Win my Craftsy Class for FREE!

I'm running a Giveaway Promotion for a FREE Painting Wildlife • Acrylic Mixed Media class!http://www.craftsy.com/ext/SharlenaWood_GiveawayJust click this link and sign up for (or sign in to) Craftsy in order to enter to win.Share this opportunity with your friends! This promotion ends September 12th (just before my birthday weekend!!!) Colour me Fabulous! ♥Sharlena Wood

Dog Days of Summer Sale for ALL Craftsy Online Classes!

The biggest sale of the summer starts now!

ALL classes, including my 'Painting Wildlife: Acrylic Mixed Media' class, will be up to 50% off, until Monday August 11th 2014. This kind of offer only happens a few times a year, so don't miss out on this awesome opportunity. ☺

Dog Days of Summer Sale!

Sign-up for my online art class!

Electric drum roll!!!! ........

Register today forPainting Wildlife: Acrylic & Mixed Media

My class just went live! Check it out ~ I know you will enjoy it!It's the kind of class *I wish* I could have taken when I started out :)And I'm so very proud of my production team and the result - we all put a lot of work, thought and heart into it.

It's an online class, so when you buy it, you can access it whenever you have time to create ♥‿♥

Sign up today by clicking here and get a $20 off special!

You can preview the class and find out more information to see if it's a match for your interests.

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 Painting Wildlife: Acrylic & Mixed Media

Paint vivid, lifelike animals as award-winning artist Sharlena Wood guides you through a variety of accessible acrylic, charcoal and pastel techniques. Discover how to render accurate proportions, build dimensional form and convey drama as you create your own unique wildlife images. Learn to depict distinctive fur and feather textures using wet and dry media, and enhance your work with luminous highlights. Integrate textural medium with delicate acrylic washes for captivating contrast, and bring expressive energy to your creations with Sharlena’s tips for painting realistic animal eyes and features. Bring the power and excitement of wildlife to your easel with essential mixed media skills!

I love Glazing with Acrylics

Glazing is by far my favourite technique. Glazing with any paints - Acrylics, Oils or Watercolours - is magical.  However, acrylics do allow for a slightly different approach with the technique as with some unique results - from the range of pigments and mediums available, to the permanency, control and speed (although even acrylics test my patience sometimes!) that produces extraordinary luminous layers.I will use any kind of Polymer Medium as I find there is little shift in viscosity from a specifically marketed 'Glazing Medium' to a 'Polymer Medium' (sometimes I add a little water if thinner is preferable). Using a medium instead of water only is important as it maintains the integrity of the paint, adhesion, and permanency between layers - all of which offers more control, from smoother brushstroke applications, to the forgiving 'wipe-off' of an area or a layer, as well as choice in the sheen and finish (I use gloss as it is best for highest chroma and clarity).One of my favourite acrylic mediums can be seen drying in the second step of this process image - Dry Media Ground/Pastel Ground - where I decided the trees would be drawn in with charcoal and soft pastel (consistent with much of my work). It's an invaluable medium when using acrylics when I wish to bring in dry media, and can apply it selectively.My colour palette for this piece consisted mostly of transparent pigments using Liquid/Fluid Acrylics: Quinacridone Violet, Quinacridone Magenta, Indian Yellow and Interference Violet, along with Paynes Grey (Opaque). The secret weapon for the suns glow is a base of 'Liquid Mirror' - an (Opaque) acrylic colour that looks and acts like platinum, so the results when glazing with transparent colours over top is much like painting on a mirror. I also dig using Semi-Opaque and Opaque colours as well, either using a lot of medium (I'm just mindful about the shift in colour as it dries) or as is to cover certain areas.Glazing always tickles my curiosity and wonder - as layers gently build up there are awe inspired moments when brushstrokes and shapes melt, colours shift and magic happens!

☆ Invasion ☆

1930s inspired sci-fi interpretation dedicated to my beloved cat Mordecai ... who every day reminds me in his miserable way that his kind came here, and are still waiting for their Mothership to return! This is the untold story and history of the legion Felis Catus, explorers of new galaxies in search of a primitive pre-warp civilization planet to conquer... who once upon a time found earth and quietly ruled as the dominant species for thousands of years.