Tip of the month – August 2004

This month’s tip is a demonstration Of the approach that I used in Creating POPPY POETRY. The Planning of this painting can be seen On the July TIP PAGE.

Knowing that I wanted to have a dark ground and a vivid red in the flowers, I opted for liquid acrylics as my medium of choice.

The first step was to apply a small amount of liquid mask to the edges of the petals. Afterwards, I applied a wash of yellows, both warm and cool over the entire surface.

I selected a variety of reds: scarlet, cadmium red light, cadmium red medium, permanent rose, quinacridone red, quinacridone violet, quinacridone magenta. I painted thin and uneven applications of some of these reds into the flower shapes. The color is so dilute that the yellow shines through warming the reds.

As I worked with the reds, I decided that I needed some dark ground to show the Strength or lack of strength in the flowers.

Red was applied into the area around the flowers along with green, blue, and Violet.

When I paint a subject, I work both in the subject and the surrounding negative space at the same time. I do not like to complete one area at a time. By working with the positive and negative together, I have a better sense of the over all image. It also reminds me to put some of the subject’s color in the background and vice versa.

In the uneven washes in the negative Space, I was able to create the suggestion Of flower buds by painting negatively Around the round shapes in darker blues And violets. The flower centers were Painted with green, violet, and blue.

As I increased the red in the flowers and the darks in the negative space, I noticed that the darks became very cold. The reds in the flowers also, were not warm enough to express the Poetry that I had seen in the garden.

After I had applied enough color to show a rich dark, I decided to glaze the entire work with quinacridone gold. To the buds, I smudged a light touch of cadmium yellow and cadmium red light with my fingers.

My liquid acrylics that I use are from Golden paints and Liquitex paints.

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