Wednesday, April 1, 2009

. . . watched painting DVD




I was lucky enough to be able to purchase "Acrylic Abstract Painting: The Evolving Image," by Virginia Cobb. For about an hour and a half I was fascinated by watching Cobb paint three abstract images using acrylic paints. Each painting started from a different design element: line, shape and texture. Each painting was presented in three stages, from the initial random paint applications, through the fine-tuning of the design elements, to the final addition and perfection of the details. I loved watching what tools she employed to make her marks and spread her paint. I found myself trying to anticipate where she would make her adjustments, and being pretty pleased with myself when I guessed correctly. She used a lot more water with her paints than I usually use, maybe because she's primarily a watercolor artist. That's something I want to try, too. The best advice I took from the DVD was to walk away from the painting and think about it when you get to the point that you don't know exactly what you want to do next. Seems obvious, I guess, but I tend to plunge ahead and usually end up having to redo something or I make a mess of it.


I purchased this DVD from Creative Catalyst Productions, Inc. This company is now offering online "rental" of these DVDs for short periods of time, which I think is a fabulous economical idea.

2 comments:

Bridgette Guerzon Mills said...

oooh, online rentals...will have to look into that. thanks!

I went to a demo of an acrylic artist at Daniel Smith once and she used a lot of water too. Come to think of it, she was originally a watercolor artist. She had a spraybottle filled with water and would just spritz it onto her canvas after she applied paint to it to get interesting textures which she would then incorporate into the rest of the painting. Interesting!

Mary Buek said...

Bridgette, on the DVD, Cobb even used the "dirty" water in which she cleaned her brushes to color some areas of her paintings.