Here's a big rustling bouquet of flowers for your imagination. I like the sound of a big bouquet as much as the scent and color. (Have you ever noticed how daffodil stems squeak when you gather a bunch?)
Anyhow, I finished this small mural, about 2 'by 1 and 1/2 ', on canvas for a client last night. The color is a little off since I snapped the picture Very Late at Night by studio light, so the peach and coral are dimmed, but it turned out to my satisfaction.
Here are my steps, if anyone is interested. Several people have chided me for giving away my "secrets" for free, but actually, there is no true recipe for this kind of work.
Every painter's body talks differently, and in all of my teaching, I have been delighted and surprised by the different takes my students produce from the same assignment.
"Vive la difference!," I say. ( I like to throw in French now and then to show I am literary.)
After I get approval for my drawing, I usually check with my client to see if she or he wants a color rendering for final approval. In this case, my client passed on the option, so I went on to transfer my drawing to canvas. I trace it with tracing paper I make myself.....from chalk pastel....color of my choice....and Bestine rubbed over the pastel I have rubbed onto a piece of tracing tissue. I like this method better than using Saral tracing paper, because Saral is waxy and the colors are too sharp...reds, blues, and blacks. (Also, it's cheaper!)
The next step is my underpainting, and I posterized this image a bit to make it more understandable. I paint plain Golden Acrylic Glaze all over the area and beyond where the image will be painted. Then I paint a faint background "bloom" in the area...in this case it was a very pale coral/peach glaze. After this dried, I painted a pale yellow on the shapes where I could alter the colors with glazes....i.e. pale blue over yellow makes a radiant green, pale vat orange or light quinacridone red over yellow makes peachy or coral hues.....but painted pale blues in areas for my periwinkles and purples.
Then I placed another more coral "bloom" over the area. Softly! Lightly!
And, as I said, this is a little dark because of my lighting, but I think one can see my progression....building up the greens, the reds and the periwinkles with thin glazes.
This technique is much like watercolor, and is done with liquid Golden Acrylic paints. However, you can bring it further into a more painterly and modeled form by going back into shapes and putting down opaque highlights and glazing over them. This is especially effective when you are working on a buff background, as I am doing here.
The old Flemish painters did this to great effect. Some instructor told me that Van Eyck would sometimes place 40 layers of red glazes to get that glowing rich red in his masterpieces.
Recent Comments