Creative Acrylic Painting Techniques

CREATIVE ACRYLIC PAINTING TECHNIQUES begin with working out composition, color study and theme, quality of light, painting atmosphere, and textural possibilities. They need no more than 1-2 textural techniques and a palette of no more than 4-5 colors for compositional unity and picture harmony. They can include Georges Seurat's pointillist technique: irregular dots of unmixed color dry fast into vibrant color effects; and tiny amounts of different colors make for more realistic rushing water, which looks white but has all the colors of the rainbow. They also draw on many layers of thin glazes to give a painting the depth and surface-reflected light of water, or to build up the subtly graded flesh tones for painting translucent skin. They even break color into irregular patches with a wallpaper roller, spatter the sea into frothy waves with a toothbrush and water into running parallel lines, sponge churning and trapped water into steaming foam, and curve or straighten lines of grass with a credit or phone card. In the end, the book's clear step-by-step illustrations and text leave readers all set for Earl Grenville Killeen's THE NORTH LIGHT BOOK OF ACRYLIC PAINTING TECHNIQUES and Rachel Rubin Wolfe's THE ACRYLIC PAINTER'S BOOK OF STYLES AND TECHNIQUES.