This looks really nice. You did a great job on the cat. She is adorable. I just started painting a few months ago so I've been watching videos to get tips. Any plans on doing anymore videos?
Great video. I use an acrylic underpainting as well, and I like to apply a coat or two of clear gesso on top of the underpainting to add more tooth and increase the mechanical bond between the oil and acrylic.
You cover the background with an off-tone so that you can see the actual colours you paint over it and how they interact with other colours. Your eye picks it up differently. The old masters also did this to create a rich depth.
The first time I did a thin wash of acrylic underpainting for an oil painting on top, I thinned the acrylic with too much water. That resulted in the acrylic paint not having enough binder to adhere to the canvas. So it sat underneath my oil painting, and flaked off the canvas, taking the upper layer of oil with it. So folks need to read up on the maximum percentage of water one can mix with acrylics in order to still have enough binder left in the paint so it will adhere to the canvas. I'm just trying to be helpful, because I wasted over 40 hours on one of the best oil paintings I ever did before the paint started cracking and peeling off the canvas. Yes. I cried a lot.
For this demo I used Liquitex Flow Aid. I highly recommend it. It allows you to add much more water to the acrylic to create watercolor-like consistency without sacrificing the integrity of the paint. www.liquitex.com/row/products/professional/gessoes-mediums-varnishes/flow-aid-additive/
I'm sorry but I couldn't listen anymore after the 4th or 5th time seeing the holding breath while swallowing and sucking teeth, it became very annoying.
Can i use water mixable oils for the underpainting or regular oils with medium w to make it water mixable and dilute the paint with water rather than solvent?
This is one of the best explanations we've encountered of how and why artists would reduce or eliminate traditional solvents from the studio. The explanation of "fat over lean" was excellent, and we think the suggestion for doing the initial wash in acrylics is a great, practical solution that many artists could use. Lots of great advice!
Excellent! The best coverage of the subject I've ever come across. I do have one question: since you mention "laying out the colors," do you use several different colors in acrylics to plan out the painting, as you used to do when you used solvents plus oil pigment during the underpainting stage? I have done only monochromatric underpaintings.... Many thanks.
Thank you! Yes, I use multiple colors for my acrylic underpaintings just as I would with my oil underpaintings, but it's personal preference. I know many people create monochromatic underpaintings and that would work just fine in acrylic as well.
Hi Lizzie! I use either Liquin or Walnut Alkyd Medium with my oil paint. Each of my layers has about the same amount of medium in it. I do sometimes glaze in the final layer if I need a color shift or to push something back in space.
