LFI2021, Week 21

This week's instructor was Kasey Moran, whose specialty is painting abstract figures in acrylic. Here is the example she painted for us, from a woman standing in front of a waterfall, which I quite liked:

It captures the feel of the water, and fills in enough of the features using just shadow that you get a real feel for the character. I like how she carried the blue of the water into the shadows and creases on the dress, and pulled some orange into the green of the surrounding background—it really unifies the piece.

I haven't painted much in acrylic, OR tried much (any?) abstract, and it's hard not to fill in more and more detail. But I gave it a shot, using a photo I found of a very grimy little girl in a plaid dress and hair bow, standing out in a field in the aisle between rows of some kind of crop.

It would definitely have been better had I been working on a larger canvas, instead of a 9x12-inch piece of paper. It was hard to get just enough detail without going over the top. I'm pretty pleased with the plaid dress with its pattern and its shadows, but less pleased with the surrounding vegetation, which didn't come out showing its proper shapes. I think the colors work, however.

I also struggled with the acrylic. Not so much with the painting part, though that was challenging (especially this small), but with the part where I swish a brush around in water a few times and expect it to be clean, as it would be if it were watercolor. That's the reason for the smears of yellow-green in the clouds and sky—I couldn't get the damn brush completely clean and kept tainting the paint when I picked it up. I'm sure there's a trick to this, but I will have to ask someone who uses acrylics regularly.

It was a fun exercise, and made me want to buy a big gessoed board or even a  canvas and try a "real" painting sometime soon.

"Field Girl"—Golden acrylics on Fluid 140-lb. coldpress watercolor paper, 9x12 inches.