Often this question is asked by our "recruits" and just fans of creativity in social networks and in person. The question is certainly important and interesting, but not easy. As in any other activity, the fine arts have their own rules, laws, traditions and wishes. You don't ask, for example, a bricklayer, how to build houses or a Baker, how to bake bread, right? Because in their activity there are many nuances. The artist has no less of them.
Let's start with what colors you are going to paint. The technology of painting in different materials is different, even the work should be started in a certain way (of course, if your goal is to get the expected result, not just to throw out emotions). Watercolor, for example, should be painted from light to dark, to gain the desired tone gradually and keep more “jewel” white paper. Gouache and oil, on the contrary, write from the dark, immediately gain the most dense, heavy shadows so that they are colored, transparent, create a visual environment for the main, illuminated objects and objects. And they paint with acrylic, in general, in different ways, depending on the task: something immediately with whitewash, something with a pure color, not mixing, directly from a tube, something liquid diluted with water or a special diluent, but something varnish cover to diversify the texture. And this is just a classic technology of doing work.
Also, it is worth reading on the packaging and study the composition of paints and their shelf life. If outdated oil paint still may be suitable, for example, watercolor is unlikely, as included in the composition ox bile and honey evaporate, and the glue with pigment shrivel. These "bricks" will even be difficult to soak with water, not to type on the brush. And I'm not saying that not all colors are mixed with each other tactfully (especially if you are not using professional materials, for example, children's finger gouache).
In addition, some materials are allowed to mix together in one work, but it is important to know what and how, there are many subtleties. For example, oil on top of acrylic paint can be, but on the contrary is no longer possible, as organic oil can give a chemical reaction under a layer of synthetic acrylic.
There was such a case, even in the years of my studies at the art сollege. The materials, especially the quality then was a bit difficult, and to practice the right was, certainly, oil paint, and at least a simple bristle brush. Brushes we bought in the store building materials to save on quality, instead of a good thinner used white spirit or even turpentine, found sketch oil in banks for decorating, instead of decent artistic colors. Some even mixed building enamel instead of whitewash, making the work harden enamel thick membrane, often cracked and, of course, lost in visual beauty and artistic significance. But especially stood out against the background of this total savings one of my classmate, managed to mix oil paint with water emulsion paint. Technologically it is impossible, any builder will confirm, but Fedor (we will call it so) was talented.
The experimental portrait looked even quite esthetically "a la a fresco": in noble-pastel opaque tones, but, the truth it looked so not for long. The very next day, after the completion of the "masterpiece" all beheld moving away from the canvas of the image. These parts were so brittle that even with glue pressed to the base continued to crack and crumble.
Of course, it was a special case, but, as you know, even the classics fell on the bait of self-confidence in technology in the pursuit of creativity, to say nothing of us mortals. Therefore, in the classroom at school, we clearly delineated painting courses on technological features: in watercolor courses we talk about glaze and opaque pigments, about the retarders of drying, about the spectacular additional possibilities of salt, alcohol, masking liquid and so on. On classes in acrylic - we use modern technicians of painting and decorative intake and also different types of cover varnishes. At the classical academic course we practice smear technique on the usual and hypoallergenic gouache. And, of course, apart from us are classes in oil painting, classical and modern. But this is a completely different story, I'll tell you more in the next article.
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