Tangled up in green

I may have gone off the deep end with this one. I'm trying to break down a tangle of vines without getting overwhelmed by the mass of potential details.

So I've resorted to masking fluid (didn't I recently write that I didn't like using it?) to assist me in my task.

I've painted lighter areas of leaves, masked out shapes within those areas, and returned (when dry) to add darker values. Mask again, wait, and repeat with a darker wash. And repeat again.

At this point, the painting reeks of latex and ammonia, and I'm wondering what things actually look like under all that gooey masking fluid.

Stay tuned!

"Winter Whites"

"Winter Whites" - 12"x12"

Merry Christmas!

I am pleased with the painting that I used for my Christmas cards this year. Normally I use a tiny little painting that's no larger than the image size that ends up on my 5x7 cards. This year, I tried something very different, and painted a large painting, 12x12.

I also used some different techniques - namely in reserving some of the whites. I have done a very limited experiment in the past with white crayons to reserve an area of whites, and I don't think it worked very well because of the opaque nature of the white crayon.

This time, I got a pack of clear wax crayons specifically designed for use with artists' materials, and that's what's reserving most of the white areas of the snow-covered foliage on the embankment above the roadway. There's a bit of that treatment in the background trees above the house as well.

Most of the foreground snowbank is made of areas that I painted around with a large brush, as is the snow-covered roof of the house. In fact, I used no masking fluid anywhere on this painting, which is a first for any of my snowy scenes.

Other lighter areas were created by dropping water into fresh paint, which created lovely blossom effects (good for lacy bits of vegetation). I really wanted a loose feel with this painting, and I think I managed that. I really feel that I am fussing far too much on some paintings, and it's sapping vitality from the final product.

I felt reinforced in that belief a few weeks ago after seeing the new Van Gogh exhibition at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. called "Repetitions," which examines Van Gogh paintings where he completed the same composition multiple times. Generally, I always felt that I preferred the earliest versions of these series because they seemed fresher and more energetic.

I'm also pleased that multiple people have correctly recognized the location of this painting, even though I have changed elements to improve the composition. That indicates that I've got the essence of the scene, with minimal hand-wringing. I'll call that a success!

And now the "rest of the story"

With apologies to the late Paul Harvey for my post title -- here's what happened between versions of Mumbles and Squeaks.

The problems with the first painting: Shadowed areas that got too dark too fast, and keeping those shadows even, yet interesting.

When I got too dark, I panicked, and tried to scrub things out. That ruined the surface of the paper, and then it would not hold paint without bleeding all over the place (ah the benefits of sizing!).

But the larger issue was the diagonal shadow cast from the little roof above the second-story door. That shape drew me to the scene to begin with, and it was so complicated, I could not paint it quickly enough to keep the wash even. Even trying to pre-wet the area with clear water didn't help me. I started getting splotches where wet areas would meet nearly dry areas...it was a mess. And I was so busy trying to just get the wash down, I was not making it look interesting -- it was just an ugly, splotchy shape.

So I walked away for several months and thought about those problems. I transferred a fresh drawing to a new piece of watercolor paper, but I decided that I would not put brush to that piece of paper again until I had developed a more thorough plan of attack.

My solution developed after watching a snippet of a John Salminen painting video. As you know, I'm a big fan of his work (see why at www.johnsalminen.com).

This video snippet was part of an advertisement for one of his painting DVDs, and it showed him using strips of cheap masking tape to mask out an area of a painting. He layered multiple layers of tape over an area, and then used a very sharp knife to cut through the tape and expose an area of paper, which he then painted with a wash.

Watching this, I questioned how it was possible to cut the tape and not cut the paper -- but I thought it was worth further exploration.

It turns out, if your knife is sharp enough, then you can feel your way along the surface of the paper without damaging it. So after several practice attempts, I decided to use that technique to mask around the primary diagonal shadow shape.

Since I had the freedom to lay paint on quickly with the shape's edges protected, I started playing with brighter colors in areas that I thought would have reflected light. Since the entire painting is painted with four colors -- essentially a yellow, red, blue and green, it was easy to brighten areas but keep the overall color palette in harmony.

Once I had that essential shadow shape down, I pulled off the tape and began to work on the rest of the painting. As the layers went down, I went back into the cast shadow several times to darken some areas and highlight others. With the primary shape defined, I found it easier to paint in that area and keep layers even.

So, I can't imagine doing an entire painting with that kind of layered masking approach, but I did find it helpful in getting a complex shape down on the paper. And it helped me get a painting finished!

More butterflies

So here is the result of the plastic wrap. . . pretty nifty! And, the bonus benefit is that the technique can be completed more quickly than the careful layers I built up in the first version.

Now, I'm not saying that carefully painted "random" shapes aren't fun . . . but truly, there is a benefit in regard to the paper's surface. I had so many thin layers of paint on the previous painting that when I got to the end, I was having difficulty keeping a crisp edge on some of the darkest ares. The paper sizing was no longer effective, and feathers and bleeds were creeping into completed sections every time I applied fresh, dark color. So, reaching this level of texture with only a single application of pigment and water was very helpful in the long run.

