Create Vibrant Paintings in Acrylics: Contemporary Still Life

1. About the Tutorial: Hello and welcome to my studio, Malcolm theory. And in this tutorial, you can to learn how to paint a contemporary still-life painting in acrylics. I'll be going through the materials and also the demonstration in a step-by-step fashion, breaking up the demonstration into sections with a distinct progress in the demonstration and the development of the painting. And you'll be able to use this approach in your own step-by-step version of the painting as well. There's a reference that you can download. I'm also going to give you photographs of the process step-by-step. So you can have that also as a reference while you're doing the painting. So if you want to try out this more contemporary approach to acrylic painting, then this is the course for you joining, watch the demonstration, download the reference and the materials to help you create your own unique version of this painting. I hope to see you in the class and we're going to have some fun painting this contemporary style life in acrylics. 2. Before You Begin: Alright, welcome to this course. I'm glad you could join me on this course. And I'm going to be helping you create in this contemporary style of painting and acrylics, we're going to work step-by-step through the whole process. And by the end, you'll be able to take on the subject with confidence and any similar subject as well. Now we're not talking about a contemporary acrylic painting. What am I really talking about? This approach gives a painting that is more graphic. It is more modern. It's not trying to create a realistic old master painting, but it's making the best a modern medium. That is a critic's to give the bright, graphic, strong version of this subject. Now, a contemporary painting like this is the foundation for a lot of commercial art as well. This painting are not only make an attractive decor item, frame it up in a block mount or something similar that is going to give it that modern appeal. It is also the foundation for something like perhaps a book cover or a poster or some type of illustration in a contemporary publication. This is the sort of thing that I did when I started my painting Korea, which was in graphic design, creating art that is versatile and can be used in various ways. Next up, I'm going to lead you through the materials. I'm going to be using very simple palette of colors, cost-effective as well, or student materials, but in good-quality nevertheless. 3. Part One Drawing: Now I'm going to start the actual painting starting with a drawing, very rough and then going into blocking in. And as I mentioned, this is a step-by-step process. Make notes as you go to get your process. Our plan also referred to the download that I've provided you and you won't go wrong, please don't expect every painting to be perfect from the start. Sometimes you have that ugly middle stage where it doesn't look like it's going to work out. Try and persist through that. At the end of the painting, know that your next one is important, started as soon as possible and your progress will be quick. And you'll be very happy with how your painting develops. Is the reference very simple, but we're going to make something more out of it. Having a look at the paper I'm drawing on, this is simple 300 gram hundred and 40 pound paper. It's got a slight turn to it. The colors I'm using. You can also have a look at the PDF downloads, get the color palette from there. I'm using a pencil obviously to get the basic shapes. And as you can see, I'm drawing this in a sort of a rough or free form fashion. It's not critical that I get it geometrically perfect. But I'm just squaring off edges, working my way to get this oval shape. Then the base is this sort of concentric lines around the base of the bowl which I want to get in. They'll be a nice feature in the painting. And then of course, these shadow at the base. So the point with this approach, so this contemporary approach we're using is not to have to draw a geometrically perfect. Still laugh. Alright, so that's important. The tomatoes. And as you can see it, I'm also using a sort of a squaring off approach to get the edges. Not a perfect circle. But doing it little strokes of the pencil to get this slightly squared off edges. As I paint. I'll make those more smoother and more round or oval shaped as required. As you can see, I'm now getting each object because that's all I'm looking at here is shapes of the objects and building that up steadily. So don't get too dissuaded or stressed on by the drawing. You can build it up little by little as I've done here. So using my pencil as a guide, I can see that the base is too long. Just shortening that. Because if I'm going to take the view of the bulk per the reference and looking down at the bowl, the base is going to have to be shorter. So that immediately is a quick correction. And it looks better for it. 4. Part 2 Background Colors: In part two, we blocking in the background colors, the simple shapes to create the foundation before we really move into the heart of the painting. And that is the tomatoes themselves. So a bit of lemon yellow, cobalt blue, getting a greenish color. I'm thinking of the complimentary relationship between green and the red that's going to come up when I painted tomatoes. And this green background will really set off the bow of the tomatoes a lot more, putting in a little more yellow to warm