painting with acrylic again! (i love TEXTURE) (Patreon)

now that's what i'm talkin' about!! said while gesturing widely and emphatically with open arms

been really liking painting at a larger size. both of these were done in my A4 sketchbook, so the spread feels comfortably roomy without being too big. again, I'm all about mixed media so once the paintings dry I like to go over them with color pencil and oil pastel to add more texture and detail.

the second spread with the butterflies is actually done with gouache, but it's all part of my general painting craze. the only downside to all this painting is the paint water disposal situation. there's too much of it to just leave to nature's evaporation whims, so I'll have to figure something else out. a larger bucket may be in my near future....

what's really been helping me learn color mixing is using up leftover paint on my palette and doing a bunch of different swatches. it also helps to keep a limited palette (eg: 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 blue). before I started painting, I didn't understand the importance of paint qualities like pigment strength and color temperature and had a lot of trouble mixing colors I wanted. doing these swatches and writing down what palette I'm using has been an indispensable resource!

I don't like having to wait for the ideal moment to paint, so I've been training myself to set up my supplies as quickly as possible. no clean, uncluttered desk? not enough daylight? no idea of what to paint? no problem. just get the tools out, paper on the easel, and I'll figure it out from there.