Paint Mixing Demonstration

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color mixing, how to mix acrylic paint, mixing paint colors, painting, painting demonstration, painting tutorial, painting video

I created my first YouTube video demonstrating how I mix paint for my contemporary abstract landscape paintings. First of all, I thought it was totally cool to see the paint being mixed from this perspective! Anyways, when I work, I only mix one color at a time, so I mix the color I want on a piece of glass. I’ll use the color-clean down my pallet, and mix a new color. I tend to have a brush for each temperature color to keep my colors clean. I also work with a spray bottle at all times. So my process for my first layers are usually mix up the color, squirt it if I need it wetter (I’ll also squirt the canvas) and lay down that color. I like how fast it dries so I can quickly build up the layers. But I will work on more than one painting at a time between drying times to keep moving.

My standard materials consist of both white and clear gesso. I use white Liquitex acrylic gesso to lighten my colors for large areas I want to cover. I started using white gesso because of how fluid it can make the paint. Also, since I paint on larger canvases, it makes it easy to mix a large batch of color to cover the canvas quickly. The amount of white gesso I use is dependent upon how light I want the value, and how much area I’m trying to cover.

I also use Liquitex Clear Gesso to liquify my paints. I love this as a medium because it has a slight grainy texture to it so any layers you put on top grasp really well. Also, you can control the transparency of your colors by how much clear gesso you use.  I don’t alway mix in clear gesso, this is usually used in the first few coats. When it’s time to put on the final layers, I often leave the clear gesso out of the mix so the colors are more opaque.

My first layers are usually put down with brushes, but towards the end I will work with large palette knives or draw onto the canvas right from the tube of paint. I like having pure color spots on my top layer, to me this adds so much in terms of depth and visual stimulation. It just seems to make the entire painting have complete life. I will also sometimes take a piece of steel wool and scrape some paint off revealing the underlying layer.To see the YouTube video, go to: Jacquie Gouveia – Mixing Paint Demonstration

This is the start of a painting from the demonstration. I just laid down the paint onto the canvas as I was making the video.