Any links for acrylic painting beginners?

[flamingdem]

6. I am using a butcher palatte

that has a wet paper towel and vellum over it that serves as the surface for paint.

That keeps it moist apparently while in storage.

The teacher wanted us to gesso a square so that it had texture - with white - and then do this "dry brush" technique over it as a gradient - with values of black. I guess the idea was to figure out how to produce a gradient with 4 conditions.

In class the demo was working from a photograph by laying in a textured layer of white gesso with black over it. Then the idea was to "paint with light" and layer values of grey slowly up to the brightest whites and highlights.

It's not intuitive to me but I am sure it is meant to teach something important. I wish it was simpler because two things at once make it hard to understand the aim - even if verbalized it leaves me with a ?