Learning Something New!!!

by Nancy Longmate

 

I am bound and determined to learn the technique that Carol King shared on her blog post here. She learned this technique in a workshop she took from Tim Saternow.

The above two paintings are the result of my friend, Nancy Longmate, and my first attempts. It did not go so well.  She feels like she did not splatter enough and I feel as though I splattered too dark and could not soften the splatters down enough.  We refuse to give up. We both have our second attempts started and will post them when they are done.

Meanwhile, I’ll talk you through the steps I did on this one.

 

We were to create a monochromatic painting in the first step. I used payne’s grey. You can use any color you wish for this phase. Make sure it gets dark enough to explore all value ranges.

 

Once the painting is dry, drip copious amounts of water with a two inch flat brush onto the surface of the monochromatic study and allow it to dry.  I placed the painting on the floor and dripped onto the surface while standing above it.

 

The third step is to drip a diluted warm color and a diluted cool color onto the surface of the painting. I chose burnt sienna and payne’s grey I think it would have been best if I stopped here with the dripping. The drips would have read better had I diluted the colors more, too.  This is a bit dark for the splatter phase. I’m guessing!  Anyway, I made the mistake of splattering again.  I did this by standing above the painting and dripping the colors with a two inch flat brush. Nancy felt she did not splatter enough.

 

This is what it looked like before I began the finishing process. Like I said, I think I splattered too dark and should have diluted my warm and cool colors more.

 

After the splattered painting dries, begin to add some cool and warm colors and soften the drips where it is needed. The above painting is what I came up with.

I will be doing more of these. I think it is an excellent way to practice value study. It also satisfies my interest in being able to create something beyond copying a photo reference. It made me think about how much white space to leave and how I wanted to design the white space. Nothing more intimidating than splattering a tidy and clean monochromatic study. I like the energy, movement and depth it seems to add to the piece.  Carol kept reminding me that these paintings really can’t be ruined. I think she is right about that. It just opens a whole new set of challenges and suggests something new.

I will post my future attempts with this technique.

Thank you to Ahmed Farahat and his photo I used for reference from Paint My Photo.

Another Goauche Resist: The Outpost

 

 

This is an example of what a goauche resist looks like before I paint into it. I took this one beyond and became very intricate in my drawing like some of the resists I’ve done of race horses. I waited some time before painting into this one because I liked the original black and white resist. My mind still argues with me as to whether I should have added color. I even almost threw this one away because I became so frustrated with it.  There was so much gray scale to this one that, when I added the watercolor, I could not see the image any farthur back than about six feet and that bothered me. Then, I said to myself , “go back in with white for the shack and see if you can pop it some”. That worked. It brightened up the colors I’d chosen and popped the image of the shack enough that it gave it an eerie time of day, maybe dusk. Sometimes it is just practicing enough with your techniques to bring something around.  There are many artists who resort to other mediums,  like collage and pastels, to bring something back to life. Sometimes it is better not to give up.  Sometimes you just have to walk away and move on. This time, I think it worked to change the plan.