Painting (acrylic) for Beginners

Although I have stopped attending the painting group, that does not mean I no longer have contact with a few members. One of them is a lady over 80 who painted a marten and does not like the background.
Two weeks ago I told her that she should paint in layers and that mistakes do not really exist as long as there is axway to touch up.

Months ago she already said that when I was back in the country she would like to speak with me to learn a thing or two from me. Still not sure what that might be. I should also mention that after a fall she suffers from memory loss, at least... that is what she says. Honestly, I think her memory is particularly good.

How do you teach someone who has never held a brush how to paint?
The only way is by doing it and showing how.

In her case she looked for a drawing or photo that she copied (a bit small if you ask me), and then it is a matter of colouring it in. By her own account she would also have problems distinguishing colours, but she does not seem colour-blind to me.

After she had drawn a marten, the background was divided in two by a horizontal line. Both areas were divided into two colours. So there is not much variation or depth in it.

Problems:

• handling the brush
• distinguishing colours
• creating some variation/depth in a simple way and preferably quickly, given that weeks on a project frustrates her and more practice is needed to be able to remember something.

Materials:

• Bamboo paper - approx. A5 size
• Old brush with hard bristles
• Acrylic paint: light blue, dark blue, white, green, brown, red, yellow (mix a bit and you have another colour).
• Pencil for the sketch
• Piece of sponge

Method
I decided to sketch something on bamboo paper that roughly corresponded to what she had done.

Background
I began by colouring the sky with an old brush, then the tree trunk and then the ground. In between I kept taking photos so that she can clearly see the steps and the build-up.

Note: I did not use water to rinse the brush. You can work from light to dark and also wipe the brush on the piece of paper you are using as a palette when there is too much paint on it.

Subject/animal
Because the animal has not been coloured in all that neatly, I just did something as well, and actually that is good enough, because anyone can see that it is an animal. And I am still going to add some green around it by stamping different shades of green (3) over one another with a piece of sponge. That looks nice and goes quick.

The sky
In this case, I smudged the sky a little with the side of the hard-bristled brush using dark blue and then white. Using a sponge is also an option.

Mixing colours

• Sometimes the paint was still wet and I simply painted or smudged over it with another colour. Stamping with a sponge and paint can also be done in wet paint.
• In this case I simply mixed colours with that hard-bristled brush on a piece of cardboard that I use as a palette.

Finishing
When the paint was dry (well, I went to bed), I stamped a little with a piece of sponge using light green paint, then green and next dark green.
It is always good to wait until it is dry, because then everything looks different.

Lastly, I applied a little gloss varnish over it. It makes acrylic on paper look better; it shines more and the paper is also a good deal thicker/sturdier.

Incidentally, paintings on (bamboo) paper look quite attractive, especially when a mount is put around them and they are framed. I am not going to do that with this one, because I do not like small things on the wall anyway.

@surinadewi perhaps this is of some use to you too? You can of course also simply paint with one or two colours, which looks super too.

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