want to mix a clean secondary color, make sure you mix two primaries with the same bias.

One successful artist who uses a limited palette is Kevin Macpherson. Read his book Fill Your Oil Paintings With Light & Color for good instruction on color mixing.

Another good source of information on color wheels, color palettes and color harmony is the Virtual Art Academy course on Color.

• American Artist Magazine a widely read and respected resource featuring paintings, drawings and sculptures of artists in a variety of mediums. A source of inspiration to begining and seasoned artists. Contains articles on how artists can improve their skills and how collectors can improve their knowledge of fine art. Contains balanced coverage of the art world.
• The Artist’s Palette Full of beautiful images from the work of well known artists in acrylic, oil, watercolor and mixed media. Written articles by the artists provide readers with advice and tips on ways to create a masterpiece.
• Leisure Painter Inspires, guides and encourages beginners and improvers with instruction, and general advice on ways to progress. Experienced and popular tutors set projects, describe their own working methods and offer helpful tips and ideas.
• International Artist In each 164 page bi-monthly issue of International Artist magazine it takes you inside the studios of the world’s best artists. They tell you the thought processes behind their creative methods and reveal their painting techniques. For beginners, intermediate & professionals as well.
• American Art Review, a good review of historical
  American artists and their work. Usually some nice artwork by good historic artists.
• Fine Art Connoisseur engages enthusiasts and fine-art collectors with in-depth editorial that builds upon the breadth of information offered by the world’s most important art authorities.
• Southwest Art This magazine is a must for the art collector–both beginning and experienced. The work of the West’s most accomplished artists comes to your home every month in the pages of Southwest Art. Each issue highlights up-and coming artists and emerging art trends.

Here are some glossaries of art terms for artists:

• ArtLex Art Dictionary, an extensive reference tool of
  art terms.

Here are some resources to help you choose, plan, and paint your landscape painting.

• Six Good Reasons not to Paint a Landscape
  A video presentation by one of the US’s top landscape artists, Wolf Kahn. Produced by PBS channel WGBH,
• How to paint a small landscape painting, by Scott Burkett
  This simple tutorial will talk the novice painter through painting a small landscape painting. This tutorial is designed to be done in a single session (alla prima).
• What features to include in a landscape painting, by John Lovett
  How John breaks landscape subjects down into simple elements to aid in his composition.

Here are some of the best websites to find painting workshops, courses, classes, and tutorials. Many of the artists paint in oils, but they can also tell you how to paint with acrylic paints as the principles are the same. The techniques of acrylic painting are slightly different from oil painting, but they will be able to show you where they are different.

• Virtual Art Academy
  These self-study courses cover all the principles of painting used by the old masters. The painting courses show you how to get started in acrylic painting, how to create great compositions, how to get vibrant colors in your paintings, and on to more advanced topics such as brushwork techniques and perspective.
• Artshow.com
  An excellent resource for acrylic painting painting workshops and classes, both in the US and internationally. Listed by date and always up-to-date.
• Scottsdale Artist School
  An internationally respected nonprofit organization devoted to the education of traditional fine art. Located in the American Southwest in sophisticated Scottsdale, Arizona, the school is widely regarded for quality painting instruction by well-known artists such as John Burton, Ron Hicks, William Hook, William Scott Jennings, Milt Kobayashi, David Leffel, John Poon, Ray Roberts, Ned Mueller, and Jove Wang. Art classes are run all through the year.
• Laguna Plein Air Painters Association
  The association runs painting workshops throughout the year by reknowned artists from across the US, such as Peggi-Kroll Roberts, John Budicin, John Cosby, Debra Huse, Jeanette LeGrue, Camille Przewodek, and Kenn Backhaus.
• California Art Club
  CAAM is dedicated to teaching and exhibiting traditional fine art, specifically historic and contemporary traditional art and California plein air painting. They use master artists who have been painting and teaching for many years. Among their painting workshop leaders are Charles Muench, Stephen Mirich, Gil Dellinger, and Calvin Liang.
• Fechin Art Workshops
  Donner Ranch presents workshops based on the work of Nicholai Fechin of Russia. Informative art instructors provide high quality painting classes. Painting (in all media), drawing and sculpture are offered to all levels. Artist teachers inclue Sherrie McGraw, Kim English, Ken Auster, Dan Gerhartz, and Gregg Kreutz.

