Acrylic Painting Tutorial: Still Life Lemon

Learn how to paint still life lemon in acrylics with artist Will Kemp in this acrylic painting tutorial.
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hi and welcome but i'd like to welcome
you to this mini-course with acrylics
we're going to do some still life
paintings very simply everyone to be
able to follow easy at home so let's get
started with a color ground often begin
the star they always have a white canvas
and when you've got this white canvas
you think i'll ask brilliant i can get
started straight onto that but it's a
really common mistake this is because
it's so hard to judge your tones when
you're working against the white canvas
but we're going to be creating what's
called a tone ground so here's a tone
ground i was already prepared you can
see how different it is to the white and
this can be so important when you're
painting it's a classical technique
turning used to use it and Rembrandt and
it can be really really important to get
you started when you're painting with
acrylics the same technique can be used
in oils but today I'll show you how
quick and easy is with acrylics ok let's
get going
so what I've got here because I paint a
lot of paintings a lot of different
color grounds this is just a premix
color of law number and white i often
use an earth color because it's so tonal
it's really good just to get that
neutral field your painting so either a
burnt umber or a wrong number or a
yellow ochre can be really nice to get
started on if you're doing like a sunset
or something with a lot of light coming
behind it yellow ochre can be absolutely
brilliant but because of this one is
quite muted in the subject has got a
muted grey background
we're going to be using the wrong number
my tumblr mix so the pains that i'm
using a golden critics these are all
artists quality acrylics and you'll find
with artists quality of critics have
just got a lot more body and a lot more
opacity to them often when you first
start painting you buy the cheapest
painter you can buy because you do feel
that you're not ready to go with that
real you know the artist qualities they
are our way to learn better and then
i'll invest in the artist quality but I
always always urge my students to invest
in an artist quality white it makes us
the difference to your work because
you'll be under cover of your mistakes
which is a really really good thing when
you're first starting in $YEAR and it
would just make a critics works so much
better than if you have the student
quality so all I've done here I'll just
mix the wrong number and the white
together you just want to consistency
that is a little bit thinner than how it
comes out the cheap so I just grabbed a
bit of water onto it just got a pet or
you're a very careful that pouring some
out you can pour some out but i'll
probably make a mess so i'll just take
it a little bit at a time okay that's
looking nice
why use a a decorators brush for just
covering over the white this is a brand
called a purdy brush and I found them
really really excellent brushes they
never ever lose hairs they're really
sturdy and I get a nice little case that
keeps a brush or kind of meat and
tightly spoken you get quite obsession
with your brushes so i recommend a purdy
you can see this one's it's not about
five years old so it's got quite a lot
of use out of it so I always dip the
brush to start with just in some water
but just did the ends and then with some
kitchen roll
I just dampen it off so there is damp
but not wet
this is this is key really so you've got
a bit of movement and you see how all
the bristles all go together
it's so important and when we work with
the rest of the painting the same
principle applies I dip the bristles in
a little bit with the water sample them
off with the kitchen roll and then we
can get painting often when you're
starting the tendency is to kind of you
push the rush in and get more paint on
the hand more than you do on the end of
the brush but if you ever noticed how a
decorator decorate your home and they
just dip the brush into the paint this
is the exact same principle and if you
start painting this way you'll get
really professional results
so I'm just going to scrubbing it in if
it doesn't flow as well just know a bit
more water but what is quite case you
don't have it to think it's politically
watery rather than a thick paint because
this means that the paint can stick on
top of it the other layers that we do
you don't want to you lose the tooth of
the canvas too much and i'm going to lay
that flat I always work the same way
just to finish it off you see how that
gives us is nice flat tone to work our
paintings on top of ok that's the first
day's done so once we've got color
ground all you need to do is a simple
pencil drawing just so you've got a
basis to work to it doesn't have to be
anything elaborate just the real basis
to get started so on here on the letter
not just I'm just using a 4b pencil but
a 4b or 3b pencil is is absolutely great
because you want it just make a mark on
the canvas but not have to go into
strong not have to go into heavy on the
canvas or it will kind of bent the
canvas you just want to go to make a
mark but not go too heavy
you don't want too much graphite on the
canvas so sometimes i drawn and then you
need to rub your finger over it just so
it softens it in so you can still see
what you're working too but you haven't
got a very very dark pencil line
ok now what I do in my paintings I
established the darkest dark and the
light is light this is really key and
