19 January 2008

my first acrylic painting

Acrylic on unknown paper.

i finally decided to get down to experimenting with acrylic paints. so i spent the day shopping around local art stores and finally got some paints, boards, prestretched canvas, brushes, etc. at riley street art supply.

of course i bought the secondary palette of six highly saturated paints, because this palette can match the color of any other mixed or pure pigment paints -- it's the most powerful and versatile six paint palette possible.

the pigments available in acrylics are a bit different than in watercolors, but i ended up with:
yellow: nickel azomethine yellow (PY150)
red orange: cadmium red light (aka cadmium scarlet, PR108; pyrrole orange PO73 is also good)
magenta: quinacridone magenta (PR122 -- accept no substitutes!)
blue violet: ultramarine blue (PB29)
green blue: phthalocyanine blue GS (green shade, PB15:3)
green: phthalocyanine green YS (yellow shade, PG36)
... and for convenience and technical reasons it is necessary in acrylics (and oils) to have:
white: zinc white (PW4, or titanium white, which is cooler)
black: carbon black (PBk6 or PBk9).

of course it is much easier to work with a larger number of paints -- in particular, some "earth" (iron oxide) pigments such as yellow ochre or burnt sienna. however one learns a great deal about the fundamental color composition of ochres, tans, umbers, browns and olive greens by mixing them from these saturated paints, adjusted with white or black.

i will be playing around with these in the background, as i have time free from other tasks. i should complete some paintings with them in a week or two.

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