Hodge Podge

Last night, I started a 5” x 7” version of my monarch butterfly picture. Given feedback from Kat from the online class, I wanted to give this one another try. Plus, I like to go back and revisit things, especially new objects. With very little time, I drew it out and did one layer of paint for the flower petals.

This morning, I though about backgrounds and did a test run. First I just put down some different colors of green paint. On the right side, I tried dry brushing. On the left side, I used a paint layer thinned a bit with thinned down matte medium, the stuff I used in Carl’s class. I don’t know what I am doing, but it was enjoyable to play in this way and it’s worth exploring further. The issue I am thinking about is how to soft edge in acrylic without using open acrylics?

If I decide to experiment with the thinned down matte medium, I will need to run two palettes, since the matte medium gets on the brush and back in the palette and it really changes the consistency of the paint strokes. 

This morning, I finished the butterfly painting. It was a hodge podge of a process. I started by timing myself, but abandon that. I used a variety of brushes, including a round 2 since there was no way I could get the small bits in the butterfly in a controlled way in a 5” x 7” painting. Finally, the background is multi-layered. First, I did big splotches of different colors of green, almost like a patchwork quilt. I should have taken a picture, since it had an interesting look to it (interesting in a good way). I remember when MS, when of Kat’s other students from an earlier in person class, did several paintings this way and I really liked the effect. However, my overall values were too close to the flower and butterfly, so I couldn’t leave it like that.

Next, I tried to dry brush with a lighter shade. TM, another one Kat’s other students, used this technique in wonderful ways. I wish I would have paid more attention! While it lightened things up, the effect I got was that it looked like dry, scratchy, little paint strokes and I have been working hard to get away from this. Finally, I just added several layers of paint thinned with matte medium.

#328 - Garden Monarch - 5” x 7” - paper

This one is for Art 4 Shelter.

I want to think more about different types of backgrounds, so here are several categories / short cuts for thinking about them:

• MS style - bold blocks of color.
• TM style - dry brushing. 
• CO style - paint thinned with thinned matte medium.

The thing I’m happiest about with this painting is that the colors are unapologetic. Even though I love bright, saturated colors, I have had a bad habit of dulling my colors when painting. I am also pretty pleased with the butterfly’s antennas. I’ve been practicing cat whiskers which don’t look like toothpicks.