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Harlan's Easy Painting Course in Acrylics
More creative play.
The following paintings are examples of what I've created since writing this course, trying to take my own advice.
These dancing gals are basically stick figures bent and made more fluid. I was more interested in the action and energy than accurate anatomy. I started with a napkin filled with ballpoint drawings of stick figures and then copied the best poses with my acrylic brush. I like to do freestyle solo dancing myself when I hear a lively song on the radio -- and East Coast Swing ballroom dancing with my wife. But I'm not nearly as skinny nor as limber as these gals. And you wouldn't want to see me dance!
I used my sign lettering skills to make some fairly precise brush marks. What makes this painting work is repetition of colors, brush marks, squiggles, dots, and varied angles.
Behind the frantic energy of this painting is a simple repeated S-shape. Brush marks and colors are also repeated. This painting is messier, not as precise as the previous one. You don't have to paint "prettily" -- or refined and neat -- to create something pleasing to the eye.
I started out with some loosely painted black lines, horizontal and vertical. then I filled in the "windows" with colors, careful to always repeat each color at least once, for unity.
I first quickly brushed in the background with thinned-down paint. Then I used my cartooning ability to draw silhouettes with black paint. To illustrate the energy of the gabbers, I drew squiggles inside their bodies.
I used a simple design here, with the maestro and musicians silhouetted against the yellow A-shape. I wanted very little detail -- instead an impression of the energy of the orchestra and the vibrant music. I added the colorful lines and squiggles to illustrate the cacophony.
I saw another artist's moonlit painting and wanted to do one of my own, completely different from his. I like the mysterious feeling of dusk or twilight paintings.
I started with the curved black lines, filled in with bands of color, and then added the snaky lines. Again, you don't have to be able to draw well in order to paint.
No thumbnail sketch on this one. I just started smearing blue and white paint around with my big brush, letting the white of the panel show through here and there.
There are just two basic areas in this painting -- sky and crowd. Again, simplicity works just fine. The people in the crowd are suggested with brushmarked gestures. This painting illustrates a democratic right -- to peaceably assemble and voice dissent.
After I had a very bad day at work, complete with loss of sleep and a vicious headache, I painted this "day from hell." I first painted the red background, then used my small brush to draw the paths and simplified figures.
Paintings don't have to be "traditional": portrait, still life, landscape. Any subject is fair game.
More paintings on the next page.
All art work Copyright © Harlan Simantel
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