I will warn you now, my way of making art is a little "all-over the place," and doesn't really look like art until the very end, when I tie all the loose strings together. So, if you're having trouble following the process, just message me or wait until the final post for the project is up and maybe then the "big picture" will help.
One technique a lot of art teachers recommend when using acrylic is blocking out the general shapes and areas with a base color. This base color is often light or medium in shade, because some acrylic paints are translucent when you coat a light layer over a darker one, and it can look tacky. If you make that mistake, it's not impossible to fix, but takes several coats of white to amend the problem.
Please take a look at the base layers I've painted, and I'll tell you what I've done so far:
Since this is based off of a photograph I took of a monarch butterfly, I have a very reliable reference picture, which can be seen below. I used a large (3/4 in.) nylon brush to paint a green background, avoiding the areas where I previously sketched the main components of the composition. This green is called "Roi Evergreen," and normally I don't use paint straight out of the tube, but it was a good medium grass-color that would be just the right tone for a base layer, not too light or too dark. This way, it will be easier to bring out the highlights and the shadows. Since the major color in the monarch's wings was peach, that was the layer I chose for that shape, and a light lavender for the flowers on the thistles. Base layers don't have to be perfect, even coats, but they should offer a good foundation.
Here's the photograph:
More to come!
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