Using a complementary scheme

Disclaimer

Except for a few variations, I have taken this project from Jean Haines. If you want to see her excellent tutorial, check into her online art school. I chose it because it is such a good example of a complementary color scheme and used several fun techniques.

Supplies

100% cotton paper, quarter sheet or about 10 by 14. 300 lb is best, but 140 cold press is fine if you tape it down.

Tube paints: I used ultramarine turquoise, cyan, quin burnt scarlet, aussie red gold, ochre, and burnt sienna, with a bit of purple at the end.

Kosher and or table salt

Toothbrush

plastic wrap

Optional: soap suds

Objectives: to show how to make colors you don't have in your palette

To show a completed painting in complementary colors

To show some texture techniques

DECIDING ON COLOR

Jean Haines uses a technique she calls "dancing ladies" to determine colors for each painting, and to experiment with color. First, she puts a dot of tube paint from each color she wants to experiment with across the top of a scrap of paper. She wets the area below it to create a place for the paint to flow. She then touches the dot of paint with a wet brush and connects it to the wet area, allowing paint to flow down the paper. She does this with each dot of paint to see how they will look together. You might drop one color into another to see how they blend together.

Since not everyone had the exact colors I used, we used this to also discover what colors to mix together to create similar colors. For example, if they didn't have quin burnt scarlet, they could use burnt sienna with a warm red; if they didn't have aussie red gold, they could create another sand color that they liked, perhaps raw sienna or gold ochre with a touch of heat from orange or burnt sienna.

Now, I'm aware that that picture does not look lovely. That is because, after I was done deciding on my colors, I could use the dots of paint for a palette. So I also painted a lot of my picture with those dots.

CREATNG THE WASH

You have to be prepared to work quickly, wet into wet, so have all your supplies handy: plastic wrap, salt, toothbrush, etc. Beginning with just water, and holding the paper at an angle, wet some areas with a large brush in the direction you want the water to flow. Then apply some turquoise, leaving some areas white. You can add a little ultramarine blue or other blue to enhance the turquoise. Then add aussie red gold to the sand side, adding some other sand colors. 

Before the water area has a chance to dry, you can stretch some plastic wrap across it to creat wave paterns. Leave the plastic on while you work on the sand area.

Create sand textures by: spattering in color with a toothbrush, like burnt sienna, quin burnt scarlet, blue, ochre, etc. Add salt (I used kosher salt). Drop droplets of water on areas as they lose their shine. When you have the effect you want, let everything dry.

AN EXTRA EFFECT: Mine didn't turn out because I didn't give it time, but you can use soap bubbles to make more texture.  Make bubble from dish soap. You lay bubbles on a white of paper and then gently drop paint on top of the bubbles. You can do that on areas you want to look like sea foam.

STARFISH: Brush away all salt after drying thoroughly. I gave out a pattern for the starfish, but I will also tell how Jean Haines drew hers.

Find the center and make a small circle. You want to place the starfish somewhere that you have some salt reactions that left white. This creates nice hilights. Make a dot at a place that looks like an arm would end. Then create a double row of dots from there to the center. Jean uses aussie gold or other light color at first so that if she doesn't like it, it easily washes away with water. Find each arm and make a double line of dots from tip to center. When you are happy with them, darken the center and dots. 

In the picture below you can see where I've completed the arm on lower right. I have also shaded the part between the arms--they look like upside down v's--just lightly to give dimension.

Planning to finish this up next week.