Art Class Notes, Class1

Hey, I gotta put them somewhere!

I am taking an art class at the MDCA entitled Acrylics: Techniques, Tips and Tricks with Diana Barringer. I've been a fan of Diana's work for a while now and am pretty excited about getting the chance to be in a classroom with her. It seems to me that this class is going to be a lot about figuring out and learning about the medium, so therefore very process oriented. I suppose I mean as opposed to being product oriented.
Just figuring out what a technique or trick does is just the first step and it requires a bit of PLAY! See....process, not product.

Ok, so for me a bit of space is needed for note taking.

• First Class: Gessoing watercolor paper on back and front makes for a great "canvas" and doing both sides creates the tension needed so the painting doesn't warp.


• After gesso, we used our Watercolor Pencils to draw on the canvas and then used our nice, soft watercolor brushes with Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid to "paint". This made the watercolor pencils look like acrylic paint. A great idea for travel, or laying in colors, or just layering.
  
• After this initial layer dries, start laying in the acrylic paints. Lush! -OR- add charcoal -OR- let first layer dry and add another layer of acrylic mixed with thick medium.
  
• Notes: Alcohol removes dried acrylic paint, either on the brushes, or on the painting. A great tip. Wet Canvas online for Woodie Watercolor Crayons - very rich and leave a lot of color and Cheap Joes for other items.

Ok, so that's the first class. Yeah, ME! Next week we are supposed to bring in a black and white photocopy for a class project about transfers and we'll see a demo using acrylic to simulate the luster of oil. I'll keep you posted!