it up. But it will still be a yellow green. So that's within the color scheme that I want, that complimentary color scheme. I'm not so much a color scheme, but just thinking of complimentary colors. So the greens with the reds. And now I'm doing the table, which I'm using yellow, ocher and white to give me a warm yellowish color, which in turn is going to set off the shadows and the blue of the bowl itself. So that's how you can work out color schemes. Think about what's going to set off your main color. It generally a complementary colors. So as I'm mixing here, just some basic violet shades is a beautiful color to bring into the shadow, as long as it remains a cool violet. Cobalt, little bit of magenta on Wyatt. And getting this really juicy violet color, which is going to look so nice against that yellowish table with color. A little more gray dawn as more light filtering in on the edge of the shadow. A little bit of yellow ocher into that violet will act as a breaking down of the violet into a cooler grayish color. Alright, let's get some color into the vars. It's still first layers, so it's not critical, but it's in the general direction of where I want to take these colors. More cobalt and some of that brilliant blue. Don't worry, if you can't find a color called brilliant blue. If you're not using Amsterdam acrylics, you'll be able to find something that could even be cerulean. It could be a sky blue, could be many names like this, or severs blue. It's really a kind of a cerulean. So that'll do just fine with the cobalt. Touch, some magenta, but more cobalt and a little bit of orange just to give me a darker color. And I want to create a shadow on the ball on the left-hand side. So starting that off, of course, acrylics dry quickly, I can always correct and go over with further layers. Problem with that. So go with your instinct. Try something out. Shadow enables us to fade from the middle towards the right-hand side, accentuating the three-dimensional nature of the bowl as well. Alright, next step, we will get into the tomatoes. 5. Part 3 Blocking In: Onto something a bit more exciting this time, we're getting into the tomatoes with some red light touch of magenta and orange. And just going to start blocking in the first layers. Kidding the intention behind this painting. We want these tomatoes too. Stand out. Almost feel like you could pick them up. So keeping the red, making the red even warmer actually, by adding orange to it. Using the square brush, basically a short flat. This would be a number six. And trying to get that squared often look to it. So pulling the brush along those edges. As the painting develops, those squared off sections gets refined to be a little more rounded. But they give that contemporary look towards that more modern feel. We're blocking this in, in a sort of square root of choppy way. And circling the end result. We're working from the outside in shapes are a little bigger, rough, and refined. Getting the first main colors in. I haven't gone into or not gonna go into the shading and the outlines quite yet. And you notice with roughing in the edges like this and that's sort of cutoff blocked in a fashion. That doesn't mean you start off with slowly, with a painstaking way of trying to get the perfect round shape. That really is a waste of time. It's very inhibiting. It keeps things looking very, very. How shall we put it overworked? That's not what we're about. You were trying to just get the painting off to a good start. Lots of energy, vigorous brushstrokes, strong color, very little white paint. You notice that's very, very important. Use as little white paint as you can get away with. That keeps the colors vibrant at keeps you going forward. Now, the back of the bolt is of course much lighter, but it's still colorful. I'm not using sort of a dead beige color. Just getting some of that orange somewhat handover, great Dan, Pink color. You can see the shadow on the back of the bowl. That means it's a shadow color. Shadow family color therefore must be cooler than colors that are in light. That means adding a little bit of blue, little bit of white. And that cools things down into the lighter part. But more widely, some yellow ocher. Now it's in the light family, so it must lean towards yellow and be much warmer than the cools outside rim of the bowl, catching direct light. So using the sharp side of the brush to get that whitish pink color in there, which is just going to help define the edge. I could stand out a bit more. So block in the back of the bowl, cutting in as well to start shaping some of the tomatoes at the back. That's why I do start off with shapes a little bigger, and then cut in with background color to get the shape a little more accurate. But also the shape turns out to be a little more interesting because of the cutting and as well shadow side of the bowl harmonizing the blues are the bowl with bringing some blue violet into the shadowy sides of those tomatoes. So we're off to a pretty good start, bringing some color into the shadows as well. But the blocking in now, pretty much all done. So we're into the second layers. And we'll take that further, steadily refining the painting. A little more detail and more color vibrancy as we worked through it. 6. Part 4 Outlines: In part four, I'm going to be focusing on the outlines. Mixing up some dark blue and burnt sienna, little bit of magenta as well. Mostly blue and burnt sienna to create a strong dark. I'm