Dragonflies

 Dragonflies

DRAGONFLIES

I was wandering through Louise DeMasi's old posts and found a whimsicle painting of dragonflies. I loved how loose they looked, and I have a fondness for pen and ink. Hers was the inspiration for this. However, I used for reference photos from Unsplash from Kalai Venthan and Jude Infantarie.

This can be done with background last or first, and I'm showing it both ways.

Background Last

Draw your dragonflies, then go over them with waterproof ink. Be sure to vary the line sizes, some thick, some thin. I also wanted to leave some space around the wings (that is, don't completely enclose the wing) because I wanted it to have some feeling of movement. ERASE pencil lines.

I did the wings wet into wet, using just 3 colors (also in Louise DeMasi's tutorial). I like magenta, yellow, and pthalo blue. (I hardly ever use pthalo because it stains, but I don't need to do any lifting, so I felt free to use it here.)  Choose your own color combination. Start with a color you absolutely love, and choose 2 others that will go well with it.

Wet one wing, damp, no puddles. Drop in one of your colors (I started with yellow), then drop in another to blend on the paper. Try to avoid putting 2 colors together that will make a brown or gray.  Leave white space in the wings.

Continue painting the wings, wetting above or below and allowing some of the paint to flow into background areas.

When the wings are dry, paint the body. The wings should look wispy and dreamy, but the body is hard edged. Take your time and paint a section at a time. Wet the section, then with a small brush, apply the paint on one side and let the water move it to the other side. You are trying to make a rounded effect. If at first you don't get it, let it dry, and glaze over it again. 

Be fun and colorful. After all, whatever crazy colors you might choose, Nature can always make it crazier.

To make the background, Wet a section with a large brush, and drop the same colors into it, allowing them to run and bleed together. In this one, I chose to put saran wrap over it to create texture, but you can use bubble wrap, salt, a spray if you choose.

BACKGROUND FIRST

Draw your dragonflies, then ink them in, using different widths of pen. Also remember to ERASE all pencil lines.

Wet the paper with a large brush. Drop in some of your chosen colors, letting them bleed together. You can encourage the paint to move with a spray bottle also. On this one, I didn't use any texture, but while the paint is wet you can texture with wrap, bubble wrap, etc.

After it is dry, work on the wings, same as above.

Then work on the body parts, as above. Try to make these more solid looking.

When dry, go ahead and make any corrections and additions with pen, if you choose. Also, be sure that your colors have balance...if there is pink on the wing, be sure to carry a bit of that color on the other side.

My preference, after doing them both, was the second one, where you do the background first.