Hi and Welcome!

Your life sounds like so many of us here...life before painting.

As to your questions, painting over clear acrylic spray, yes you can. I do so in some of my projects where a fine detail may be lost with another step in the painting, or when I am not sure I will like the next step at all. By lightly sealing you can then remove anything you paint next. You can also paint over an entire project for whatever reason, but there I would lightly sand the surface and use a wood sealer.

As to the 1/2 shade and 1/2 basecoat, that is also called double loading your brush, using the same technique as you do for single loading your brush. When I do this I usually use a straight edged brush and when I blend it on my palette
I keep my brush handle upright. Double loading with the shade and basecoat should give you a very smooth shading with no line from one color to the next. I tend to hurry my shading and most of the time really mess it up, so I am really trying to learn to slow down and get it right the first time.

Hope this help and I know others will have suggestions as well.

Belle

Summerf, Welcome to the forum. We are getting so many new posters and there's always room for more. Everyone is here for fun and so sweeeet. Sounds like you have alot of painting experience so can hardly wait to see some of your projects.

I hadn't ever heard of the 1/2 shade and 1/2 basecoat stated as such. Sounds like Belle explained it well. I don't think Belle is giving herself enough credit. If you've went to the gallery, you know her painting is great and she has alot of pride that shows in her work. I'm the one who paints fast and furious so look out. lol

So glad you have come to join the fun here. Punk

Hi Summer and welcome!

I adore Priscilla Hauser's work and have many of her books including the one you mentioned. Can't wait to see your piece when it is done!

Hauser is famous for putting a finish on before shading or staining is done. Like Belle said by doing so you save yourself a lot of grief if something doesn't look right because it is easily wiped off. And when staining you have more control over the finish.

As for the Turner's Yellow....The cadmium colors she mentions in the book and the Turner's Yellow are common colors in tube acrylics. I always keep my conversion chart book handy so I can sub what I have on hand in bottles acrylics.
For Turner's Yellow I would sub one of the following;

Golden Straw (Americana DecoArt)
Empire Gold (Ceramcoat)

I highly recommend going to a Michael's if you have one near by and picking up the 8th edition of 'Acrylic Conversions' by Betty Byrd. It's the most recent book and has charts for converting several of the most popular brands colors to another. It also includes Metallics, Pearls, Enamels, and more. I don't paint without it.

Hi again, I am so glad that your question about the color conversion was answered, but I do have one note to add. If you go to the website of the brand of paint you are using, they all have color conversion charts and mixes. They do not have colored pictures, only the color matches. I keep a copy next to my paint storage area. I also do a color test palette whenever I do a conversion, sometimes I don't like the match that is given and I change it for something I like better.

Belle
PS PhoneGirl...thank you for the kind words!

Summer,

You don't always have to use the colors attached to the project. Sometimes I go with a whole other color scheme. :-)
Another tool that comes in handy for making that decision is a color wheel.