ACRYLIC LESSON 1

Iris with Tom Swimm

Flowers are an ideal subject for a simple, close-up composition; their bright colors and delicate curves can fill your canvas with richness and interesting shapes. Heighten the drama by focusing on the foreground blossoms, contrasting their vibrant hues and crisp edges with a neutral, less detailed background, as seen here.

1 Create a pencil drawing of the iris on your support. Because you will be painting translucently, sketch lightly with pencil. Be careful to outline the areas of the lightest highlights because you will be “saving” these white areas from paint. After attaching your paper to a drawing board with masking tape to keep it flat, paint the outlined highlight areas with liquid frisket, a material that resists subsequent layers of paint, allowing you to preserve the white of the paper. Apply frisket to areas you want to stay white; when you’re finished painting, gently rub off the frisket with your finger once the paint is dry.

2 As you will be using your acrylic paints thinly, like watercolor paints, begin by applying the lightest color first; in this case, apply a light wash of raw sienna. Using a large flat brush, thin the paint with water and apply it in quick, wet strokes. Use the edge of the brush to work around the drawing, but don’t be too concerned with “staying inside the lines”; you always can tighten the outlines at a later stage. Ultimately, you want to achieve a loose, free feeling. Next apply thinned dioxazine purple to the iris petals in the same manner, varying the color intensity to add a sense of dimension.

3 Continue to apply the paint thinly, giving these beginning stages a “watercolor feel.” Add sap green to the background, stroking roughly without worrying about the details or about perfect edges. At this point, the painting looks a bit messy—but the hardest work is done. Now that the basic colors have been established, you can bring the iris to life with thicker, richer layers of paint.

4 Use the edge of a medium flat brush to define the edges of the flower and the stem, adding acrylic gel medium to the paint to make it more opaque. Clarify the lights and shadows of the petals by applying various values of dioxazine purple, thinning the paint with gloss medium for the lighter areas. For the stem, mix sap green with raw sienna and a little Payne’s gray. At this stage, your brushstrokes should be more refined and deliberate, but be careful not to overwork any area. Then apply dioxazine purple to the petals.

5 Now add the dark background colors (see “Back-ground Detail” on the next page) and then the highlights, applying neutral colors muted with cool glazes and quick, blurred brushstrokes. In contrast, the detail and brighter colors of the flower will command more attention. When the paint dries, remove the frisket with your finger or an eraser, revealing the white, untouched canvas. Then darken the background with a glaze of Payne’s gray mixed with acrylic gel medium, and add a thin layer of medium magenta to the tops and undersides of the petals.

6 Next add warmth and harmonize the composition by glazing a layer of phthalo green over the background. After it dries, apply highlights to the background with cadmium yellow light and raw sienna; also brighten the colors in the stem using these same three colors. Apply yellow and red to the interior of the petals (see petal detail), and highlight the stem with a mix of yellow ochre and white. At this point, step back and look at the overall painting to avoid overworking the details. When you’re satisfied, put down the brush and celebrate your achievement.