Textured Acrylic Painted Canvas

Hello Everyone!

My name is James and I am Ben Franklin's new Craft Coordinator at our Market City location and with that, makes me a new contributor to the Ideas and Inspirations Blog! I hope to provide you with fun and creative new... well, ideas and inspirations!



Today, we will be working on a textured acrylic painted canvas portrait. In my portrait, I did a sunset view of the island of Lana'i. Of course, you are welcomed to paint anything you want for yourself!

For this project, I just used red, yellow, blue, and white acrylic paints. Basic primary colors that can be used to make any color! Afterwards, I used the Liquitex Gloss Heavy Gel to give it that shine and layer of texture.

So here is the breakdown of steps and techniques that I used in this piece that can be applied to any painting:

 

-I like to start back to front, so I'll start with the background which is the sunset sky. I used a blend of Yellow and red to get a nice orange and painted the top half of the canvas with a nice gradient. Just play with the paints on your pallet until you get the blends and shades you want.

 

-The great thing about acrylic paints is that they dry very quick! so after about 5-10 mins, I'll start on the next layer, which would be the island and the clouds. the island is a blend of blue and red for a very dark shade of purple. Clouds are a blend of white, yellow, and red for some very light orange colors. Dab your brush against the canvas to give your clouds texture. Before those are dry, dab over your orange clouds with a light shade of purple/lavender color.

-When your island is dry, you can start with the foremost subject, the ocean. For this I painted the entire bottom half of the canvas with blue, partially blended with yellow for some shades of green.

 

-Before that completely dries, I'll take some yellow and greens and just brush some squiggles horizontally across the blue. The squiggles are larger and are more in quantity toward the bottom of the canvas, and they'll lessen and shrink as you work your way up toward the top of the canvas, just to the top of your blue horizon.

 

So that's a breakdown of my process for this piece! Now for that added texture.

When your canvas is completely dry, Take a scoop of your Gloss Heavy Gel and apply it to your canvas. It is very thick and white, but it will dry completely clear. Take a butter knife or just a scrap piece of cardstock and spread the gel evenly across the canvas, just like icing a cake. After it's even, you can use the tip of your brush handle and draw any design or pattern you would like into the gel. For this piece I drew grooves and stippled the tip of my brush all across the ocean to give it that water look. Afterwards you are going to let it dry for about 30 minutes to an hour, or until the gel is dry. Then your textured canvas piece is done!

 

Feel free to try your hand at this sunset portrait, or even just take some ideas from my process and apply it your own artwork!

 

-James

@Market City