Thompson, Tracie – Drawing and Painting Animals
Acrylic Paints
If you don’t already have acrylic paints, I recommend Blick Artist’s Acrylics or Utrecht artist’s grade. They cost about what “student grade” paints do but are of better quality.
AVOID Liquitex Basics, Michael’s “Artist’s Loft,” or other super cheap “student” acrylics. The colors are weak and see-through. They will cause you a lot of frustration.
You’ll need:
- Alizarin Crimson Hue
- Ultramarine Blue
- Titanium White
- Raw Sienna
- Naphthol Red Light or Cadmium Red Light
- Burnt Umber
- Ivory Black
- Hooker’s Green or Sap Green
- Azo Yellow
Brushes
I prefer synthetic brushes for acrylics. White synthetics or Golden Taklon work equally well. The basic three you’ll need are:
- One small (not tiny, but small, about #4 in most brands) round brush with a fine point.
- One larger “flat” brush, about 3/4″ wide
- One “filbert” brush, 1/2″ to 3/4″ wide
Other Supplies
- One pastel pencil – I use CarbOthello or Pitt Pastel pencils. Look for a medium to light earth tone. CarbOthello #620, Burnt Ochre, or similar.
- One eraser – either a kneaded eraser or white eraser.
- Regular #2 pencil for sketching
- Paper, your choice; 8″ x 10″ size or larger. For this class, plain 8 1/2″ x 11″ office paper will work fine if you don’t have a drawing pad.
- One 8″ x 10″ canvas
- One 12″ ruler
- Photos of the animal(s) you’d like to paint. If you have a desktop printer, I recommend printing your images on plain old typing/printer paper (not nice expensive photo paper) at around 8″ x 10″ size; if you don’t have a printer, we can copy photos at the Art Center before class.