not using black. I prefer to mix my own chromatic blacks. Now, I'm painting strong outlines as part of the process for this modern or contemporary look. Using the flat side on the thinnest side of the brush to give these sort of chopped black lines. Now this helps to define the shapes, also make them stand out. You can see I'm painting them quite loose. These chalk lines, as I call them straight edges around the tomatoes done very loose. And the reason for the strong outlines is that they're going to help to create that modern, contemporary look, a more graphic or stylized look to the painting. As opposed to if I was doing this in a old master style or Impressionist approach as well, edges would be generally hard or soft, but not like this, not strong dark outlines, which gives us some more, as I said, a more graphic approach. Something you would also find in, let's say, a graphic novel preps or an illustration that would have these strong outlines to bring the subject out from the background, make it stand out clearly and come forward. But it's also a technique that's been used for centuries. Things like jewelry making. Even clothing designs, relied on a strong contrast between the color and a surrounding elements may be a frame, for instance. Now putting in the brilliant blue in big thick strokes. Adding up some cobalt for the mud to set a range. By these blues, I will let them dry down over the period of the painting and then refine the shapes a little more. But what I've got is a nice, strong color, very vibrant color. Bringing in this loose blue and magenta for the shadow. Because I like colorful and interesting shadows. Not a lot of detail in the shadows, but there is something going on. It is not plain, flat color. And I believed that an interesting shadow helps the entire painting. Now the background has dried down substantially and in the process got a little duller. And that is a thing with acrylics, of course. As the painting dries, the textures flatten out a bit and some of the vibrancy will disappear. But this is also an illustration of how I like to paint with acrylics. And that is bring on layers upon layers. It's different to oils with the layers hold the shape and vibrancy a lot better with the critics. You've got to keep putting in the paint. And after two to three layers, you've got a deep, rich, strong color. I really do believe that a critic should be painted in this fashion. Even if you're doing a more traditional approach, you will have to bring in layers of color and bold up your painting in a logical step-by-step fashion. One part of the painting you're working on that. The other part is drying. You come back to that trap potlatch Ron, bring in more vibrant color, especially in the lights. Of course. You can see the rim of the bowl really standing forward now and separating from the tomatoes in the bowl. And that's just palpating on this yellow ocher and white combination. To give this strong light. Going over some of the dark outlines, showing some others, most with the outlines must talk show. We don't want to get rid of them entirely, but you can go over one or two-year are there to get that Lost and Found. Look, that's all about creating an interesting surface. A little softer, violet. On the edge of the shadow, where there's a bit of light filtering through. 7. Part 5 Textures and Layers: In Part five, we're getting to the fun stage. We're getting into the main body of the subject. And that is the tomatoes themselves, where our start putting on the layers to create texture and rich color using a number six long flat brush. And the red light, magenta, burnt sienna, and yellow and orange. All of these colors are going to come into rendering these tomatoes in a loose, textured and rich paint covering. Now, to approach this, you've got to look at your reference and start seeing the shadow and the middle value range and the lights on each tomato. Now the shadows will be the darker, cooler reds, magenta, perhaps a bit of blue as well into it. The middle value range will be the red lights and maybe a touch of orange. And the light part of the tomatoes will have a lot more orange and some yellow being mixed into the red. You can see, I'm at this stage not putting in white. So it's keeping away from trying to create a strong highlight at this stage. Rather concentrate on the textures and layers of actual color. Basically, I'm using clean colors straight from the pile onto the brush and onto the painting itself. As this develops, I can then start looking at bringing a little bit of white to lighten up the highlights. The highlights at that point, as you'll see, will not be a bright white, there will be a warm color, right? So even though there'll be lighter in value, I'll still keep them warm by having more yellow and orange in to the color. Hopefully that will clear up as we go along. But as you can see now, does tomato on the right hand side has got quite a lot of paint on it. Nice thick juicy acrylic paint. The top of the tomato, catching the light that we'll have, as I said, the orange and yellows. Now, just a touch of white in there, but even that, I think is just a touch too cool. So I'll probably revisit that, but be very careful with your highlights. Too much. White is not a really good idea because it makes the color too cold. I'd rather have a highlight that is something like lemon yellow with a little bit of white into it because lemon yellow is already light and it's going