As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Painting II requires the use of acrylic paint rather than oils that were used in Painting I. Although I have worked with acrylics before, almost exclusively in high school, it is one of my least favorite mediums (on the top of that particular list is colored pencils and collage). I have been getting used to the acrylics, treating them as I would oil often which is making me like them more.

Our first assignment in Painting II was a black and white still life, focusing on the shapes of the shadows rather than the shape of the objects. I detest working with pre-made black paint I find it dull and difficult to control – when I mixed it with white sometimes it was a warm hue and other times it was a cool hue. I prefer working with my own mixed black because its made up of colors and those definitely translate the depth of the image better to the eye.

The second project was the same focus – shapes of shadows and highlights, not objects -but we used color. This was a limited palette using only three colors of dark, medium and light value. Choosing violet, red and yellow I tried to convey the new still life on to the canvas. It was difficult though because there aren’t just three values in a still life so I had to decide on some parts whether to translate it as darker or lighter or middle.

Starting this week I am working on the third assignment that limits the color/value palette even more – two values. Not only has the palette decreased but this assignment is also a collage  >:{

Wish me luck!

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