more" Process" info

After Marilyn commented on my process on the painting start yesterday, I got to thinking that maybe I should expand on this a little. The painting may change entirely by the time I get through or it may be covered over with a new painting. At this point I don’t know for sure. Right now it is a landscape that springs from the country living and the foggy, cloudy weather lately. If too many days go by the mood could shift and my colors, intensities could change accordingly. Another reason for painting quickly but thinking about it a long time before you start or when you get at least 3/4 through…or more than that maybe.

Anyway…….back to process……..I generally tone a canvas so that I can have some unity going from the start. Sometimes it is entirely covered by the time I’m though but it does give me a place to start with color and value relationships. The lines in this painting are charcoal covered with thin dark paint to keep me from getting too far off what I think I want to do…when I do have anything in mind. The lines are also expendable. That said, sometimes I don’t use any lines at all. When I do it too much, however, I end up with the same favorite designs over and over. Sometimes you need to break from too much going with the flow.

My palette is generally laid out like a color wheel. I do substitute different pigments for these 12 “spots” at times but basically it is (bottom left) alizarin crimson, cad or napthol red medium (depends on amount of transparency I want), cad orange, cad yellow orange (made from the cad orange and cad yellow light), cad yellow light, yellow-green, Permanent green, cerulean blue, ultramarine blue, a mixed violet blue, diox purple, and a mixed magenta ……..so I am back around to the Alizarin again. I like the Nova Color Alizarin or the Golden Historical alizarin since they are both dark like the original color in oil paint. BTW……..these are all acrylic heavy body paints. Sometimes I put other colors in these spots just depending on the painting and the degree of opacity or transparency I want. In the middle I like Titanium White, Titan Buff, and sometimes Neutral gray #5 & #7. They help me mix more quickly without having to always go through the mixing with the white first……..a warm light and a cool light. I also use another palette with big mixtures of whatever I need to lay out a painting or at the end to work on it’s overall effect. I use china bristle brushes almost exclusively unless I need another effect……….and work like oil painting. For the painting from the last post I wanted to use some extra colors………chromium oxide green, raw sienna and quinacridone gold……..The gold is also used for the toning for these guidelines for the painting.

Gotta go….a good friend (artist) and her husband are expected………….Tomorrow back to painting.

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