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Careers: Arts/underpainting in acrylic

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Expert: - 2/18/2011


Question
Dear Gianina, I'm a new acrylic painter and I seem to be having a lot of trouble telling when to undercoat the sublects of my painting in light, medium or dark colours. I paint vegetables, fruit, flowers and people mostly. Is there any way to know which colour to use to underpaint these things? Thanks for your help!

Answer
Hello Liz!
When underpainting with acrylics, you can do whatever you want. It all depends on the look and mood you're going for. Any color you lay down will have an affect on all colors painted afterward. Think about the hues of the subject and what you want to enhance. Do you want it to be a warm painting or a cool painting? Or, do you want it to have a weird undertone? For example, you can paint a warm light yellow-orange, and you can end up with a relatively sunny painting. Alternatively, you paint an odd shade of muddy lime green and get an unusual effect.

Also, if you do underpaint, think about the transparency of what you paint on top. You can adjust the opacity of your acrylics to show more or less of your underpainted color.

If you decide not to underpaint, you can experiment by exposing some of your canvas through the painting or by using the base canvas as your "white."

Some artists just use underpainting to lay down the base color of the object(s) they are painting. For example, if you were painting a banana, you would lay down a layer of yellow for the banana and then add detail/shading with other colors on top.

Don't worry, no hard and fast rules exist for this. Experiment and have fun!
Best of luck!
-Gianina

Careers: Arts

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Gianina L.

Expertise

I can answer questions concerning most traditional mediums such as acrylics, watercolor, colored pencils, collage/cut paper, graphite, charcoal, and pen and ink. I also have strong, advanced knowledge of Photoshop, Powerpoint and Publisher; and beginner to immediate level knowledge in Illustrator, Freehand, After Effects, and Flash. In addition, I can cover miscellaneous subjects such as portfolio preparation, applying to art schools, art school study skills, color theory, basic design and drawing principles, basic animation techniques, working on personal art styles and exploring new artistic techniques. Topics such as the detailed legal aspects of art, web programming and Flash action scripting do not fall under my area of expertise.

Experience

Experience in the Area
I graduated summa cum laude with a double BFA in Illustration and Computer Art (specializing in 2-dimensional animation) from the Savannah College of Art and Design, where as a student, I happily tutored fellow peers in all aspects of art and created numerous illustrations for the school newspaper. For the past several years, I have been illustrating seminar books, designing numerous graphics, and creating short animation sequences for use in video. In addition, I work as a private tutor and am co-director / co-owner of a company that focuses on and promotes the local music industry. I assist with all the day-to-day operations of this company as well as manage all art direction and design.

Education/Credentials
Savannah College of Art and Design
BFA Computer Art, Illustration
Summa Cum Laude
Dean's List, GPA 4.0

Awards and Honors
Induction into Alpha Pi Beta honor society for art and design, 2002
Outstanding Achievement in Computer Art, 2002
Outstanding Student for the academic year 2001-2002
Awarded "Most Dependable" for District, the student newspaper, 2002
Who's Who Among American Colleges and Universities, May 2001
Better Business Bureau Honesty in Advertising Essay Competition, Merit Award, November 1998
Mary Renee Whelan Scholarship, Savannah College of Art and Design

Exhibitions and Festivals:
Embodiement; Myths in Animal Form, www.postpicasso.com, December 10 - January 10, 2005
SCAD Alumni Show, Stardust Café, Orlando, FL; December 2004
Finalist, International Juried Online Symbolist Art Show, www.dracoblu.com, May 2004 - April 2005
Finalist, International Juried Online Symbolist Art Show, www.dracoblu.com, May 2003 - April 2004
Senior Showcase, SCAD Pei Ling Chan Gallery, Savannah, GA; May 2002
2D or not 2D, SCAD Trustees Theatre, Savannah, GA; April 2002
Small Works, SCAD Exhibit A Gallery, Savannah, GA; November 7 - December 31, 2001; art was purchased
Magnanimata Animation Festival, May 1999

Publications
Quoted briefly in Animation World Magazine, "Predicting the Future of Futurama" (April 1999) and "Ed, Edd, n Eddy: A Unique Approach" (June 1999)

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