Acrylic Painting

SKILL BUILDING techniques: 

ngaro huruhuru / Pi

(Native Bee /  Bee) 

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 colour wash over the gesso, or use a coloured gesso for added texture and colour variation. I suggest using a Magenta Wash as this will give vibrancy to the colours laid over the top.

Transfer Your Pi Image:

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

1. COLOUR WASH LAYER

First, think about the colours you would like your finished painting to have and save these colours for later.

Lay in Basic Colours:

1. • Use a colour wash to lay in the basic colours of your Pi. For example, use yellow for the body and a toned green for the darker areas. (You will add darker colours over the top in the following stages)

2. SHADOW [DRY BRUSH] LAYER

Add Shadows:

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

   • Apply this colour 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, legs and abdomen.

3. COLOUR BLOCKING LAYER 

Revisit your ideas about your final colouration of your Pi. This example will be on lifelike colours, but you are free to change them up, ensuring you have lighter and darker colours selected.

• • Use a thicker layer of core colours for your Pi, such as warm yellows, oxides oranges, with various tones of brown for the darker areas.  [Don't focus on texture or details yet.]

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

4. MAIN LAYER 

Adding Main Colours of the Pi:

1. • Starting with the more subdued variations of your colours on your brush, start to paint in the main colours of the bee.

   • Begin by painting in the smoother areas of the bee, such as the abdomen. This is important so that hairy textures can go over the top.

   • Change to your lighter colours and use the appropriate strokes [mark-making strokes] to blend colours and create hairy textures (Broken Colour strokes) in the relevant areas.

5. DETAIL LAYERS 

Detailing the Eye:

1. • Use a small brush to paint in the eye, think about your technique and the texture of the eye. Stippling would be a good choice of technique here.

   • 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 colour effect.

   • Build up the texture and depth of the feathers. Multiple layers are important to creating a hairy look, with colours becoming lighter as you progress up the layers.

Applying Lightest Colours:

1. • Lay in the lightest colours, such as white and very tinted versions of your colours, using them to highlight specific areas of the bee.

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 Pi image.