Demo

DEMO

DIRECT mixing

HASHIM AKIB guides us through an abstract painting of a stream, tree and rocks to show how applying paint directly to your canvas can spark acrylic colours to life

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Hashim's materials

• Paints Azo Yellow Lemon, Azo Yellow Medium, Azo Orange, Ultramarine Violet, Permanent Blue Violet, Cobalt Blue (Ultramarine), Greenish Blue, Permanent Green Light, Phthalo Green, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna and Titanium White, all Amsterdam Standard acrylics • Brushes Daler-Rowney Skyflow large flat brushes, sizes 1/2”, 1”, 1.5” and 2” • Support Stretched cotton canvas, 60x75cm • Mixing Tray • Water pot 3 4

1Lay out colours Have you ever looked at your mixing tray or scrap piece of paper and found the crudely mixed colours more striking than what eventually landed on your canvas? It is unfortunate that acrylic paint can quickly become dull, especially if it is mixed or diluted too much.

If you want vibrant, luminous paintings, mixing directly is a great technique to try. Begin by squeezing out plenty of paint on your palette or mixing tray.

To make it easier on your first attempt, consider either working on a smaller scale to get used to the larger quantities, or limiting the number of colours you use.

2Pick up pure pigment

Orange, Burnt Sienna and Yellow Ochre and then applying the colours directly onto my canvas. These harmonious colours should mix well and produce some streaks when applied directly.

I then used the same brush to pick up more Cadmium Orange with touches of Permanent Blue Violet, Ultramarine Violet and Burnt Sienna to apply various diagonal strokes and create movement.

3Avoid mixing Without cleaning the brush, I dabbed it into Azo Yellow Medium, Phthalo Green, Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna. With some orange still on the brush, these mixes produced a brownishgreen colour.

Be careful not to brush over the initial layers completely as this can muddy the colours. Essentially, you’re looking for the pigments to sit side by side or partly skim over each other.

From here I added some dark tones using the same brush, mixing in Ultramarine Violet and Greenish Blue to dominate the other colours.

4Control saturation The advantage of these purer applications is that they can energise your paintings, especially at the early stages, so the balance should be towards richer pigments there.

As you progress and drawing comes into play, these will make way for less saturated colours and tints (those mixed with white).

Here I introduced richer greens, yellows and Yellow Ochre with less Cadmium Orange and Burnt Sienna, applied using a clean, damp 2” flat brush.

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Top tip Load up your brush! Pigment embedded in the bristles makes long strokes easier 7 8

5Pre-mix tints White is a tricky pigment to use with this technique as pure white streaks can be distracting. To avoid that, I did my first bit of pre-mixing, adding white to create separate pools of lighter tints on my mixing tray first. I began by mixing a light green with various greens and Titanium White, plus a touch of Yellow Ochre. This tint was then used in combination with the other pure colours directly on the canvas. I used the tint to shape some of the forms and indicate grass via thin lines made with the edge of the brush.

6Begin drawing I added more Lemon Yellow, Cobalt Blue and small amounts of Greenish Blue to the lighter green tint here. I used a 1.5” brush to begin carving out the lights on the tree trunks and branches. I created other pools of light blue and light orangey-yellow tints too.

It may be tricky to almost start the drawing halfway through a painting, but the refined lines provide a good contrast with the chaotic blocky ones. Practise really helps, as you’ll begin to pre-plan to maximise various effects and contrasts.

7Work with darks With a clean 1.5” brush, I mixed a pool of blues to highlight ripples in the water. The early pure blues became mid-tones, and the brushstrokes were now more controlled. I avoided overstating details in order to maintain the energy of the early marks.

Once I’d added an overall impression of the tints, I then applied darks. To do this, I simply dabbed a clean 1.5” brush into the Ultramarine Violet, Phthalo Green and Burnt Sienna on my palette and applied the colour directly onto the canvas. These marks accentuated the water’s edge by providing dark shading around the trees and rocks.

8Balance things out All of these refinements added to the dominant lights and darks has helped to create a more orderly scene. Using a 1” flat brush, I added highlights for leaves, parts of branches, grasses, and rocks. Lemon Yellow and Titanium White were used for the purest highlights. Darks were kept fairly minimal, with lines only teased at via lost and found edges. It’s important not to completely override the early marks in favour of a fully representational drawing – opt for a balance between the two. www.hashimakib.co.uk