Creating a Painting from an Abstract Background

 Creating a painting from your abstract background

I chose this background:

I turned it vertically and drew this picture of Ringling Art Museum in Sarasota:

You can see I took some cobalt blue and lightly began to put in some shadow color to "find" the objects in the picture.

It's important that you try to put in your darks first. You already have light values and white values, and some medium. You need to get in those darks to see your way around the painting. You may evaluate later and make them darker or lighter, but getting them in to see the overall pattern of shapes is important in this process.

Here I've begun to add some colors to the greens and the pots. This paper is a softer paper, and I was having trouble getting my paint to be dark enough. I resorted to using some water color pencil on the red flowers and to straighten some lines in the columns.

I continued to work on the darks. I pushed the greens, probably darker than I wanted.

I wanted to show two or three things that people could try. Below are three products: watercolor ground, Dr. PH Martin's Bleed Proof White, and a matte medium.

Below I showed a method of stamping that Karlyn Holman recommended in her book. Instead of stamping directly on the watercolor paper, stamp onto some Unryu rice paper. Tear around the piece, then apply it wherever you want with matte medium to the painting. It gives you freedom to move it around before putting it on, and adds a little texture from the rice paper. I have never had any trouble painting over it if needed.

(Pardon my stamp, I only have a few)

Here is the stamp on a column...See the extra texture from the Unryu paper?

Here the stamp is on the floor. 

  

Another product is Dr. Martin's Bleed Proof White. (There are other brands of bleed proof white that are fine, but sometimes not as thick)

Just for demonstration purposes, I applied it with a sponge and tissue over some of the greenery.

This product can be very helpful for getting back whites without looking too chalky. I sometimes use white gouache, but it can be dull and mix with the paint beneath that layer, looking dull gray instead of white. You can apply the bleed proof white thickly and get back to white, or thin it with water to just calm an area down. Dry it completely--24 hours-- if you want to try to paint over it. (More dry time if it is humid)

One note: if you are putting it over BrushO, the paint crystals might activate and make a mess. They will reactivate with any wet product, including matte medium.  Just dry that layer and add the bleed proof white again. 

If your paper has been damaged or you have a large area you would like to paint over, you can cover it with watercolor ground. White ground will bring it back to white; transparent will leave the color, but repair some of the damage. Ground must be dried 24-48 hours before painting over it.

So this is how far I've painted on this picture of the Ringling Art Museum in Sarasota. Lots more to do.

I'm really pleased with the paintings everyone has come up with, using the method of painting background first. Only a few are completely finished.

Sarah

Shirley

Pam

Bev

Meg

Jackie

Kerry

Barb

USING STENCILS

If your under-painting is very busy or dark, dry uniting it with a stencil. You can lightly stencil over the painting or trace the edges of the stencil and color those lines in with a black pen. 

Here is an example of the first idea. 

This was a David Rogers tutorial. It started with a random wash of pale ochre. When it was dried I painted the leaf patterns and the birds. It felt a little blah, so after a while I decided to cover all except the birds with a leaf stencil. (The blue you see in the background)

Repeated patterns, such as stencils, can unite an otherwise chaotic--or boring-- picture.