Getting the letters right when painting photorealism in acrylics
by Emile
I have been painting photorealist paintings for many years now, however I have a question about lettering in the paintings. What I usually do is paint the letters and then paint the base color around them, but this process takes a lot of time.
Do you have any suggestions?
Hi Emile,
I know what you mean about painting letters in photorealist paintings. It can be time-consuming! I don't have any easy solution, but I can tell you what I do. There's a couple of things, depending on the colors involved...
When I am painting letters in my paintings, I normally paint the letters in quickly. Then I do a light wash of the background color over the letters. I make the wash light enough that the letters still show through. Then I paint in the letters to perfection. Then I paint around the letters, like you, to put in the background, but I find that it's a bit easier if I've put in a light wash first. It makes the paint adhere to the surface better. And also, it's sometimes only touch-ups that I have to do, so it's not as difficult.
Sometimes, if the background behind the letters is more complicated (such as a gradation from light to dark, etc) I paint the letters in quickly, then paint the background behind the letters to perfection, with the letters still showing through. Then I paint the letters in over top of that.
I hope that makes sense. It can be difficult to explain art processes in words sometimes!
Thanks again for getting in touch.
Best Wishes,
Thaneeya
