acrylic | darren brant http://www.darrenbrant.com Artist Printmaker Wed, 23 May 2012 21:19:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 13410479 Transposing an Image to Canvas http://www.darrenbrant.com/art_blog/painting/transposing-an-image-to-canvas/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=transposing-an-image-to-canvas http://www.darrenbrant.com/art_blog/painting/transposing-an-image-to-canvas/#respond Tue, 25 Jan 2011 23:50:48 +0000 http://www.darrenbrant.com/?p=219 An Acrylic Painting of a Nude Male Figure. I had the best of intentions of sitting down Saturday and painting for an hour, but home renovations beat me to the point that painting wasn’t an option. I did get a chance to do a bit of preparation work though. For...

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An Acrylic Painting of a Nude Male Figure.

I had the best of intentions of sitting down Saturday and painting for an hour, but home renovations beat me to the point that painting wasn’t an option. I did get a chance to do a bit of preparation work though.

For my subject I selected a male nude figure from Deviant art (figmodel10’s stock image account) that I had saved on my computer last December.

nude_stock_8_by_figmodel10

Male nude stock 8 by figmodel10

For reference I printed out a greyscale copy of the original stock image with my laser printer. Then I decided to try something different. Instead of sketching directly onto the canvas board I drew a 1/2″ grid over the printout.

The idea behind this was to use the grid to copy the original to the larger canvas, keeping the proportions of the figure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

transfer grid on original

Transfer grid on original

My first big problem was figuring out what size of grid to evenly divide up my canvas as I had done with my printout. I only had an Imperial measuring tape and was ending up with grid sizes of 41/64th” and other foolishness. I finally ended up just eyeballing it after much trial and error – settling on a 6/8″ grid on my canvas. I marked the grid out using a 4h pencil and called it a night.

grid on canvas

grid on canvas panel

Once I had my grid penciled onto my canvas I grabbed some charcoal. I started to draw a rough outline, copying each grid on my original to my canvas panel. I stopped and took the snapshot below when I was about half finished the sketch.

It was right about this time that I realized that I have never painted a figure before. This could get ugly.

Next week I’m going to try and paint an undercoat. We’ll see how it works out.

prepatory_sketch_nude_male_painting

Charcoal sketch on canvas

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Why do I not like Acrylic Painting? http://www.darrenbrant.com/art_blog/painting/why-do-i-not-like-acrylic-painting/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-do-i-not-like-acrylic-painting http://www.darrenbrant.com/art_blog/painting/why-do-i-not-like-acrylic-painting/#comments Fri, 14 Jan 2011 17:11:46 +0000 http://www.darrenbrant.com/?p=185 A few weeks back I sat down with my wife and we setup a still life in front of the window. Two hours of beating my brush against the canvas resulted in the painting on the right. It was a frustrating experience. The root of my frustration was my inability...

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A few weeks back I sat down with my wife and we setup a still life in front of the window. Two hours of beating my brush against the canvas resulted in the painting on the right. It was a frustrating experience. The root of my frustration was my inability to replicate in the acrylic paint the colour’s of my subject.

Now I’m not a painter and colour has always been my nemesis, but it got me to thinking about my relationship with the acrylic painting medium.

 

My Acrylic Painting History.

squash acrylic painting

Squash Acrylic Painting

I remember my first acrylic painting well. I was 14. It was crap. Fast forward 30 years to my squash still life and that is my complete experience with acrylic painting.

Not completely true. I vaguely remember some acrylics on paper somewhere in that 30 year time span, but the squirrels got them so they don’t count.

 

 

Advantages of the Acrylic Medium

Despite never really using the medium it’s not because I dislike anything about it. Acrylic has may things going for it.

  • It’s quick drying
  • thins with water – no nasty solvent
  • you can glaze with it
  • it’s opaque – you can paint right over mistakes

So I think I’ve talked myself into painting more, and I think I may learn to like the acrylic medium.

I’ve made an appointment with myself tomorrow for an hour of painting, so we’ll see what comes of this.

 

 

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