My Painting Process From Start to Finish

In   a  bit  of  a  condensed  form,  here's  how  I  sometimes  go  about  in  creating  a  piece.  I  have  trouble  with  being  intuitive.  I  most  times  have  to  have  a  plan,  so  this  is  where  my  sketchbook  comes  in handy.  I  have  lots  of  them  now  filled  with  sketches  and  ideas  that  come  to  mind.  They  help  me  a  lot  when  I  need  a  little  inspiration,  because  they  go  back  years,  and  I  like  to  just  go  through  them  and  see  how  I've  progressed--much  like  an  art  journal.   Here's  how  I  start--

First  comes  the  sketch  to  which  I  draw  on  to  my  painted  background  that  I  made  on,  in  this  case,  a  wood  cradle  board.   The  only  real  intuitive  process  I  have  is  the  background--I  work  fast  and  just  add  colors  that  appeal  to  me  and  layers  of  different  marks  using  different  mark-making  tools  and of  course,  stencils.  I  use  a  water  soluble  pencil  for  the  initial  sketch,  and  once  I'm  happy  with  it,  I  go  over  it  with  a  Faber-Castell  black  pitt pen.

Next  is  when  I  start  to  paint  in  my  design--

--leaving  some  of  my  original  background  for  the  foreground  to  add  to  the  design

close  up  detail--

I  made  lots  of  texture  with  this  starting with  my  first  background  layer  of  gesso.  I  applied  it  to  the  surface  fairly  heavy,  and  used  a  comb  and  credit  card  for  swirls,  making  sure  that  it  was  completely  dry  before  I  added  the  next  layer  of  paint.

the  finished  piece--

..so  happy  with  this!

And  another  piece,  created  in  the  same  manner--

I  hope  I've  inspired  you  to  make  some  art  in  your  own  way--doesn't  matter  what  you  do  as  long  as  it  makes  you  happy  :-)

Transformation--Sunflower Painting

I  always  love  transforming  the old  pieces  that  I  pick  up  at  flea  markets  and  garage  sales--like  this  one....

actually  one  of  2  old  cupboard  doors  that  I  found  at  a  flea  market  this  summer--$5.00  for  both--that's  $2.50  each!  You  can't  feel  guilty  about  messing  up  on these  at  that  price,  and  they are  a pretty  good  size  too--18 x 30

So--first  step--

putting  on  my  first  layer

next  step--the  sunflowers

used  a  palette  knife  for  the  first  time--once  I  got  the  hang  of  it,  it  was  fun  to  do

the  finished  door--

so  happy  with  this--don't  pass  up  those  old  doors or  whatever  you  may  see  at  flea  markets  that  could  very  well  end  up  in  the  trash--it's  always  fun seeing  what  you  can  do  with  pieces  like  these.   so now.....on  to  the  next  one!

New Poppies

Ever  since  I  started  painting  poppies (a  couple  of  years  ago)--I  knew  right  then  that  they  were  my  favorite  flower  to  paint--

And  I  have to  give  my  Golden  fluid  acrylics  part  of  the  credit  for  helping  these  flowers  come  to  life.  The  main  colors  I  used  were  Alizarin  Crimson  Hue  and  Cadmium  Red  Medium  Hue (that's  the  main  color)  with a  little  bit  of    Titan  Buff,  Burnt  Umber,  Carbon  Black,  and  Yellow  Ochre--and  even  a  teensy  bit  of   Light  Turquois  (phthalo)--thats  a  golden  heavy  body  acrylic--love  that  color!!   I  finger-painted  with it on  the  background  so  I  wanted  to  add  a  touch  to  the  flowers.   So  my  point  being--it  really  helps  to  use  a  good  paint  when  you  want  to  bring  your  painting  to  life--these  look  so  much  better in  real  life!

This is on   12  x 36  gallery  canvas--great  size!

Here's  a  close-up  view  of  this  painting--

....to  show  you  the  background--I  started  out  by  collaging  a  map  on  to  the  canvas--it  adds  great  texture  under  the  paint

And  still  keeping  those  colors--I  decided  to  paint  some  papers--

I'll  show  you  what  I  do  with  these  in  my  next  post--stay  tuned.......

A Mini Tutorial

Okay, I made another collage--

And a couple of you commented on my last post that you wanted to see a tutorial on how I paint my papers.  I wasn't quite sure on how I was going to do this, because when I paint these papers, it's very organic.  I think that's why I enjoy it, because I don't think about it--I just do it, which is very unlike me-- I always tend to overthink everything.  Probably the reason why I don't worry about the outcome is because it is just paper and it is for the most part, just experimenting.  So I decided to  to do a couple of papers , and all of us will see how they turn out together.

I usually just paint the papers on this heavy cardstock that I picked up at Office Max.  It's a buff color, but you can do it on any durable paper.  I like this paper, because it doesn't really absorb the color and I can use alot of water on it without weakening it.  It will curl, but if you're using it for collage, it doesn't matter. Here's one finished paper--

But I'll back up from the beginning--there's basically 5 layers on this one.  First I stamped images on the paper.  I used a Staz On ink  pad, because it's water resistant,  and then I applied an acrylic wash over it--

I just used a craft paint for this layer, but for the next step, I used Golden fluid acrylics---I've just discovered recently that this makes a BIG difference when I wanted vibrant collage papers

I put down three different colors and then used a wide palette knife (or you could use a credit card) to spread the paint around, but try not to blend it together too much. In this case, I used  gold, titan buff, and sap green, but it can be as many colors as you want.  When it was almost dry, I put on a little purple on in spots and dragged my palette knife through it.  And then after that I just splattered some paint on it.

The only thing about this paper, is that it took a little bit of time, but I have another paper also that I did and this took all of about a minute--

Don't you love this one--I just spread the same 4 colors around with a pallette knife.  This is why I like this paper-- because the paint will just sit on top of the paper and you can move it around.

And another thing I wanted to show you--

I'm sure alot of you know about textured, paintable wall paper.  I love it--it always comes in a cream color and you can get it where ever they sell wallpaper.  You can't mess up on it.  You apply your paint (usually watered down), and then wipe it off and the color  will seep down into the texture, and you can keep adding colors to it, until you like the result--

I used it here under the cup to give the appearance of a table--

I hope this little tutuorial helped some of you, and if you have any questions, let me know.  Whenever I find new techniques or fun ones, I'll always post them!