CRYSTAL PAINTING
"ALTERNATE DIMENSIONS" |
OVERVIEW:
Title: "Alternate Dimensions" Dimensions: 9 x 7 (inches) Medium: Acrylic Paint Date: September 2023 EXHIBITION TEXTOverall, this painting was challenging, working with acrylics, while never easy, was even less easy when I needed to work with tedious details and lines smaller than my paintbrush. Creating a crystal painting heavily relied on my highlighting and shadowing skills, which grew heavily with the practice I got working with lights and darks. The paintbrushes I used were on a range of shapes and sizes, and I discovered using the smaller brush was always the way to go. This painting helped build my skills in acrylics and highlights.
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PROCESS
Early Stages
I started making a rough sketch of where paint needed to go, I made the largest lines and where the shadows needed to be. I immediately painted the darkest spot so that I could create lines from the main point. I tried not to put too many lines so I wouldn't confuse myself.
I then started creating the largest areas of color which were golds and purples. At this point I really started to separate each area with the dark and light colors. On my paint palette I started separating the colors that needed to be in similar areas so it would be easier to remember where I needed to put things every time I painted.
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As I added the gold, I began to mix in black to create the darker shades of the highlights (gold) I needed for the painting. I added some base colors of purple so it would be easier to use black to shape the paint later. This painting required lots of highlighted areas so I left white spaces where lighter colors needed to be, at this point that was almost everywhere.
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Experimentation
I attempted to blend colors together first and separate them later, but this did not work, I ended up blending too much and the lines became very rough and messy. I had to go back and paint over the blended areas with solid colors and immediately separated them with fine lines. It was hard for me to create lines that were so small I needed a magnifying glass, so I decided to take a picture and zoom in on the colors, however since the picture quality wasn't very good, I was left with colors that looked smudged and bland, I later added more vibrancy to brighten specific areas.
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Final Stages
I started the process of "unblending" my painting and pulling out major colors. The process included mixing the main dark colors first and laying down base coats and then mixing the main light colors and placing those coats down after the dark base coats dried. I started shaping the rougher shapes with black or my gold highlights. Once I had the base coats on all my colors down, I moved on to the major highlights, I shaped the outer edges leading out from the dark point in the "middle" and then moved on to highlighting the edges of the outer lining. I paid careful attention to where I was putting dark and light colors so the contrast would be natural looking. Once I had everything where I wanted it, I did second and third coats of the shades of paint and finished it off with some white highlights and shaped anything that looked too rough or blended.
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REFLECTION
This piece was challenging for me, I hadn't worked with acrylics in a while so I felt unprepared to properly blend colors and use the needed technique for tedious details. I had an especially hard time creating smooth enough lines to make the painting look smooth with soft edges. This painting challenged my perfectionism, I realized letting things be imperfect is the best ways to deal with acrylics. The mistakes I made helped shape my technique throughout the process of the crystal painting. Although I don't feel I fully accomplished creating a crystal piece, I do feel I succeeded in creating shaped lines and solid colors that fit well together. Overall, this process taught me more about using acrylics and how it's important to plan ahead for where paint needs to go in stead of eyeballing the reference and making assumptions about where my lines need to be.