Learn how to Paint with Acrylics - Preparing a Work Space
Hi, I’m Mary Gallagher – Stout. And we are going to be painting a yawning ferocious, stoney lion. And right now we’re gonna get our studio space ready, coz you need to be able to work in a space so that it’s conducive to all this creativity that you’re going to be doing and creating in a second. So, what I’m using is a table top easel that I made, you don’t have to make your own, or you can just get like a piece of wood. But, if you don’t have a wooden easel or table top easel, you could certainly affix your paper to the wall, or nail. If you have a canvass, you could certainly you know, just put in and hammer a nail on the wall and hang the canvass on to the wall itself. So you don’t really need an easel, it’s just what you prefer. You just need to have a lot of space because you’re gonna be moving around and you need to be able to move your arms and get yourself all nice and full of paints. So you be in a place that you’re not gonna be too concerned if you get paint, so maybe the garage or the basement, a place where you can feel free to create and make a mess and have a blast. Alright, so let’s check about the kind of paper I’m using to create this painting on, since we’re not using canvass. I’m using polystyrene, it’s I believe two mil and it has some plastic in it. So it doesn’t buckle when you put paint on to it, a lot of times when you use poster paint, poster board, I’m sure anybody that’s paint in poster board remembers how it curls up when it gets wet. Because there’s plastic in this, it doesn’t roll. Okay, so we’re gonna fix our sketch on to the easel. I’ve already done the sketch of a yawning lion; it was a photograph of a lion that I saw. And because I like to work from a place that isn’t reality, I like it to be about my interpretation of the subject. When I sketched it, I put all the information that I need for my painting. So I don’t wanna use that photo as a reference, I want it to come from somewhere else. I want it to come from memory and feeling and those type of things. Not an actual photograph of the lion, so that’s why I'm not using a photo for reference. And like I said, I put in all of the darks. I put in enough information that I know where things need to go, so I don’t need a photographic reference. So, after you finish sketching, and we have it affix to the board, the next step is to prepare your paper. So our next step will be to lay two coats of gesso, clear gesso on to the surface. Let it dry overnight and then we’re going to paint in our under paint.