to be light compared to your ribs, which are not really a very light value. Red is a relatively dark value color. It's just warm, so it's deceptive. We think dark value is always going to be a cool color. So moving from one tomato to the next, looking for the shadow, getting the shadow reds in there, those magentas. Then to the red lights into the orange and yellow and so on. Little bit of white in that orange. I think that's a bit better. That's a highlight, but warm, so warm and that is what I want. I want a rich, strong color. A little bit of blue, getting a purple there. Quite a strong dark as you can see, but we'll work over it and incorporated bringing in some of those blues. The blue is a process of harmony. So the blue from the bowl in the shadows of tomatoes is about harmony. Textures. Try to drag the brush in the direction of the, the colors of the objects swell or the round objects. So you will essentially at the roundness, doing brushstrokes in that direction as well. 8. Part 6 Details: Getting into the final stage of this painting. And as it suggests, it's about details and corrections. Were putting the smaller details like the Stokes and the tomatoes. Some of the tomatoes will have stalk and that's just an important little touch. And it also gives me an excuse to bring in some colors like these notes of green. And it's very important to have nodes, green color where you've got lots of read, a few greens balance out all of those rates. Still stylized, stole using the basic shapes to convey these stocks. But bringing touches of green and blue as well. I'll talk a lot about harmony throughout the painting. When you use a small palette of colors like I'm using, where you pretty much have to mix all your secondary colors for the most part, or modify your colors. Your painting automatically gets a harmony to it because most of the colors you put down or coming from a mix of colors on your palette. And that helps to harmonize your palette. You're not using 20 tube colors where you could end up with a whole mixed salad of colors that don't hold together. So now I'm bringing color in the back of this bowl. You'll notice some of the tomatoes reflecting the red, orange colors into the back of the bowl. You go to try and observe that and bring that in. Some touch ups and corrections on the left-hand side of the bowl where I haven't drawn it accurately enough. That's not a problem. I think that also adds to the the quirkiness of this loose and contemporary approach. I will come back to that area and bring in a bit more blue to neaten the ball up. Swapping to a round brush. Now to get these little details in breaking up a few solid shapes, dropping in a few common nodes of glue. That little note of color over there as well. To link up with the blues of the ball. It's typical to explain each of these strokes. They pretty much done instinctively with that idea of harmony. Once again, break up the one color or a solid color somewhere else. Break it up. Adding another color to it. This brilliant blue or Cerulean, whatever version you use, has a lovely modern looked. Really stands out. Few little spots or that amongst the tomatoes helps with that harmony. Little bit of a highlight at the back there, the ball. I want to brighten up the background on the right-hand side where there's more light. So just getting a bit of a gradation from left to the right. And this is warm highlights and the background, if you could call it that. I think it picks up the, the reds and blues so nicely. A little bit of breaking up this edge of the shadow. I just think that carries a bit of color into the table as well. Let's just try and pull this left-hand side. I think that's a bit predator. Balances up few final little notes, dots and dashes, little things like that. These little things of color, just spots to pull things together. You have to really experiment with them and see if they look good. If they do, leave the moment, if not, let them dry paint over it, a few lost in pester notes. And then I think it's time to sign off the painting. Get one or two spots of highlighting neat on this edge up here. And now let's get a signature down and we're going to use bold red just to link up with that main color of the painting, we will get the tape off and I hope you enjoy painting this. I've certainly have enjoyed it myself. I think it's a cheerful, fun and energetic little painting. And now you can have a go and have some fun with us as well. 9. Conclusion : Well, I hope you enjoyed this course is a subject that I really enjoyed painting. It's fun. No real pressure. And you're just playing with shapes and beautiful colors. Please try the painting out for yourself. Maybe the next one, change the subject. Maybe put lemons in a bowl and you try that out as well. But practice is the key. You won't make the perfect painting the first time around. And that's to be expected. And you must appreciate that about your learning process. Try it out. Perhaps your first one is a smaller version and then you go into something a bit larger. And when you are familiar with the subject, you can go for a nice big painting as well. That's how it works with all craft and art subjects as well. Painting, no different. Enjoy it. Keep practicing. And if you want to go further with your acrylic painting, have a look at my painting school. I've got extensive courses. They from beginner acrylic painting to master lessons as well, until next time, just for now.