Rocks Speckled

 This entry was originally posted on Sunday, June 24, 2012

Last week I did the above painting of rocks as part of a negative painting exercise.

To complete the painting, I decided to add some texture.

This was done using a toothbrush.

Toothbrushes are great for making all sorts of speckles for all sorts of textures.

 

I prefer a soft toothbrush that I can rub easily with my finger.

Child size toothbrushes work great.

 

Just dip it into your paint, rub along the bristles with your finger, and speckle away.

 

Negative Painting Day 5

   This entry was originally posted on Saturday, June 23, 2012

For the final layer of color, I used the French Ultramarine Blue/Burnt Sienna mix again.

This time I made it the consistency of softened butter.

I then filled in little triangle like spaces with this color to give the painting even more depth.

These spaces I marked with a red x.

I also cleaned up a few edges.

Now I have my painting of rocks.

 

Negative Painting Day 4

  This entry was originally posted on Friday, June 22, 2012

As you start to build up your painting of ovals, you will notice that it is starting to look like a pile of rocks or pebbles.

Today you will no longer just think of painting around the shapes but painting the spaces between the ovals/rocks.

As you do this, the ovals become less complete. They look like they are underneath the first shapes that you drew. 

 

Your French Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna mix should now be the consistency of cream.

This darker mixture will make the spaces appear darker.

This will be my fourth layer of paint.

This layer is painted outside the ovals from Day 1-3 plus another layer of ovals for today

(#4 marked in red)

 

Remember, you are painting OUTSIDE or AROUND the ovals.

These become the spaces between the rocks or pebbles.

 

Negative Painting Day 3

 This entry was originally posted on Thursday, June 21, 2012

For the next step, you will use the same French Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna mix,

only more like the consistency of coffee.

Then you will draw in more ovals if you haven’t done so before. 

Now you will continue to paint around the ovals from the first 2 steps as well as around some new ovals.

You can see in the above example that I marked #1 for the first ovals that I drew in.
These are now the white of the paper.
The #2 is on those new ovals that you painted around yesterday.
The #3 is on the ovals that you are painting around today.

It does help to lightly mark the ovals you are painting around with a number or an X.
These can be erased later.

Negative Painting Day 2

   This entry was originally posted on Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Now that your painting has dried, it is time for the next step.

You will draw in some more ovals, perhaps making a couple of incomplete ones appearing as if they are under the now white ovals.

Using your French Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna mixture, only slightly more concentrated (think of the consistency of tea with milk),

you will paint around the original white ovals as well as some of the ones that you just drew.

I put an X in pencil in the ones I wanted to save so I knew which ones to paint around.

There were the 3 original white ones and 8 more that I chose to paint around. 

These appear lighter than the background color.

Let it dry.

An Exercise in Negative Painting

  This entry was originally posted on Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Negative Painting can be a difficult concept to grasp.

So for this week I will be showing an easy step-by-step process for painting in the negative.

 

To begin, draw 3 oval or round circles on a piece of watercolor paper.

 

Next, make a pale mix of French Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna.

This mix should be watery and light in value (just slightly darker than weak tea). 

Now you will paint around, or outside the 3 ovals so it looks like this:

 

 Let it dry.

Return tomorrow for the next step.

Painting Negatively

  This entry was originally posted on Monday, June 18, 2012

The leaves in September Wrens are all painted negatively.

 

Painting in watercolor requires that you save your whites and your light areas.

It is a build up of paint from light to dark.

Usually this requires painting around your light areas.

This is a type of negative painting.

 

Negative painting is where, instead of painting an object, you paint outside or around the object.
It is also painting the spaces between objects.
Watercolor depends upon this concept of negative painting more than any other medium.
Once you grasp this concept, your watercolor painting will greatly improve.