Trudi Hayden – Saturday 20th January 2018
A Cotswold Sunset- We had a lovely demonstration from Trudi resulting in us learning about the process of layering when working in acrylics.
Trudi started on a canvas board by mapping out the lighter areas of the painting using her photograph of a sunset on her laptop as the source material. Using orange, lemon yellow and white these areas were mapped out using a ‘scrubby’ brush, keeping another brush spare to mix the colours. Trudi worked directly on the board with no pre drawing and sketched out the rest of the sky in cyan blue, violet, ultramarine white and a bit of black. Flip top lid acrylics were recommended rather than screw top, as these are easier to open than screw top tubes.
Using very little paint to start, keeping it in thin layers and blending the tones using a dryer brush directly on the board with other colours being mixed on a palette was shown. When painting the clouds Trudi enhanced their depth by blending lighter tones round the edges of the clouds by using a smaller brush. She gave the tip, that working at an easel first helps you loosen up and not concentrate on the detail too soon, only when detail is needed will she then move to a table top easel. It also helps to keep to a standard sized canvas such as the one demonstrated, about 12×16 inches. Another tip is to find the middle of the painting and plan your space so you don’t get ‘lost’, use chalk or a watercolour pencil helps in mapping out anything in the foreground. This she demonstrated on another painting….’here’s one I prepared earlier’.
Trudi added some trees using raw umber, orange and purple and indicated if you find it more difficult to paint one side of an item, like a tree, turn the painting upside-down to then paint the other side….what a brilliant idea, thanks Trudi!
After designing and producing a dragon on her child’s bedroom ceiling this is how Trudi started painting. However painting on canvas is a little different but she advised us not to be scared of adding bolder colours as this adds vitality to a piece. Painting in acrylics, it’s always advisable to mix enough of the same colour in one go, and it always dries a couple of shades darker than expected. When asked about the edges of a canvas Trudi was expressed her preference of painting round the edges of a deep canvas to ‘finish off’ the painting rather than framing it, but narrow edged canvases really suited being framed.
