For your Acrylic Painting Lessons, Intermediate Level, I recommend these books that will help you with your developing intermediate skills.
I hope you enjoyed the Beginning Painting With Acrylic videos. By watching the videos, you can now experiment with painting light and shadow on simple shapes, likes circles and squares and be able to create the illusion of volume.
In the Stamp and Stencil Lesson you learned about using stencils to apply and overlay multiple shapes to create a dense interplay of rich color and form.
In the following videos you will learn how to work from drawings and do quick painted sketches. If you feel you need to develop your drawing skills, please click here the "Learn Basic Drawing" lessons.
Also, if you need information on the art materials I recommend for completing the following video projects, click here for a list of everything you will need to proceed.
This video shows you how to paint from a quick sketch. This is a great way to explore various ideas for a acrylic painting.
This video shows how I did five quick acrylic sketches of one subject, grapefruit. Again, this method is great for gathering ideas for various subjects and acrylic painting techniques.
This video, "Paint With Acrylics--Apples" shows how to approach and paint still life subjects. The simple shapes of apples provide a good opportunity to work with color and texture. Drawing skills will help but are not necessarily required for this painting project.
In this mixed media video, I show how many art materials, including oil pastels, drawing, collage and acrylic paints are are used to complete one project.
This video shows how you can use pastel colors in your acrylic painting....
This video shows how you can use bright colors in your acrylic painting....
Click here for your FREE Advanced Acrylic Painting videos.
Hadn't painted for years and I wanted to start again. Lois, you keep it simple so the lessons are easy.
I enjoy the painting class.
Thanks,
Ed McNeil
NH
------
Lois,
Thank you so much for your quick reply. I live in Columbus, Ohio. I have taken college classes in drawing in my life, (I'm 55), but recently have wanted to pick up sketching again and find I have blank slate syndrome. I need some motivation and I think your website is ideal for that!
I will let you know how I do in a few days. You are wonderful to share your gift with all of us.
Thank you!
Sheila
-----
Only actually free art classes! Some say they are, but are not! I am sending my donation,
Priscilla N
W Virginia
You will spend a bit of money on your brushes, even on the synthetic bristle brushes like I favor. They will serve you well if you clean them well after each use.
Essentially, acrylic paint is a polymer (plastic.) When it dries in the bristles of your brush, you have plastic to content with. Once hardened, it is quite difficult to remove from your brush. If not cleaned well, the paint which has collected near the ferrule (holder of the bristles,) will harden and prevent the bristles from being flexible. It is not fun painting with that kind of stiffened brush and it will not do what you want it to do.
So, here's how to clean your brushes:
Rinse the paint from them by swishing them around in your water container. THEN, take a bar of soap (practically any bar soap will do--I use slivers which are too small or skimpy to use any more in the bathroom.) SCRUB the brush into the bar of soap, adding hot water periodically and working up some suds.
Don't stop until you see that there is no COLOR left in the brush, especially at the base of the bristles. Sometimes, bristles will be colored by the fine pigments in the acrylic paint--sort of like hair is dyed. That is OK. That kind of dye-job will not harm your brushes bristles.
When you have cleaned all of your brushes, press them into a paper towel or clean rag and either lay them flat or stand them up in a container to dry (bristles up, of course!)
I've had some brushes, both hog bristle and synthetic, for over ten years and they're still nice and flexible.
Be kind to your brushes and they will last a long time!
Lois