In Progress: Ex-Latte Five

"Ex-Latte Five"

7"H by 5"W, on panel. 

(click for enlargement)

I painted this in acrylic just this past Sunday and found myself really enjoying the experience, which surprised me.  I've had a set of acrylics for about five years, but rarely found myself using them, and when I did I painted very thinly and didn't experiment with any mediums. Well, if I want to paint in an manner which is at all similar to my way of applying oils, I'd better learn to slather it on like butter. The trick is to go a lot faster than I normally would. This painting has just an hour invested in it. There couldn't be more- the paint dried on the palette really quickly.

So far I feel successful. However, this is still unfinished even though what is left is just minor detailing. Mixing the same color for a specific area may be the most difficult thing to do in acrylics as the paint darkens and changes as it dries. When I took a class which used acrylic paint in the past, that feature of the medium was a source of constant frustration. I'll take another whack at it this coming Sunday (still not renaming this blog "One Day a Week" despite the reality), and see what develops.

Starbucks Grande

Here's the underdrawings for the start of a series of small paintings. I am not sure if all of these will be of coffee cups, or whether they will all be crushed.

All are 6x8 inches, charcoal on cradled panels. Going to put some paint on them next week. None of them have names or individual lives yet, and I'm not sure whether I'm going to include any of the text. It's a bit repetitive, like a visit to Starbucks.