Acrylic Experiment

I recently wanted to try experimenting with painting. So I stopped by Michael's to pick up some cheap supplies. There was a good deal on medium sized canvases, as well as little, thin boards to test on.

Yesterday, I broke out the little set of acrylics, and just started playing around. Because acrylics dry quickly, I was able to just keep adding more and more layers, slowly morphing the image or completely painting over it. I should've had a camera on hand--I didn't think about it, but now I wish I had documented the slow process of the morph. (See notes below if interested)

After a bit, my girlfriend Myca came over. We started passing the brush between us, slowly adding our own layer or color--whatever caught our fancy. One thing that had a cool effect was adding water and wiping away colors/layers.

There was a point where it looked completely like crap, but it was somehow salvaged:

Untitled--As of Now

Acrylic and ink on 5" x 7" canvas

January 5, 2010

Myca Gilkey

Alexander Kramer

Note: Birds added with ink later. Highlights on trees is canvas once the paint is removed (by paperclip). Darker lines of trees are also ink.

Myca says it would look awesome as a t-shirt design. You can visit my DeviantArt to buy a print.


I really like the "towers", and how they look distant, as well as the range of colors at the end. Lots of "pure" colors peek through in weird places as well. Also, those black towers ended up being very messy.

Another Note:
The (very) rough process of what happened, for those curious. Man, I Really should've taken pictures!

*Blank (Horizontal)
*Hill with lots of trees and blue sky
*Water added to foreground
*Orange "pillars" added around hill and trees (flames?)
*Water tinged yellow-ish. Yellow added to pillars
*Dark red-purple wash over water. Added to pilars.
*(Vertical) Brown mass added, looked like tree exploding when horizontal.
*Smudging of colors, very dark and mottled
*Water drops to take away paint, looks like person (ink added to face)
*Water drops to super-smudge
*Pure paint added to canvas and smudged with knife
*Knife scratches look like feathers
*Parts whited out
*Eventually green vines
*Yellow petals
*Slashes of bright colors, like waves
*Water used to erase layers, exposing colors
*Big black space, edges diluted with water to create fade
*Dampening with paper towels, excess, diluted paint lifted
*Ink and  highlights
*Oggling
*Blogging