BEGINNING A VERY WET ON WET LOOSE PAINTING

The following reference is one found on Pinterest by someone else. I wish I could give credits to the artist, but I don't know who it is. 

So the request was to do some kind of very loose painting, similar to this. I felt the best way to start was very wet.

So items needed: paper and paint (I have a gift for the obvious)

A piece of glass, or plexiglas, or cookies sheet or gator board, something non-porous a little larger than your paper;

a towel or something to catch dripping paint

large brush (good opportunity to use you mop or quill)

PART I

Step One: spatter some miskit and let it dry

Step Two: Wet (Soak) both sides of the paper, either by spraying or running under water

Set it on your plexiglas or board. It will stick all by itself. 

(the purpose of the board is to support the wet paper while you are working on it)

Step Three: Mix three paint colors for your base. I used Turners Indigo, Indian Yellow, and Coral. 

I sort of wish I'd used a blue and a yellow that made prettier green, but this is what I used on this one. 

Step Four: With a large brush, start at the top and add color. I started with blue, added some yellows, then some reds, and a few spots of purple on the bottom. I had the board on a slight SLANT to allow the paint to move downward. I picked up the board and moved it sideways to make the paint move a different way. This part is probably the most fun, just allowing the colors to run and blend. You can also use a pipette to drizzle some more color. If color looks too blobby (I'm sure that's a technical term) use your spray bottle to move the paint.

The towel (Or I use a "doggie diaper") is there to soak up any drips in this first phase.

When you are happy with the blend of colors, set the painting flat to dry.  Because the paper is soaking wet, it will take a lot of time to dry. 

If you want to speed up the drying process, lift the paper off the board and hair dry BOTH SIDES of the paper. 

PART II

When the paper is completely dry, think about how you want to compose you painting. The first time I did this, as in the sample painting, I was sort of copying the general idea, keeping the horizon high, as if you are looking up a hill. In this one, I wanted to change thing a little with a lower horizon line.

I rewet the the top of my paper where I want to put some distant tree (or other objects, like hills,etc.).

So to keep something distant you use 4 ways. Things in the distance are COOLER, LESS DETAILED, SOFTER EDGED, and LESS SATURATED IN COLOR (grayed down).

So I added some trees in the distance with some purples and blues. I actually worked upside down so that the "trees" would run down the page a bit. (The purple I used was cobalt violet). Then that has to dry. 

Below is my first try with this picture. You can see I kept it looking as if you are looking up a hill. Those purple trees in the background were the first things I added after the initial wash had dried.

I will show the finishing process next week, but will just give a basic summary here.

I paid attention to those subtle lines that criss cross down the hill, gradually getting farther apart, giving you a feeling that there is a trail getting more distant as it goes up the hill. I lightly penciled in those lines, or trails if you will.

After painting in the purple background, I wet the area at the top of the hill about 3 inches up, and applied pthalo blues and yellows to creat some greens, some blues. Notice they are more hard edged now, especially where they meet the ground, and a a bit softer on top, but not as soft as the background purple trees.

I 

One at a time I wet the crisscrossing lines and dropped in color to create the feeling of rolling hills. I was still using pthalo and yellow for greens, adding some magenta here and there. When all that was dry, I brushed in some grassy stems with a small brush and did some spattering of magenta an purple.

On the one above I did not save any whites with miskit, which I regretted later.