'madame butterfly' ~ acrylic paint, soft pastels, mica, and caran d'ache neocolor II crayons on canvas panel, 4" x 6"

a few weeks ago i took the plunge and ordered enough acrylic paints  to give them a fair try...

acrylic paint in stillman and birn gamma

this was my first painting.  i figured the writing could only help...  :)

 acrylic paint in stillman and birn gamma

hours later, this was my third.   i think i quit for the day after this - exhausted from the effort of learning!

i ordered all heavy body paints, mostly sennelier.   these are the 'face colors': white, titan buff, flesh ochre (i am unable to resist an ochre), yellow ochre, raw sienna, brown ochre, raw umber and payne's gray.

and this is the masterson's sta-wet palette (i got the small 'handy palette') that i learned about from gillian.   it makes *all* the difference - you can paint with no worries about your paint drying out.   most of the paint on the palette in the pic has been there for days.  flesh ochre and raw sienna dry out overnight no matter how moist i keep the sponge, so i only put tiny amounts of them out at a time.   the palette 'paper' seems to be indestructible.  i use a palette knife to scrape any dry paint off, and then put fresh down.   it took a while to figure out how wet to get the sponge - too wet and your paint gets watery, too dry and it starts to dry out.  with a little practice, you can figure this out, though.   i add a little water to the sponge every day, which seems to work best once you've got your paints on there.

'short story' ~ acrylic paint, caran d'ache neocolor II crayons, and soft pastels on canvas panel, 4" x 6"

i'm having a blast with them...  it's so easy to put down a bunch of layers and play.  i like that i have to work way faster than with oils or watercolors.  i think it helps keep things spontaneous.   and if i don't like what i've done, i cover it up.

now i just need more colors...  :)