Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Building an Abstract Painting




Yesterday, after wrapping up my painting time in the studio, I decided to put a few pieces of stained rice paper on a sheet of watercolor paper as the start of an abstract painting.

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This morning I began to build the piece by adding wet into wet washes of warm colors: yellow ochre, quinachrodome gold and scarlet lake. I helped them move around by using my spray bottle of water.




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The next step was adding darks using burnt sienna, cobalt blue and French ultramarine.



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I used scarlet lake to create a red mountain which would become my center of interest. (Nothing is as eye-catching as red!)

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Next I tried a product I'd never used berfore--gesso. It was time to put some light back into the painting. I also chose to put in a dark sky.
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To finish this imagined landscape, I darkened the sky and lifted out a stripe to create a clear cruciform. Then I worked on adding details to imply more formations of layers and rocks.

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Now I think I'm ready for a signature and title. Any suggestions?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How about Halemaumau's Fury