ARTiful: painting demos

Stick Figures
Watercolor and mixed media on paper mounted on board,
3 times 24 x 24 inches

I started by mounting my paper on board, to see a step by step tutorial of this process, click here: http://paintingdemos.com/2012/10/16/mountin-watercolor-paper-on-board/

I will use a limited palette for this landscape

Holbein: cobalt turquoise light, permanent red,
Daniel Smith : Burnt Sienna
Da Vinci Prussian blue, Cadmium Lemon Yellow and Viridian Green
Rembrandt : Medium yellow,
Van Gogh: Madder Lake Light
Reeves Payne Grey

I start by painting very light washes on the background, painting around the tree trunks areas.

I paint the background leaves, mixing colors wet in wet so the colors are mixing on the paper rather than on my palette and are producing nice textures and changes of color.

Here is a close up of the leaves area

Here is the triptych with all the background and foliage painted

Before painting the trunks I need to protect the few areas where leaves are in front of the trunk area, as it would take too much time to paint around.I paint over those leaves with masking fluid. I am also masking a few lines in between trees.

Then I can start painting the first layer of yellow.

Once it is totally dry I continue layering the primary colors, painting now a blue layer ( Prussian Blue)

Then I paint a layer of red, using the Holbein Permanent red.

The next step is to paint more layers to adjust the colors until I am satisfied with the final color. I added many successive layers, always waiting in between for the previous layer to be thoroughly dried, so the colors stay vibrant.

I the take off the masking fluid on all the paintings, it is leaving very hard edges that would look unnatural if left as is.

To soften those hard edges left by the masking fluid, I will use a very stiff brush and a bit of water. This is an old brush that I did cut closer to the handle so it stays very stiff.

Here are some edges softened.

Finally, the last step is to splash the watercolor and add some drips, the fun part!
I am using a wash of yellow and red and some of the cobalt blue mixed with China white (gouache) as I like the milky appearance it is adding to that blue. Some of those colors will mix on the paper.

To achieve an even and continuous splashing effect, I lay the triptych panels side by side on the floor and start splashing. I will also lay the panels at a 30 degrees angle and add some drips along the trunks.

Here are a few close ups of the drips and textures.

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