Neg painting revisited

 The Potter's shelf

I drew the picture on and then created A background. This one was created by wetting the paper and spattering blues and some quin burnt orange, then dripping some magenta and yellow. These will be my colors throughout.

It is often done creating background first and then drawing.

Next step is to go around all the negative spaces. I did not try to make it dark or keep it one color. Working a small space at a time, I wet an area, then dropped small dots of color, a little orange, a little magenta, and a bit of blue. The moisture spread the paint. 

You always have to keep a wet edge, and fade the color away from the object, using a brush with clean water.

Below is how it looked after the main negatives were painted. Just dark enough for the picture to start appearing.

Now you have to work on the interior. Remember, any space around a positive image is it's negative. So part of the jar that is behind another is it's negative. It will be hard edged next to the image, but blended away as you get further from the object.

So find areas behind jars, darken and shade. This makes them come fully into view.

Very few paintings are entirely negative painted. You can refine this by adding shadows on one side and shading rims on the ceramic jars. 

Some ideas for negative painting

SOME SIMPLIFIED DEMOS ON NEGATIVE PAINTING. 

With all the youtubes out there, it's hard to sort through them. So here I have included some simple ones to further illustrate the concept of negative painting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtQuspqHjS8

 This one is a monochrome of simple pebble shapes. It illustrates what I was trying to demonstrate using one shape repeated, adding more color each time. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOovfu4r5pk

Linda Kemp, author of Painting outside the Lines, gives a 5 minute demonstration of what negative painting is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRpVi9jaJxM

.Jessica Jidas demonstrates doing trees in several layers, using several colors. This is 17 minutes long.

A similar tree painting is in an earlier blog.

FOR A PREVIEW OF MORE ADVANCED NEGATIVE PAINTING:

Most of these begin with washes of color, as we are doing this coming week.

Complex pattern of leaf branches (This is over an hour and a half, but nice to watch how she does it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5Bwma6O49k

mind of watercolor green leaves over background. Here Steve Mitchell shows practical application of using negative painting to paint foliage. About 13 minutes. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5RWQKBWTkI&t=573s

Steve Mitchell in Mind of Watercolor does a beautiful job of fall leaves. 19 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfusxMWre04

black and white water lilies: This is just video without a lot of explanation. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NMQ4nzLuPI

bodhi leaves. A good explanation with an interesting subject. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z5jZeWhONo&t=354s

 

NEGATIVE PAINTING AND APPLYING MASKING FLUID

USING MASKING FLUID.

Miskit (or masking fluid or liquid friskit or Pebeo) is a liquid that dries to a rubbery solid that can be removed from your paper after painting. It is used to mask off anything you want to remain white. It can be spattered to create a snow effect. 

Miskit comes in white, gray, or other color. Many like to use tinted so that they can see where it is to remove it all. They all work equally well. 

Do not shake the bottle. You can apply it with a small brush, silicon tip, twigs,skewer, etc. Use only a brush that will not be used for watercolor. Wet the brush, rub a little soap on it. This will help keep it from gumming up. Pour your miskit into a small container and replace the cap on the bottle (or it will gum up and dry too soon). Dip the brush into the miskit and brush it over the area you want to stay white. 

Occasionally resoap the brush to keep it clean while you work. 

Dry it completely. Do not use a hair dryer (except on cool) or the miskit will become glued to the paper. Wash your brush as soon as you are finished. 

The paint and paper must be completely dry before you remove the miskit. You can use a rubber cement square eraser or your fingers to pull it off. 

NEGATIVE PAINTING--ONE METHOD OF UNDERSTANDING IT

Here are a few simple examples of negative painting. Most paintings are not completely negative painted, but it is a useful tool in drawing and painting, so having a basic understanding of it is helpful.

This can be done starting with a colorful background or plain. You do not have to use miskit, but I've included it because I want the class to have practice with masking fluid. 

USE A SIMPLE PATTERN OR STENCIL. DRAW ONE OR TWO SHAPES AND FILL WITH  MASKING FLUID. SPATTER SOME MASKING FLUID IF YOU WISH. DRY COMPLETELY. 

This project is simpler if you just use one color and get darker each time. But I did a wash of yellow on the left, red in the middle, blue on the right. Dry completely.

Draw some more shapes, different sizes, and paint the second layer around them, a value or two darker than the first.

More shapes, overlapping and another layer of color.When you paint around the POSITIVE shape, you are painting the NEGATIVE.

Final shapes, final layer of color, using blue. Paint AROUND the positive shapes. The positive shapes appear because you are painting darker behind 

Removing masking fluid. 

Adding a little shading and detail. 

Here's one using some fish patterns. Same steps. Draw a shape, mask it off. 

When dry, paint a layer over it and dry it.

Add some more shapes and paint another value over it. Do this as many times as you want. Use a dark value for the last wash. 

Remove masking and add details.