Painting with acrylics

For the past month or two I've started to teach myself acrylics using youtube videos and trial and error! It is not quite as sketchy as that sounds, I am following the Art Sherpa's beginner course and it sets out the basics very well. Or I think it does, I have no point of comparison of course. I have worked through the half dozen videos on basic techniques and brush strokes and bought myself the smallest possible number of brushes, paints and canvases. There will be  more shopping in the future (of course!) but I find it is always good to start with the minimum you can get away with. Otherwise I feel overwhelmed and guilty if it doesn't work out.

After the basic technique videos then we do the 'ten basic beginner paintings' which I have done, with varied success! Actually that's not true, my paintings are uniformly terrible, but you would expect that. Eight of the ten are above - I did them on paper, which I have lots of - and one is below - the balloons - which I did on canvas. I don't know why there are only nine, I must have missed a video somewhere.

As you can see, acrylics are a lot brighter than watercolours. The paints operate quite differently on the brush, and I have to resist the urge to water them down to get the colour that I want - you have to mix a new, lighter colour with white paint. Very strange. I also don't load enough paint onto my brush, so I'm learning just to slop it on so that you get a smooth finish. I can't blend the colours to save myself (watercolours just blend themselves) and my brush control is back to horrific. 

I did another 'beginner' tutorial from Step by Step Art which was enjoyable but the end result is pretty bad. All those leaves are just green blobs. But it's stretching my brain, I look forward to it in the evenings, and I think I need lots more purchases...and even though I'm very bad at it I do know something about colour theory now, and basic shapes, which has been helping. Slightly.