Five Paintings, Five Approaches (Part 2)

Acrylic painting process explained with example paintings

Photo by Jennie Razumnaya on Unsplash

This is the conclusion of my acrylics article for Paid Subscribers, called Five Paintings, Five Approaches. Read part one at this link. I provide detailed, behind-the-scenes explanations of my work process for five different acrylic paintings, each with unique challenges and solutions. In part two I cover:

• Cozy fireplace scene, acrylic on stretched watercolor paper

• Matte acrylics used to paint shiny foil candies

• International mural collaboration: acrylic palette knife painting

A preview is included for Free Subscribers. If you can support my work on Substack, please click “Subscribe” and choose your level! It costs very little ($5 a month), and you’ll be helping me create more of these kinds of articles.

Thank you, and here we go!

Painting # 3: Glowy fireplace scene on watercolor paper

Main details: Leia’s Visitor (2020), 20 x 16 inches, heavy body acrylic on stretched, gessoed watercolor paper.

Reasons for painting: My friend and high school classmate Emily had snapped a photo of the family dog, Leia, in front of the fireplace, with Christmas decorations. This inspired her to commission a painting of Santa Claus paying a Christmas Eve visit, and Leia catching him in the act of leaving gifts around the tree.

Surface preparation: In a clean bathtub I soaked 140 pound, cold press watercolor paper and then taped it to a board to stretch it. Once dry I gave the paper a couple coats of gesso.

Type of acrylic used:

• Mostly heavy body acrylic from Golden

• Golden Open thinner dilution in a spray bottle

• My palette was mostly a triad of Hooker's green deep, cadmium red medium, and cadmium yellow medium hue