really works well we've gotta tone
ground so the two colors i'm going to
use our burnt umber entertaining and
white so as before i'm just going to dip
the brush into the water
i'm just using a round brush to start
with what i do is i have a look at the
picture and is advisable if you squint
your eyes slightly at the image this is
really handy and whatever painting that
you're doing if you just squint down
what you'll find is the darkened darken
the light enlighten and all the
mid-tones just kind of flatten out of it
and you can see what's called other
general feel of a painting the dental
field of the image and it's so important
when you're just trying to get get
started in your painting so when I went
to this image and look for the darkest
part is this part here shadow area i'm
just going to start with a shadow area
on the lemon so because this is the
first layer i can afford to be a little
bit watery
where it is lighter towards the edge and
you try to keep things as simple as
possible the the fewer paints that you
use and the less things you have to
worry about the better your chances of
success are actually getting B's or and
getting the painted going so just dip it
a little bit more water and often keep
but a kitchen roll just in my hand and
you can just dampen it off and then just
gonna wash it in see how it goes thinner
and i use my fingers lot of them are
painting especially with acrylics
because sometimes you get a hard age in
it and your finger is the perfect thing
just to blend it out just to soften that
edge off so-called shadow line in here
is quite dark underneath where the lemon
is turning into the shadow so I'm just
going to you know wash a bit over the
top
ok for the darks that's it i was it easy
will appreciate who we should all read
this they say far
ok now we're going to the White i'm just
going to swap brushes i'm using filbert
brush filbert brush means that it's got
a curved edge to it
this is nice because it means that when
you're blending you can kind of just
feather it onto the edge of the canvas
and you'll get a nice blend if we're
trying to get a more realistic effects
the filter is very handy to use so again
just dip in to the water a bit i'm
looking for the white is white want to
grab the titanium white so it's slightly
watered down
you see how now what we've got is it was
called a total range our darkest part in
our lightest part and now we can start
to judge the other tones in the picture
so for here the easiest thing to do is a
star on the foreground because it's
quite close in tone to this already and
we can just use that to existing colors
that we've got
so you can be quite sketchy you know
with acrylics and you kind of work over
and very easily but what's so nice about
the tone ground you start see these
different parts here these little specks
of that underlying color coming through
and it was still make the picture feel
like a whole without you having to worry
about finishing every single part of the
painting it helps to loosen up and just
got paint with a bit more expression
yeah
ok
now what you can see starts to happen is
because we're painting the outside of
this we're painting the negative over
the positive of the lemon suddenly we're
starting to get that former come out we
haven't really done much you just do
done a few brush marks and a tone around
as if by magic this
so who has carry on if you're finding
when you're working that you're too
tight you know you very very in a try
and get a lot of details
instead of holding your brush this way
you can hold on an underhand grip this
gives you a lot less control will feel a
bit odd to start leave but it can be
quite nice for like doing like Morse
kind of scrub your face because you just
haven't got that control quite close to
this background color on the actual
image we can use is a bit of the paint
that we used before but of the ground
color and this is going to be really
handy that we can mix into it as well
he's got that nice great into it's like
a greenie gray
the one thing you notice with acrylics
and this is key to remember when you're
first starting is the even though this
is the same color when it goes on wet it
looks lighter than when it dries off and
you'll find the chief of the paint that
you use the more there is what's called
a color shift so it's just something to
be aware of that if you match your color
absolutely precisely there's going to be
a slight darkman when it's on your
actual painting
okay for this stage of a painting that's
always do now we need to add simula ok
so what we're going to do next is
introduced to the LA I'm going to user
can do light is a really great yellow
it's got a real punch to it it's got
quite a nice opacities at the other
cover over what we've got
often with some yellows like lemon
yellow or handy yellow they're man-made
yellows they're very translucent so for
what we doing at this stage of the
painting you need to try and get more
opaque LA
the other color I'm going to use a raw
Sienna this is an earth color so it's
got that nice muted tone you'll notice
on here this is often an artist quality
page you'll find this out if they put a
natural color swatch just watching the
paint onto the paint tube so you can see
here is going to swatch either the black
lions and this shows you how opaque or
how much coverage the actual pigment has
got so we'll see what the raw Sienna is
got it's quite a bit it's not a very
opaque pigment is quite translucent so
for the technique we're gonna use today
is going to be perfect so because
