Michael Burns Art

American Robin - Acrylic on Paper The 8" x 10' painting of an American Robin and Spring Crocus was done in acrylic paint on grey toned watercolor paper. I drew the composition on paper then transferred it to watercolor paper mounted on a board. I tried to paint in thin layers to reduce the visibility of any brush stroke. I used Golden acrylic flow release and Golden Gloss Glazing liquid to aid in the workability of the paint.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail  Butterfly in Acrylic Subject: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly on Apple Blossom Date: 05/25/2018 Painting Session: Final Session Medium: Acrylic on Illustration Board Previous Sessions:  Session 1 ,  Session 2 , Session 3 I decided to put in the time to finish this painting after almost two months of not working on it. During this painting session, I re-painting all of the yellow. After looking at some reference photos, I noticed most of the butterflies have a variation in the color of yellow on their wings. Not sure it comes across in the photo but I tried to incorporate some variety on the wings. I also added more wing veins and did a second past on all of the black and blue on the wings. I touched up a few of the apple blossoms and leaves and added in veins on the leaves. Final Painting Swallowtail Butterfly

Subject: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly on Apple Blossom Date: 03/30/2018 Painting Session: 3 Medium: Acrylic on Illustration Board Previous Sessions:  Session 1 , Session 2 This session was dedicated to working on the flowers and the leaves with most of the time spent on the flowers. I made multiple passes on the flowers trying to work in the gradual color variations on the flowers. But I was always fighting the quick drying time of the acrylic paint which limited my ability to achieve a smooth change in color and soft edges. I tried adding fluid retarder along with flow release which helped a little, but the paint still seemed to dry within seconds. The good thing about acrylic is the drying time which allows you rework an element in your painting in a short period. But the trade-off, at least on paper and board is the paint dries to quick. I finally got to the point I was re-working the flowers and seemed to not be making any progress, so I decided to move on to the le

Tiger Swallowtail Session 2 Subject: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly on Apple Blossom Date: 03/10/2018 Painting Session: 2 Medium: Acrylic on Illustration Board Colors Used: Titanium White, Carbon Black, Lemon Yellow, Brilliant Blue Previous Sessions:  Session 1 I spent this session layering in a mixture of lemon yellow and Titanium White on the butterfly. I also added another layer of Carbon Black to the dark areas of the butterfly and added more detail to the body. You can see the details in the larger photo below. I used a liner brush to paint in the hairs on the body, there is more work to do in this area. I need to add more yellow and try to make the hairs a little softer. I used Brilliant Blue to add the blue accents around the tail. I need to refine this area more to bring out the blue and soften the edges. Will add another layer of yellow in the next session and try to achieve some variation of yellow tones on the wings.

Subject: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly on Apple Blossoms Tiger Swallowtail in Acrylic Date: 02/22/2018 Painting Session: 1 Medium: Acrylic on Illustration Board Colors Used: Titanium White, Naphthol Red Light, Carbon Black, Quinacridone Magenta, Ultramarine Blue Lemon Yellow. Initial Drawing Using a reference photo, I took of a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. I created the composition first on paper. Once I was satisfied with the composition, I transferred the drawing to the illustration board. I accomplished this by lightly rubbing graphite on the reverse side of the drawing then lightly tracing the lines of the image to the graphite would transfer to the bard. I was careful not to press too hard so that I would not create any dents on the board. If lines were faint after the transfer, I darkened them a with a pencil. The underpainting of Tiger Swallowtail I roughed in the initial layer of the butterfly using yellow and black applying a thin water

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series Painting Session 4 Date: 11/03/2017 Subject: Eastern Blue Bird on Bittersweet Branch Medium: Acrylic Colors Used In This Session:  Titanium White, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Golden Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Brown, Black, Cad Yellow, Yellow Ochre Surface: Crescent Hot Press 200 Illustration Board, Cream Surface Link to previous sessions  Session 1 ,  Session 2,   Session 3 I finally got back to painting on the Eastern Bluebird, so I decided I would finish the painting. Session 4 actually consisted of two separate days of painting 4 to 5 hours each day. I continued to work on the bird, trying to achieve more realism in the feathers. I got to a point where I was not making progress and seemed to be painting the same areas over and over again. So I decided to stop painting on the bluebird and be satisfied with the current results. I also finished up painting the branch and tried to get more detail in the berries and the husks. I just neve

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series Painting Session 3 Date: 09/22/2017 Subject: Eastern Blue Bird on Bittersweet Branch Medium: Acrylic Colors Used In This Session:  Titanium White, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Pthalo Blue,  Golden Ochre, Burnt Sienna Surface: Crescent Hot Press 200 Illustration Board, Cream Surface Link to previous sessions  Session 1 ,  Session 2 I spent about 4 hours today working on the Bluebird trying to bring out more detail in the wings and make the Bird a little more 3 dimensional. Although, I am not satisfied with the results I may have to call the bird done. I repainted the wings multiple times but never could seem to obtain the results I wanted on the feathers. This is the second painting in acrylic I have done as part of this series with all of the same challenges I have written about in the past. But as with all things in life you learn as you go and get better with time. This applies to painting and different mediums. Even though I am not sat

