Acrylic Painting: Basics & Beyond (DVD + Streaming)

Discover the essential techniques you need to paint confidently with acrylics! Experienced instructor Michael Lynne walks you through setting up your palette and introduces you to the colorful world of tints, tones and shades. Learn to recognize and recreate value shifts to depict light and form, and develop your painting skills with fun cube studies. Use a simple block-in method to sketch your first still life, and create a sense of space and dimension with cast shadows and highlights. Find out how to incorporate perspective and color theory into a landscape painting, and add depth and luminous warmth with acrylic washes and glazes. Discover essential acrylic tips and techniques and become a better artist today!

NOTE: If you’d like to purchase only the DVD for this class, you may do so through this link. (Please note, any class PDF materials are not on the DVD itself. You must have streaming access to download those materials associated with the class.)

The Basics (10:24)
Meet your instructor, fine art instructor Michael Lynne. Set up a workspace with Lynne’s tips for preparing a limited nine-color palette, creating transparent, translucent and opaque washes, and identifying and mixing the values and hues that you want to work with.

The Cube Effect & Gradations (16:44)
Create a value scale and start a series of cube studies that explore value changes between planes. Lynne demonstrates how to vary your work between sharp and soft lines, train your eye to identify and recreate gradation, and lay in light and shadow accurately.

Simple Monochromatic Still Life (11:12)
Outline your subject in a contour drawing that you’ll turn into a monochromatic still life. Using a cube and a cylinder, you’ll carefully block in value as you bring more complexity to shadows, highlights and various planes. Lynne shares his professional tips along the way to help you develop strong, lifelike forms.

Color (10:08)
Immerse your senses in a wash of color as Lynne walks you through everything you need to know about color relationships. Learn the difference between monochromatic, analogous and complementary colors, as well as how each type will help inform your work. You’ll learn how to mix the colors you want, create neutral tones and choose eye-popping pairs with Lynne’s professional tips along the way.

Color Still Life (33:35)
Plunge into a colorful still life as you continue to improve your skills in drawing contoured reference sketches and painting the hues, values and forms that you see. Working with a simple still life, Lynne helps you break away from your preconceived notion of color relationships as you implement soft and hard lines and various color pairings to represent the ever-changing nature of shadow and light on your subject.

Aerial Perspective & Glazing (11:44)
Consider the qualities of aerial perspective as Lynne points out methods to create a sense of depth and distance using acrylics. Then learn how to mix and apply translucent glazes, a classic technique that will add an eye-catching glow and timeless appeal to your work.

Painting a Landscape From a Photo (22:46)
Finish the class with an in-depth exploration of landscape studies. Lynne helps you determine how to identify, photograph and crop intriguing landscape images before walking you through ways to lay in the sky and use contour mapping to block in the foreground and background. You’ll finish the class with a beautiful completed painting and a new understanding of the myriad ways you can use acrylics to create anything that catches your imagination!

Michael Lynne

Michael Lynne grew up drawing and painting, and his passion for art became his career. He received his BFA and Master of Science in teaching from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and spent more than 30 years teaching at his local high school. Michael also shared his passion for the arts with students by teaching at SUNY Oswego and on Craftsy.

How will I receive my DVD class?
Your DVD will be shipped in the mail using the address you provide at checkout. Your purchase also includes access to a streaming version of the class and downloadable PDF class materials. After your purchase, you can find your streaming class and your PDF class materials by logging into your Craftsy account using the user name and password you established.

How do I access the companion materials for my DVD class?
Come to Craftsy.com and log into your account using the username and password you set up when establishing your Craftsy account or purchasing your DVD. In your “My Account” area, select the “Classes” content. On this page, you’ll see all classes you’ve purchased from Craftsy. Simply select the desired class from your content list, and you’ll be presented with your selected class page. From the class page you can easily view, download or print the companion class materials, which are in the “Bonus Materials” tab on the class page. You can log in any time, and download or print the companion materials as many times as you like. Companion class materials are not shipped in the mail with your DVD, and must be accessed on Craftsy.com.

How do I stream my class on Craftsy.com?
Come to Craftsy.com and log into your account using the username and password you set up when establishing your Craftsy account or purchasing your DVD. In your “My Account” content, select the desired class. Stream the video on-demand from the class page any time you like; your viewing access is unlimited. You can stream your class from any computer, tablet or mobile device with Internet access.

Do I have to purchase a Craftsy Membership to get my class?
No, you do not. Every DVD purchased on Craftsy.com includes both the physical DVD in the mail and unlimited on-demand streaming access at Craftsy.com. These benefits are yours with or without a Craftsy membership.

Are DVDs included in a Craftsy Membership?
No, they are not. DVDs can only be purchased on an individual basis and are not included in Craftsy memberships. For non-members, DVDs are a flexible way to purchase only the classes you love best. For members, DVDs are a great choice to build an at-home library you can keep forever and enjoy any time, with or without Internet access.

Do you ship internationally?
Yes, we do ship most physical products, including DVDs, to several International destinations. In addition to the USA and Canada, we ship to Australia, Brazil, India, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, and most Western European countries. If you live outside these countries, you can still purchase digital items including memberships, individual streaming classes, and pattern downloads.

Do your DVDs work on international players?
Yes, our DVDs should be compatible with any DVD player in use today. All our videos have been created with all current Region Codes (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8). If you have trouble viewing a DVD purchased from Craftsy.com, please contact Customer Service.

What is your return policy?
We want to be sure you’re satisfied. If you have trouble playing your DVD, if the content is not correctly presented on the DVD, or you are dissatisfied with the content of your class, we will work with you. Contact Craftsy customer service via email or phone. Upon your request, and upon your return of the DVD to us, we will refund your purchase price or send you another DVD to replace a damaged or incorrect DVD, whichever is your preference. If you do receive a full refund, your streaming video class will also be removed from your Craftsy account, so on-demand video access will no longer be available to you.