Mixed Media Abstract Painting Process

It has been a while since I posted any abstract art on my blog.  This is for all you who love abstract art painting like me. I don't know if I shared this with you all or not but I really enjoy painting in abstract. There is so much freedom and such an opportunity to be spontaneous when creating abstract that you can never mess up.  For all of those who has every seen abstract paintings before and if your response has been, "how is this art?"  "I just don't get it."  Perhaps you also said to yourself,  "That's just a bunch of paint all over the place."  Well guess what? You are not alone.  I must admit that I was one of you who said the same things until I got educated on the elements of design.
There are so many elements and principles of design which are also used in interior decoration, fashion, architecture and ect.  My abstracts most of the time deals with 3 to 4 colors that compliment one another on the color wheel with there tints and shades.
My goal in my abstract painting is to invoke an emotion through the use of colors which excite the eye or grabs your attention. Basically, expressing to the viewer of my abstracts what these colors has done to me emotionally.
 My other purpose in painting abstract is the create  emphasis with the use of texture.  I just love texture in my abstract paintings whether it is broken up color through splatter or the use of a palette knife and many other ways.  I hope you enjoy the piece which was produced last week.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

This is my reference thumbnail drawing done in prismacolor pencil.  The colors I used was purple, gray, lavender the tint of purple, baby blue, and a light dark aqua green.  If you are familiar with the color wheel these are secondary and tertiary color with one neutral which is gray.  By doing a thumbnail drawing design at the beginning it gives you a preview of which it my look like before totally committing to the color and composition.  However, in this piece later I deviated from the original composition and altered it some.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

I used canson watercolor paper and used liquitex matte super heavy gel which goes on white and can be mixed with paint.  In this case I applied the gel medium onto the paper.  I don't know if you can see the pattern or compostion drawn out on the surface with a pencil before there was paint applied. The gel gives the surface texture.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Next I added a light amount of  watercolors to the surface and I continued to add more color to darken it. I could have went dark to began with, but instead when I work with watercolors I start out light in tones of color.  You can see where the pattern or composition is going.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

I continue to add watercolors to the designated areas which was predetermined beforehand.  If you look closely you can see the texture coming through the colors.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                                                 

This is the final stage of the process as you can see there are colors that are broken up to produce more texture.  I added the same colors to the piece using only acrylic now.  I created my own stencil design out of watercolor paper which is stiff.  Your stencil has to be stiff enough to hold its pattern or design. I used a filbert bush and large round brush in the final stage.

Thank you all for taking the time to view my art blog.  If you are interested in my works of art please email me at deeweaver15@gmail.com.

Mixed Media Landscape Painting

For the past 2 weeks I have been working with mixed media in my art work particularly in my abstract paintings. I have been working with watercolor, soft pastels, charcoal, and prismacolor pencil all on one painting.  For those who are not familiar with the term mixed media it means a  technique involving the use of two or more artistic media, such as ink and pastel or painting and collage, that are combined in a single composition.    I have worked in mixed media before only with watercolor and prismacolor pencil but not in more than two.  I have been getting more comfortable with three or more.

                                                                                                                                                                     

Reference Photo of "Colorful Sky Over Shore

I cropped off the painting with masking tape first. began the painting by mixing watercolor paint on a glass pallete before to lay out my colors.  Next I wet the entire surface with water using a large liner brush. The paper that I used for this painting  was Canson watercolor paper on the smooth side or back side. Then I used a small liner brush in the details of the clouds.  

I continued with most of the painting appling watercolor using a small liner brush to the paper. As you can see in the painting below I also added details and waves to the water and reflection of light.

I continued to add more color to the surface after the paper was dry.  I use a blow drier most of the time when I paint for a quicker process.

Here is the final image of the painting 11x13cm done with watercolor, soft pastels and charcoal.