I know the picture quality is very low, thats what you get from a camera phone. This is the second step of Muddy Waters. As you can see I started a slight gradient in the background using Burnt Umber, faded into Mars Yellow. I always find creating a gradient in acrylics especially hard due to the nature of the paint. Acrylic paints dry incredibly fast. Unlike oil paints you have to work very fast to blend your colors, I also use a technique called “scumbling” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ2g5AhFmq0. Now that the background is somewhat established Ican go on…

This is the first painting that I have worked on in some time. For the past year I’ve been attempting to learn computer software such as photoshop, Illustrator, Painter etc. So I figured it was time to put pen to paper or brush to canvas in this case. This is the first step in my caricature of Jazz musician Muddy Waters. I used gallery wrapped stretcher frames wrapped in canvas. After I stretch a canvas I always spray the back of it with warm water to cause the canvas to constrict just because I like it to be drum tight, then just let it sit for a day or two. This painting is acrylic based. My favorite brand of acrylics are the Golden brand. I loosely painted a sketch using water -downed Burnt Sienna and a number 2 round Winsor Newton acrylic paint brush. After putting down a loose sketch I like to immediately block in the background in one flat color just to get separation. I generally don’t take too much time with my initial sketch, it’s more or less just for size and placement. One the background is blocked in I go on…