Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Flamingo painting....background work

Made it back to my easel....and I have been working on creating the background for my little flamingo painting.  I do like to at least get a solid background foundation before I start on the focal point.  In this particular painting, I am trying my hand at a little abstraction and I may eventually add a little mix media....will shall see.....
I started by transferring the outline of my drawing....I like knowing exactly where my focal point is when I'm working.  I also prefer to start work on a white surface.  Here I have laid in the first washes of color using Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue.  Loose strokes and then a bit of saran wrap, crinkled and applied to the surface.....
The saran wrap lifts the wet paint from the surface....leaving those nice little pockets of texture and sparkle behind.
Here I have added another wash...same colors...and a little more saran wrap texture.
Several more layers of washes and then I applied some clear glaze to protect the layers done.  Next I played with some drips and runs of white and even threw in some speckles.  I'm happy at this point.  Next I'll start work on the flamingo.....

I'm just loving this painting so far....I'm working on an 8x8 gessoboard with a 3/4 inch cradle.  Any questions or comments are welcome!


1 comment:

Mimi and Tilly said...

Hi Debbie, I've always wanted to be able to paint, but ahve enver been very skilled at it. I find reading about the process here really interesting. It's great to see how your work progresses. Em :)