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.