I next applied one layer of a neutral tone over the plastic wrap effects to unify the patterns and then tackled the difficult section: evenly applying a mixed black throughout the painting.


The darkest design shapes hold the composition together, I think. Here you can see the butterflies still covered in their masking fluid, surrounded by dark, velvety passages.

I mixed my black from Permanent Alizarin Crimson and Pthalo Green. It works wonderfully as a dark staining color, but it also tends to shift from green to purple if I don't have the proper balance of pigments in the mix. When dry, I went back over the dark areas once more, and added a touch of Cobalt Blue to the mix to even out the color shifts.

I had applied some masking fluid to areas that were wholly contained within the largest dark areas to preserve them, but the outer edges of all the convoluted shapes were painted freehand. I had to work quickly, and always stay ahead of the wet edge of paint to avoid obvious brushstrokes. Keeping these shapes sharp and flat-toned was critical to my concept in this painting.

Butterflies reprised

Well, the butterflies intrigued me enough that I thought I would try them again, and this time I took some process photographs.

The new version of the painting is much larger -- nearly 24 inches across versus 14 inches for the original.

I first wet down the sheet and then dropped color into the areas of the butterflies. I also decided to go a little wild with some of the colors, so I have some blue, green and pink butterflies among the yellow ones.

After those soft color blossoms dried, I spent hours carefully masking the butterflies. I used some tape in larger areas, and carefully sealed those edges with masking fluid. Then the masking fluid went around the taped areas and into all the nooks and crannies that make up the butterfly shapes. I didn't photograph the masking stage...my masking fluid is colorless, so there wasn't much to see.


This image shows my next step -- painting over the entire painting with dark colors, and then crumpling sheets of plastic wrap into the wet paint. In the first version of the painting, I carefully painted all the textured effects. For this one, I wanted to try the random texturizing that plastic wrap could provide. The wet pools of color also tended to intensify pure pigments, so some colorful patches -- ranging from dark purple, to green to blue -- were created along with the texture.

I let the plastic wrap stay on the wet surface for about an hour. Then I carefully peeled the plastic off so the entire surface could completely dry.

Final changes for Jason and Miki

At this point I continued to work on defining elements of the house, darkening the porch area, adding the stone textures around the base of the house and porch, strengthening the cast shadows, etc. I also added the shrubbery around the house and added highlights and shadows to the foliage.

I also removed the masking from the porch railings and step handrails, and added the fine details in the windows.


Here's the final image of the house, with the foliage in the background darkened. I used a bit of splatter in the second stage of the foliage, and carefully masked off the house and portions of the sky to safely add the splatter. Simple pieces of cut and torn paper fulfilled that need.

I have placed a transparent watermark across the house, so the strange highlights in the porch are part of that watermark.

A message from Miki indicated that they were happy with the house portrait, so that always pleases me.

Enough with 'New Ideas'

I think it's time to say "enough" with this test painting. I had lost interest in it a couple of weeks ago, and then I had my young visitors, so I hadn't returned to it.

Most of the updates concern the foreground: the high weeds around the buildings and the pasture in front.

I didn't do anything with the secondary building to the far left. I think it was a compositional mistake to include it, or at least it was a mistake to let its roof be so dominant and so light.

I played with using white crayon after painting the first yellows for the high weeds to help retain that color and created a more ragged edge for the plants once I brought the reds and mixed blacks of the barn's sides and shadows down against the plant's tops. It wasn't all that successful a technique. I think I would have to use a clearer wax resist to try it again. The white crayon dulled the yellow too much, I think.

Barn boards technique

Here's a close-up view of how the tape technique turned out. I really like how the low-tack tape allowed some amount of bleeding under the edges, allowing for a nice contrast between very straight edges and rough uneven patches. It visually matches the rough textures of the barn slats.

Old Iron begins

So far, not much progress to report. With my "real job" schedule, it's hard to find an undisturbed period in which to paint. But I finished the drawing, prepared and stretched the paper, and have begun working on the barn..though using a technique very new to me.


I taped off the geometric shape of the barn (which is in the background) and mixed Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue for a very wet wash over the area. I wanted to get some texture into the color to create the look of weathered wood, and in this version, unlike the last, I'm using cold press paper. So I can't use the tooth of the paper to help create the effect. While still wet, I splattered clear water, then followed that with a darker mix of the complement.

After letting that dry, I trimmed out thin strips of drafting tape (which is what you see in the photo above). I'll paint successively darker washes over the taped area to created the shadows between the vertical slats.

I don't usually use those sorts of techniques because they are very time-intensive, but I wanted to try some different effects in this painting.

Kadie continues

See, now with the darker shadows developing under her chin and within her face, the reds feel more balanced. I used a lot of drybrushing on her face to smoothly blend the facial features. With children, it's very easy to make them look unnaturally older by creating harder edged lines in the face.

The addition of the green sunglasses also complements the strong reds and balances the color elements.

Here it looks like she's had a sunburn, but I wanted to warm up her face, particularly her cheeks, before adding the cooler shadow elements.


The blue in her hair is actually masking fluid. I wanted to reserve some of the highlights and wispy edges of her hair.