acrylics dry so quickly you can work on
them in layers and what we're going now
look at is what's called a local color
and this is a local color of the subject
so if you had a red car you'd say that
had a local color of red so if you have
a lemon you say this is not a local
color of yellow if you look closely here
you see this is very very bright very
vibrant yellow is kind of coming
underneath you know the skin so what I'm
going to do is block in this part of the
lemon with the just the pure caddy LA I
see how wrong it looks to start with but
that's okay you've got to trust me on
this you see how it's quite watery again
how just scrubbing it in
so don't want too many hard edges at the
bottom area so i just can't break that
up with my finger
so is covered it but it's not completely
solid eight wanted to go to strong
otherwise it would look too well a bit
too lemony which seems it seems to
always consider bringing 11 but it's
actually on this image is quite an
orange e11 to wait that is to dry off
for a bit always that to dry off i'm
just going to paint in around here you
know the lighter area here i'm just
going to use the titanium white a touch
of the raw Sienna
I'm just good tone it down of it without
background a ground color we've mixed
just adding a little bit of white where
I can see how that where the light is
hitting it yet on this edge that can go
a little bit lighter okay I'm just gonna
wait this a dry off for second then I
can paint some of the raw Sienna on top
ok so now that's dried off we can start
to put some of the warmer dossier on top
of that and start with we're just going
to use it straight from the cheap
yeah
so you see because it's got that
translucent nature i get some of the
pigment underneath some of the first
year that we put on coming through and
i'm just going to leave it when it gets
the edge
she said it's got a bit more glow on the
h
yeah
and then you can start to add the yellow
to it for any areas that you just feel
just need lighting a bit so just trying
to keep quite a limited palette for you
to start with just to get used to
working with the Grizzlies and getting
used to create a nice balance painting
ok
so it's a fine line i might just use
this larger brush but if you want to
show you with the small one actually you
can swap between us what between you
know a round brush for details and then
you need to fill but what kind of
blocking in and have a more general
tains am using that quite watery and
just kind of washing it on
ok now to block in some of this color is
quite dark as dark than you may think
i'm just going to use a bit of that
ground color that we've had that gray
that green then we'll just totally down
a little bit
ok
so often when I'm painting up kind of
blocking areas even if I think they're
not exactly right
it's it just gives you your your are a
better idea of what the paintings how
it's going to turn out you notice that
gets to this corner gets a little bit
warmer so we can a bit more that raw
Sienna
and then like some of the other parts
now and this is dry off a little bit
start to work over parts of this and
then we just want to get it darker on
this shadow line so it feel more like it
goes and dark into the picture
I forget into these parts you just want
a more subtle blend so it just feels
like its feathers around a bit often use
a blazing liquid you see this is very
well-used part of him so it's really
really handy this place and they could
this from golden acrylics my rundown of
it here because i usually have the
pallet on the flat but you'll get an
idea and it just keeps your paint
slightly wetter for longer but it means
that you can blend two colors together
rather than trying to blend them with
water because water on here
you know we just kind of run down
especially if you're standing up working
as an easel so this is very handy and
you could just further it over and you
can use your finger if you want you see
how it kind of softens the edge so it
just kind of blend in to into the back
now when you start to get your paint
into this stage you can now start to
look at the painting as a whole to see
which part you want to tweak and start
to add some of these little highlights
that you can see on to the lemon when
you get to this stage of paintings off a
nice just to have a step back and have a
look at the images are working for more
the object that you're working from and
just to kind of have a look at how its
feeling as a whole
now when I look at the image that we
working from here I can see there's
elements of other colors is like a blue
a color down here and there's red are
colors on the bottom of the lemon before
this painting I want to try and keep it
as simple as possible so you can get
some really good results without getting
put off by too many colors to start with
so I'm just going to work this to a
finish just with these colors we've got
here and then on the next painting i can
show you some more details and more
tricks how to get a more finished
realistic look it's the first thing I
noticed when I have a look back is that
this line is is very hard so I'm just
gonna soften that off a bit
yeah
so the odd little bits of reflection is
just with the white slightly toned-down
with raw Sienna
just notice the shape here is touch
chalant
just gonna light around the the back
part of this lemon or just helped to
bring it forward a little bit
ok
yeah
yeah
okay this is just probably this one
there cuz face get just to get you used
to working with acrylics and get started
on this little calls and ok let's move
on to the next painting
yeah
yeah