Painting Project Progress and Daler Rowney Simply Acrylics Review

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I have been having a lot of fun learning how to use my new digital camcorder and playing around with Windows Movie Maker. I have managed to make progress on my painting project at the same time as well. My initial inspiration for the painting was a blooming cherry tree, but my idea has evolved over time to a fantasy portrait that will incorporate the colors of the blooming spring sakura blossoms. As I looked around for reference and inspiration pictures, I realized that there were plenty of representations out there of my favorite flowers. My new vision for this project will be a stylized portrait of a lovely woman with petal-like skin and flowing white hair. It isn't a new idea either, but I enjoy painting people and animals more than I do flowers.

The Sketch

Rough sketch for painting by Pumibel

I created this very basic sketch in my Canson XL sketchbook and taped to my drawing board/ tabletop easel to use as a reference. You will see this sketch in some of the videos I am making to document my process. This short clip shows me redrawing the face on to my canvas and introduces my materials.

Current Progress

Current painting progress and brushes used
From L to R: acrylic round #3, acrylic flat #10, oil flat #4, oil round #3,
acrylic round #6, all Royal & Langnickel

I have an initial layer of color on the face and neck. I filmed most of this step and uploaded that video to YouTube. I am trying to keep track of the tools and colors I use throughout the project, so I will list them here on the blog and in the video captions. Below is the most recent speed painting video of my initial color layers.

  

Review: Daler Rowney Simply Acrylic Paints

I bought a set of 12 (12 ml/.4 oz) tubes of the standard painting shades as well as 4 (75 ml/2.5 oz) tubes in the following colors: Crimson (Napthol Red), Ultramarine Blue, Primary Yellow (Arylide Yellow), and Portrait Pink (Titanium Dioxide + Red Iron Oxide). I like to have extra primary colors and white on hand, but Walmart is always sold out of the 75 ml tube of white. I figured the portrait pink will be handy since most of the white I use will be for the skin tone.

Daler Rowney Simply acrylic paints don't have the best reviews on Amazon, but I noticed that the reviewers who complained were unhappy with the thickness of the paint and the dry time. These are not heavy body paints like Liquitex and Windsor &Newton brands I have used before. They are more translucent, and this is not necessarily a bad thing if you are working with thinner layers and using a "glazing" technique. If I were working with heavier paints for portraiture, I would use a thinning medium anyway, but I didn't need it as much with these paints. I only added a tiny amount of diluted Liquitex Flow Aid at this point to build the skin tones. 

As for drying time, I had no issue with it. Normally, these paints dry quickly straight out of the tube, but some reviewers claimed that their work never cured. I have no idea how these artists used the paint or what mediums they mixed with them, so I cannot comment on why they would have a problem with the paint not drying. I know that humidity and temperature can affect dry time, and that information was missing in the bad reviews. For reference, I live in a humid area, and it has been very hot here, but my room is air conditioned and full of fans. I found the paint dried quickly, but I also used the flow medium, so that is a factor as well. 

I have to say that for the price (I paid about $5 for the 12 tube set and $1.97 for each of the larger tubes), DR Simply acrylics have a decent amount of pigment, and they flow nicely. They were not dry or chunky, and they mixed beautifully. However, if you are used to higher-end brands with more body, you will probably find these frustrating to work with. I have a feeling that when I get to the hair and background on this painting I will want some better paints, but I will update my opinions as I progress with my project. There may be more reviews in my future if I upgrade paints too!

How do you like my amateur filmography? I plan to keep filming clips and taking photos of my progress for future blog posts. Any constructive criticism is welcome here on the blog or at my YouTube Channel. Thank you for reading and watching!