Hello and welcome back to my studio.
In this video, it's about painting with oils over acrylics.
Why would you use this technique?
Well, you're going to see how it benefits
your painting and how I go about it in my own painting as well.
Stick around and enjoy this lesson with me.
Okay, I think when acrylics were invented,
it was a great for modern abstract artists of the 20th century.
The paint was vibrant, it dried quickly, and when it was dry, that was it.
It wouldn't crack.
It was impervious to just about anything, and very easy to work with.
What about traditional oil painters, representational painting, etc?
Well, I think it took a while to catch on, but the benefits of acrylic painting,
that quick drying nature and the easy cleanup and transportation and working
with the medium, well, it worked out to be very convenient for oil painters.
And I'm going to show you how I use
acrylics to work out a painting, get started with the first layers
of the painting, and then how I like to finish off with oils.
When I started painting, I used this technique a lot.
It helped me to learn about painting
in general and also helped me develop a style of painting where I could build up
layers without too much of the pain and angst of painting wet over wet in oils.
Now, I use it when I want to, and other times,
as you see in demonstrations, I will start with oils from beginning to end.
But building up that confidence
and working out a technique takes time, and acrylics can help you with that.
Now, before I show you a quick painting
demonstration, I've got a course on this topic.
If you want to get into it in a lot more
detail, there's a link in the description with a nice offer for you as well.
So check that out if this technique interests you.
All right, let's get started with the demonstration and I'll show you
how I start in acrylics and finish off with oils in this quick demonstration.
Here's the reference I'm using with a nice light dark contrast.
I'm going to start with the acrylic stage.
A palette of basic colors.
I'm using Amsterdam Acrylics by Royal Talens.
Starting off with the shadows, blocking those in,
following a more or less traditional painting approach
with the darks and shadow patterns in first and then the lights.
Starting off with the acrylics like this, I'm mostly using the Cobalt Blue and I'll
add some burnt sienna for some stronger darks.
But it gets me that composition very quickly.
And I can also build up some of the darks if I want to.
And it makes painting the oils, especially the shadows and dark areas, quite simple.
Sometimes I don't even have to go over them, the dark acrylics,
and really focus on the lights and middle values to give them a bit more punch.
But it's all up to you.
Once you get through the process and start
with the oils, you may just go over everything again
because you feel a lot more confident with your composition.
And that's also the benefit of working
with the acrylics, because by the time you've
got your entire painting block ed in, perhaps developed a little further,
you can see here the acrylics are also nice for a glazing technique.
It's quite a thin bit of yellow green over that blue.
So as I said,
once you've got all of that done, it becomes a lot more
confidence inspiring, I think, is the way to look at it.
So now getting in the lights, titanium white and some of that medium
yellow, touch of yellow ochre, and start plotting out the lights.
You see, I'm putting it on much thicker.
And then a nice touch of light right
on the beautiful little spotlight hitting that shaded area.
So the lights go on much thicker,
and that mimics how I will proceed with the oils as well.
And I'll even try to push that a bit further because
you can't go wrong when you've got a good composition and you're happy with it.
You may as well really get stuck in with the thick paint as well.
Those middle values,
mostly the road is getting a lot of indirect light coming into it.
So pretty much a shadow middle value.
Some of the lights on the trees on the right here are also middle value.
And some of that distant area also middle value as well.
I'll improvise a bit there, just suggest a bit of a village up ahead.
I'll have to add a bit more road
beyond the main shadow, but that will all come together.
And now we can start the oils.
I'm using a shorter process.
I'm not glazing as well.
Note, however, the brightness of these brights.
I think that is such a great feature with oil paint.
You can, of course, get
vibrant acrylics and layer them on and build that up as well.
But I still believe that oils give that punch, and that's what I want.
So building up a few of the lighter colors, really middle value lights.
They're not the extreme light, which would be the sky.
And I'll also emphasize that light across the road with more layers as I go.
But building up the middle value lights in the trees on the right-hand side.
And then I will start with the shadows.
Starting to build up the layers a bit
more, just getting a distinction, I think, between the grass and the road.
Now the darks.
Now, I can build these up,
but I definitely try to keep the darks a bit thinner than the lights.
Although I am putting on a fair amount of texture here, I still want
the lights to dominate the shadows and the darks to really come forward,
not just color temperature, but also with texture.
But it is up to you as you do the painting.
You can throw quite a lot of paint into the shadows if you want to.
Just don't make them stand out like a sore thumb.
Get your values wrong and your shadows are going to be far too attention grabbing.
Now, this gray in the road is pretty much
cerulean blue, a bit of a alizarin, some yellow ochre and white.
And it gets a coolish gray, but it's not lifeless, it's not muddy color.
And there is some variety in it because you can see some variety in the road.
Even over here, it's a little
of a stronger dark, less light filtering through there.
So it becomes a little more of a darker violet.
Now, the darks on the left, you pretty much seen how I proceed with those.
I'll just show a little bit of the road on the side where we've got these
interesting colors, a yellow ochre and a alizarin.
Some deeper shadowy greens.
Lots in the shadows.
That's the whole point.
The shadows are not flat and dead.
There's lots going on there, but it's still a shadow.
Bring a little life into that distant
silhouettes, really, of a village up ahead or something like that.
That's a bit of improvisation, but it should work out.
I've just got to make the road connect up with it as well.
So there's some intermediate atmospheric looking shapes
just suggesting a few things up ahead, but not much detail.
Leave it up to the imagination.
It's too far away to really get into much detail.
Now, bringing those thick light brush strokes of strong light color.
It's really emphasizing this beam of light
in that part of the painting, which is so attractive.
And a little in the foreground here as well.
Just a thick, juicy bit of impasto.
I'll add a figure for a little bit of added interest.
Nicely silhouetted there on the light side of that road.
Remember to add your shadow.
A few little accents,
a few darks in the road, a few lights as well here and there.
Sign it off.
And there we got our oil painting over acrylics.
So I hope you try this out for yourself.
And don't forget the little course I have that will help you with this technique.
Well, I hope this demonstration and lesson helped you figure this technique out
for yourself and how you can use it for your painting.
Just about any subject can benefit from this.
It's all about developing a process,
building your confidence, and ending up with a result.
And of course, the end result is a beautiful oil painting.
Now, you can use this technique as often or as seldom as you like.
You can use it outdoors as well.
It might be just the thing to break down
a bit of that terror of painting outdoors with oils.
A quick acrylic painting may be all you need.
And then you can go back to the studio and work in oils in a lot more comfort.
It is extremely flexible.
Now, remember, there's a course for you as well.
If you want to get into painting with oils or acrylics in more detail,
I have a link in the description below with a special offer for you.
And please don't forget to subscribe to this channel.
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All right, enjoy your painting and until next time, cheers for now.