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.

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 5 Date: 08/03/2017 Subject: Wren on A Dogwood Branch Medium: Gouache on Illustration Board Colors Used In This Session:  Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Zinc White, Alizarin Crimson, Lemon Yellow, Ultramarine Blue Links to painting sessions:  Session 1 ,  Session 2 ,  Session 3 ,  Session 4 Painting A Wren In Gouache - Final Session Since I don't feel I am continuing to make any progress on the painting, I made this the final session. I feel like I did a pretty good job for never painting with Gouache. Most of the time was spent trying to bring out more details on the Wren, but in the end, I think I made very little progress from session 4. I worked a lot on the wings trying to define the feathers in more detail, but could not get the proper shift in values to make the wings stand out.  It is fun and sometimes frustrating when you are trying to learn a new medium. Sometimes you get stuck trying to

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series Painting Session 4 Date: 09/04/2017 Subject: Wren on A Dogwood Branch Medium: Gouache on Illustration Board Colors Used In This Session:  Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Zinc White, Alizarin Crimson, Lemon Yellow, Ultramarine Blue Links to painting sessions:  Session 1 ,  Session 2 ,  Session 3 I spent this session working on all three flowers and leaves, working to refine them to the point of some level of realism. Still not there, but I think I may have to be satisfied until I can learn more about the properties of Gouache. It is a challenge to switch from one medium to the other such as oil to gouache, especially from one that dries slowly to one that almost dries instantly. It gives you a new sense of appreciation for those artists past and present who mastered multiple mediums. In this session, I tried to blend lights and darks using various amounts of water along with brushing techniques. Gouache does not take much water bef

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series Painting Session 3 Date: 08/03/2017 Subject: Wren on A Dogwood Branch Medium: Gouache on Illustration Board Colors Used In This Session:  Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Zinc White, Alizarin Crimson, Lemon Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, Lamp Black Links to painting sessions:  Session 1 ,  Session 2 End of Session 3  I spent about four hours during this session, painting all of the elements in the picture. Gouache seems challenging to get used to when most of your experience is using oils. James Gurney wrote a blog post titled "The Seven Gouache Hazards and How to Escape Them."   I would suggest anyone new to gouache read the post as it will help you better understand the properties of this medium. One of the tips from James in his article I learned first-hand today. "New layers reactivate previous layers of paint,"  James suggests in his post to lay down transparent layers and build up to the more opaque layer

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series Painting Session 2 Date: 07/15/2017 Subject: Wren on A Dogwood Branch Medium: Gouache on Illustration Board Colors Used In This Session:  Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Sepia, Zinc White, Indian Yellow, Grenadine Links to painting sessions:  Session 1 Wren on Dogwood in Gouache Session 2 In the previous post on this subject I mentioned, I had never painted in Gouache, and the only watercolor painting I have ever done was a few watercolor sketches. I did do some quick small sketches with Gouache before starting this session. I wanted to see how the paint flowed on the illustration board and how easy the paint reactivated with water. I did some research online to see how other artists painted with gouache and the techniques they use.  There is an excellent article about the use of Gouache titled   "Painting With Gouache"    from the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators website.  With all mediums, there seem to be multiple tec

Expanding Your Artistic Horizons Series Painting Session 1 Date: 07/03/2017 Subject: Wren on Dogwood Branch Medium: Gouache on Illustration Board Several things have inspired me to paint in Gouache.  One is James Gurney  who is the creator of the Dinotopia Series of Books. I found his blog when I was searching the internet about watercolor sketching. You can spend hours reading through his blog and watching him work magic with Gouache in his sketchbook. James posts videos of his sketching in Gouache, Watercolor, and Casein. The second inspiration to paint in Gouache came when I visited the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Florida Art  in Daytona Beach, FL. Within that museum, there were paintings by artist and illustrator Walter Weber .  Walter Weber was born in 1906 and attended the University of Chicago and the Art Institute if Chicago. He was a mammalogist and is well known for his role as the  Chief Nature Artist for National Geographic Society. I have been to a lot of Museums

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