Nice Jug

Today's painting was another Will Kemp tutorial, just to keep things simple. Only 3 colours were used; burnt umber, ultramarine and titanium white. If I was stuck on a desert island with only three tubes of paint, I would choose those. Not that I would have much time to paint.

7x9 Acrylic on Canvas Board

This was a very straightforward subject. I primed the canvas with a very light grey made from the three colours. Then I blocked the darkest areas with a dark grey made with untramarine and a little less of the burnt umber. I'm not crazy about the background, but I was satisfied with the jug.

These two colours make such a great pair because you can make such a range of cool and warm colours. When I did watercolour painting, I used them very often when doing landscapes. I'll have to dig them up and show you...

I spend three times as long mixing colours as I do applying them to the canvas, but I'm getting a bit better at achieving the colours I want. I used more medium this time, and the paint flowed much better.

Valuable Lessons Learned Today:

• Using more medium in acrylic paint makes it a bit easier to blend.
• You use a lot of white when painting with acrylic so make sure you have a backup tube. 
• Cheap tip: You can use one of those plastic bakery birthday cake things to keep your acrylics from drying out. I put a wet paper towel down, then my paint palette sheet on top of it. The paint stayed fine for three days with the lids on tightly. 

Acrylic Paint Keeper