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series Painting Session 2 Date: 08/18/2017 Subject: Eastern Blue Bird on Bittersweet Branch Medium: Acrylic Colors Used In This Session:  Titanium White, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Cad Red Light, Golden Ochre, Burnt Sienna Surface: Crescent Hot Press 200 Illustration Board, Cream Surface Link to previous sessions  Session 1 Hard to believe it has been almost four weeks since I worked on the first session of the Eastern Bluebird. I have had other obligations and continue to spend most of my time on a few oil paintings. I like to work on the Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series because it is a nice break from Oil painting and is a chance to try something new. I spent most of this session trying to achieve a more realistic looking bird. But after comparing the end of session 1 photo to the session 2 photos, I am not sure I made a lot of progress. Trying to achieve some sense of volume in the bird's body is a challenge with Acrylic. What see

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series Painting Session 1 Date: 07/23/2017 Subject: Eastern BlueBird on Bittersweet Branch Medium: Acrylic on Illustration Board Colors Used In This Session:  Titanium White, Cobalt Blue, Brilliant Blue, Cad Red Light, Naphthol Red Light, Golden Ochre, Burnt Sienna Surface: Crescent Hot Press 200 Illustration Board, Cream Surface Bluebird at the end of Session 1 If you need some inspiration for painting birds, you have to look no further than artist William Zimmerman. "One of America’s greatest bird artists spent the bulk of his career in Brown County surrounded by nature and the birds that he loved. On a scale with Audubon, William Zimmerman illustrated a host of important books, including The Birds of Indiana and Waterfowl of North America, along with the woodpecker volume of The Life Histories of North American Birds. He also spent a great deal of his career working with environmental groups to protect the habitats of the birds and wi

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series Painting Session 7, Final Session Date: 06/29/2017 Subject: Pileated Woodpecker Medium: Acrylic on Paper Links to Prior Sessions:  Session 1 -  3 ,  Session 4 ,  Session 5 ,  Session 6 During this session, I finalized the details of the woodpecker and added details to the leaves. I am considering this painting complete. The whole exercise was to try something new and to  Expand My Artistic Horizons . Also, to explore a new medium or technique and try not to obsess over the outcome. Years ago, I did paint some with acrylic on canvas but never on paper.  So I thought it would be fun to try. I originally started out thinking I would use acrylic more watered down like watercolors and try to achieve a similar effect.  But I ended up just using the opaque properties of acrylic. Maybe later, I will paint with acrylic to mimic watercolor. Below are observations of my painting with acrylic on paper. I am not experienced at using Acrylic, so p

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series Painting Session 6 Date: 06/17/2017 Subject: Pileated Woodpecker Medium: Acrylic on Paper Links to Prior Sessions:  Session 1 -  3 ,  Session 4 ,  Session 5 I spent Session 6, repeating what I did in Session 5. I continued to spend almost all of my time working on the leaves, trying to achieve some level of realism.  But continue to run into the same issues, such as the ability to blend the paint and drying time. I am sure that it is my inexperience painting in acrylic and not knowing some of the methods or techniques used to achieve the results I am looking for. I did read that the glazing medium could be used to blend acrylic paint. Before I start another painting, I want to get some of the medium to see if it helps solve the problem. I am not sure if the medium and paint will behave the same on paper as it does on canvas. Maybe I will do a test on different surfaces to see how the medium will work before starting another painting. I did p

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series Painting Session 4 Date: 05/06/2017 Subject: Pileated Woodpecker Medium: Acrylic on Paper In this session, I spent time refining the woodpecker by darkening the red tuft, shortened the beak, and painting the feathers. On the tree, I changed the hole and added details to the bark of the tree. Now that I am getting several layers of paint on the paper, I noticed a couple of things.  If you add too much water, the paint will bead up and pool on the paper like rain on a waxed car. It makes sense because of acrylic, not water being soluble like watercolors. I think it might be helpful to try a glazing medium or flow improver instead of straight water. I still want to be able to blend the paint similar to oils. Maybe in the next painting, I will get some of the medium to see if it helps aid in the blending. When I used acrylics a long time ago, I don't remember the paint drying so fast. I am sure it is because I am painting in much thinner l

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series Painting Session 5 Date: 05/06/2017 Subject: Pileated Woodpecker Medium: Acrylic on Paper Links to Prior Sessions:  Session 1 - 3 ,  Session 4 I spent all of the time in painting session 5, working on the leaves of the tree. Like the previous painting session, I had trouble getting any of the paint to blend. So I am having trouble getting the darks and highlights in the leaves as I can in Oil.  I tried dry brushing, adding retarder along with various amounts of water to achieve the effect I wanted. Still, it did not work to my satisfaction. Because of the blending issue, I found myself painting the same leaves multiple times and ending this session not satisfied with the way the leaves look. I still did not get out to get any medium that I hope would help the blending issue. I did not have any problem with the paint beading up, so not sure what caused it in session 4. All of the issues I am having seem to be related to the drying time of A

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series Painting Session 1 thru 3 Date: 04/29/2017 Subject: Pileated Woodpecker Session 1 thru 3 Medium: Acrylic on Paper As part of my "Expanding Artistic Horizons" series, I decided to paint a Pileated Woodpecker in Acrylic. I have some experience with acrylic because when I first started, I painted for a few years with acrylic then moved to Oil. Because I wanted to use acrylic in more of a watercolor form, I choose to paint on paper. I am using "Fluid" cold-pressed 140 lb. Acid-free watercolor paper. A variety of Acrylic brands Golden, Winsor Newton, and Liquitex paints. I will continue to update this post as I complete a painting session. Painting Session 1 thru 3 - 04/29/2017 Session 1 thru 3 I had not decided to create this post until today, so the painting is actually a result of the first three sessions.  In session one,  I used a combination of photos to create the drawing, which I drew in pencil directly on th