Portrait
Painting in Acrylics
Materials for Acrylic Painting
The materials used in our portrait of Robert
Burns are displayed in our numbered illustration
above and described below:
1)
This is the preparatory
drawing of Burns done in pencil on paper.
2)
This is the finished unframed portrait on a stretched
canvas.
3)
This is the acrylic gesso that was used to prime the canvas.
The stretched canvas is prepared with several coats of
acrylic gesso, each sanded smooth before the application
of the next, creating a perfect surface for painting.
4)
These are the tubes of acrylic paint used to create the
image.
5)
This is the range of stiff hogs hair and soft sable brushes
used to apply the paint. All the fine details of our portrait
were painted using sizes 1, 0 and 00 sable brushes. A
craft knife with a curved blade was also used to scrape
back and repair any mistakes in painting.
6)
These are the water pots and pipettes used for mixing
the paint. Pipettes are very useful tools for accurately
measuring mixtures of water, medium and paint.
7)
This is the palette used for mixing small quantities of
paint. When acrylic paints dry on an acrylic palette,
the paint peels off like a skin and you rinse the palette
in water. This highlights another major advantage of acrylics
over oils: cleaning up after using acrylics is a more
hygienic and pleasant task than cleaning up after using
oils.
8)
These are the bottles of acrylic medium ( gloss and
matte ) which were used for mixing coloured glazes.
Although
you may use water to thin acrylic colours, it is best
to add some acrylic medium to maintain the durability
and elasticity of the paint. Acrylic medium comes in bottles
of gloss, and matte medium to meet a range of surface
effects. You need to experiment with various mixtures
of paint, medium and water to create the type of glazes
that suit your painting technique. Some artists will patiently
build up many thin glazes of paint to achieve a specific
effect; others want to get there fast and use thicker
mixtures.
9)
These are the airtight containers ( old 35mm. film
canisters ) used to hold and prevent glazes from
drying out. During a painting you invariably find, for
a variety of reasons, that you need use some glazes again
at a later stage and it is very difficult to mix up a
perfect match. Therefore, it is advisable to mix up more
than you need and keep the remainder in an air tight container.
All
the acrylic painting materials used in our portrait
of Robert Burns are Liquitex
products.
Liquitex
Acrylic paints have many great qualities:
-
They thin, mix and clean with water.
- When
dry they are permanent, waterproof, flexible, non
yellowing and resistant to ultra-violet light.
- They
have a wide range of permanent colours from which
to choose.
- They
adhere to most surfaces.
- You
do not need to use toxic solvents to clean up.
- You
can varnish an acrylic painting soon after completion
- it is recommended that you wait for six months
after finishing an oil painting before you varnish
it.
- They
have a greater versatility of technique than any
other medium.
- Acrylics
are as versatile as oils when it comes to impasto
painting with a brush or palette knife and have
a jewel-like radiance when applied as transparent
glazes of colour.
- The
greatest advantage that acrylic paints have over
oil paints is their quick drying time: minutes as
opposed to days.
-
This is also their greatest disadvantage as you
do not have the time for subtle graduated blending
of colours before the paint dries. You can use retarder
mediums with acrylics to slow down the drying time
(they double it) but they do not give you
the same versatility. However, you can adapt your
technique to compensate by stippling graduated colour
as demonstrated in the background
of our portrait.
-
Therefore, if you are used to painting with oils,
you may have to adjust your painting technique accordingly
to adapt to the strengths of acrylics.
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