Acrylic Painting

SKILL BUILDING techniques: HEIHEI 

here's a step-by-step guide for creating a painting using acrylics, focusing on building up layers and exploring application techniques:

Prepare Your Surface:

1. • Apply a coat of gesso to your surface for priming.

   • Apply a color wash over the gesso, or use a colored gesso for added texture and color variation.

Transfer Your Heihei Image:

1. • Use carbon paper to transfer your Heihei image onto the prepared surface.

1. COLOUR WASH LAYER

Lay in Basic Colors:

1. • Use a color wash to lay in the basic colors of your Heihei. For example, use yellow for the body and warm red for the comb.

2. SHADOW [DRY BRUSH] LAYER

Add Shadows:

1. • Mix a dark violet color using warm red and cool blue.

   • Apply this color to shadows, using a dry brush method 

   • Consider the shading in a similar way to drawing, focusing on the darkest areas such as the eye socket and beak, under the neck and parts of the feathers on right hand side.

3. COLOUR BLOCKING LAYER

• • use a thicker layer of core colours for your Hei He such as warm yellows, oxides and browns, with some warm red around the face [dont focus on texture or details yet].

  • lighter colours in lighter areas, darker values in darker areas

4. MAIN LAYER

Adding Main Colors of the Rooster:

1. • Pick up orange, brown, and white on your brush to paint in the main colors of the rooster.

   • Use dabbing strokes [mark-making strokes] to blend colors and create feathery textures.

5. DETAIL LAYERS

Detailing the Eye and Beak:

1. • Use a small brush to paint in the eye and beak with single brush marks.

   • Add light parts of the eye as needed, considering the existing darkness of the area.

Layering with Short Strokes:

1. • Add another layer of dark and light using short, dabbing strokes to create a broken color effect.

   • Build up the texture and depth of the feathers.

Applying Lightest Colors:

1. • Lay in the lightest colors, such as white and orange, using them to highlight specific areas of the rooster.

   • Use sgraffito technique (scratching through wet paint to reveal layers beneath) to add texture, particularly around the head where small feathers may be present.

Throughout the process, refer to the provided techniques video for guidance on how to execute each technique effectively. Experiment with the techniques and adapt them to suit your painting style and the specific characteristics of your Heihei image.