Here are supplies for notan studies. Important: Try to get these specific brands as we have often found
that other types of pens and paper can cause students major difficulties in
doing Notan studies. You can also use some gray (middle value, 50% gray) pastel or charcoal paper and a black and white pastel stick.

• Tombow brush pens

Get Tombow N65 ( a middle value cool gray 5), Tombow N75 (a light value cool gray 3), and Tombow N15 (a pure black).



Penwa
560 Stokes Rd, Suite #23-500
Medford NJ 08055-2907
Phone: 888-626-8194

• Pastels

You can also use pastels. For the middle gray, use Pentel oil pastels Gray #26 (or any other type of pastel). Also use a black pastel stick, and if you are using gray paper, use a white pastel stick.

• Sketch books

Strathmore Drawing 400 Series medium 80lb 4”X 6” sketchbook.
This is a good fairly heavy weight paper that does not buckle and takes the ink in the Tombow brush pens very well. If you are using pastels, use a middle gray value charcoal paper since it is easier to use than white paper.

Art Supply Warehouse (ASW)
5325 Departure Drive
Raleigh, NC 27616-1835
Phone: 800 995 6778
Fax: 1 919 878 5075

You can spend a lot of time and money buying the wrong art instruction books that do not help you, or send you in the wrong direction. Here are some excellent printed and online books on the principles and techniques of oil painting. Many have wonderful illustrations, step-by-step instructions, and a wealth of tips for both the beginner and more experienced acrylic painting artists.

• Acrylic Painting for Beginners by Barry John Raybould. This series of online books contains all the basic information a beginner or intermediate painter needs to get started as an oil painter. It gives tips on which supplies and equipment to buy, how to set up your studio, how to prepare your equipment, as well as the key concepts, principles and techniques you need to know before you paint your first oil painting. Lots of step-by-step instructions for improving your painting skills.
• A Complete Program on Acrylic Painting for Serious Artists by Barry John Raybould. This is a complete two to three year program of art instruction for intermediate and advanced artists, all the way from the foundation knowledge in each topic to the more advanced information that you would normally only get in a master class with an experienced artist.
• A Proven Strategy for Creating Great Art by Dan McCaw.
• 60 Minutes to Better Painting by Craig Nelson. Concentrating on quick studies allows painters to get to the essence of painting. This proven method focuses on the gist of the subject and the ability to make fast decisions, rather than the minute details that seem to mire some artists and prevent them from improving.

When you first start to paint with acrylic paints, you will see there are many things you have to do before and after you work on your paintings. Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Start out with only three colors (a red, a blue, and a yellow) plus black and white. If you have too many colors you will get confused quickly and your colors will get muddy and lacking in vibrancy. After you have completed over 100 sketches and you feel comfortable using this limited palette, you can upgrade to a warm and cool red, a warm and cool blue, and a warm and cool yellow.
• Put as much paint on your palette as you think you will need to complete the painting, so that you do not have to stop and refill your palette while you are concentrating on your artwork.
• Limit yourself to a few brushes - use one medium size brush for each of your colors (red, blue, and yellow), a large brush for painting the imprimatura (base color), and a rigger brush for doing the final small details.
• If you have paint leftover on your palette at the end of the painting session, you can put the whole palette underwater, or cover the paint and palette with plastic film and put it in the freezer. Either of these methods will keep your paints fresh until the next time you use them.

There are really only a few basic things you need to start your first acrylic painting:

• a painting support (canvas, linen or gessoed board)
• 1 small, 1 medium, 1 large brush and one rigger
• acrylic paints (you only need three colors to start with, cadmium yellow (or an equivalent warm yellow), alizarin crimson (or an equivalent cool red), and ultramarine blue (or an equivalent warm blue). You will also need white and black.
• palette

There are some optional extras, but you can get these later once you are comfortable with your painting skills:

• medium to change the drying time and consistency of your acrylic paints
• an easel to support your painting
• palette knives to clean your palette, or apply the paint to your painting to give it more texture