How Do I Start?
Sometimes it just takes getting started
at something that makes the doing possible.
But, just exactly how do I get started?
It’s really not that hard to get started. First you need something to paint on, AKA a support. Supports come in many forms, but I’m showing you canvas panels, and a round piece of wood today. Some of these had paintings on them already and others were brand new. I used a colored gesso to cover them all. Click HERE to read about colored gesso.
There are many shades of colored gesso, but I really like gray the best. I also have a Terra Cotta, but I use the gray almost exclusively.
I usually gesso up several supports at once so I’m ready to paint when I’m ready to paint.
I take painters tape and make two sided tape out of it and put at least 4 on the back of the support.
Then I put the support onto a board of some sort. This is a new one, because all my other ones have all sorts of paint all over them. I do this so I can move the painting easily if I need to while I’m working on it and not have to touch the painting itself.
I knew I wanted to paint cardinals on all of them, so I painted an impressionistic sky background on all of them. Again, when I’m ready to paint, my canvases are good to go.
They are all ready and so am I.
Here is Cardinal #1 looking smart sitting on a pine branch.
And Cardinal #2 is sitting on a branch of boxwood.
Now let’s get you out there and get some supports of your own ready to go.
Is it really necessary to use colored gesso? Well the answer is no, but sometimes, especially when working with acrylic paint, you don’t get the paint all the way down in each little part of the weave of the fabric of the canvas. If your canvas underneath is white, those little specks will show up when your painting is dry and look kind of weird. But if it’s gray underneath, if that happens, it doesn’t show. It can also give your painting an overall warmer tone, if you use something like terra cotta or cooler as in the case of these cardinal paintings.
Happy painting.
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