Once I started using black watercolor paper with my four Abstract Composition Backbones Masks, the ideas flowed from one project right into the next.  

With masking tape, I placed Abstract Composition Backbones 4 s867 onto black watercolor paper alongside Abstract Composition Backbones 1 s864 (both having been paint stained from earlier projects....

That tape helped hold the masks in place while I used a sponge to add areas of gray and red acrylic heavy-body paint:

 

When I lifted off the masks, I found this --

Some areas needed cleaning up and the composition needed connections.  So I used a black Sharpie for cover-up work and a little black linework.

I continued to add linework after switching  to a Sharpie pen with metallic gold ink....

... with the results shown below.

Above:  There is a part of me that wishes I had stopped here!

The photo below shows a close-up of the focal area as it appears above (before I did additional work on the area.)

Studying this area, I decided it needed more gold in the immediate space around the focal point.  I used collage to add color there and all across the entire piece --

The above photo shows the artwork as it stands now.  I may later add similar shapes, with the same colors, to connect both the top border and the bottom border with the main body of the abstract.

Thanks for being here today!  To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.

More Exploring with Abstract Composition Backbones Masks

On March 3, when I introduced my 4 newly released Abstract Composition Backbones Masks s864, s865, s866 and s867, I mentioned the option of cutting all four from their 6" x 6" frames to make it easier for me to use them in combination, for developing artworks larger than 6" x 6" or even 9" x 12".   

Today's post goes step-by-step through yet another way to "think big."

Like earlier art-making explorations, today's began with black watercolor paper.  At this point in my series of art-making adventures, my masks already bore stains from other projects; this was an advantage, since it made them stand out on the black background.  I used green masking tape to secure three of the masks in a top-to-bottom formation.  As you can see in the photo below today's featured masks are Mask 2 s85 (far left) and Mask 3 s866 (far right) and Mask 4 s867 (center.)

Above:  Today's project calls for metallic Woody watercolor pencils.  The pencil shown here is metallic gold.  Notice that I've made a "trail of gold" that extends from the left side to the right and from the top to the bottom.

Below:  A close-up that shows detail in one area of today's first photo.  Notice that I haven't filled in every opening on the masks; and in some cases I've drawn around the outer contours of these masks (contours that I had created myself, when cutting the masks out of their original 6" x 6" borders.)   

In the following  photo, you can see what the black watercolor paper looked like when I peeled off the last mask:

In the photo below, I've again used green masking tape to add masks to the watercolor paper.  This time, I've placed  Mask 3 s866 in the upper left, covering some of the gold areas while also leaving openings for using the silver Woody pen that will be making the next marks.  Mask 1 s864 has been taped into the right-central area; Mask 4 s867 has moved to the lower far right, with some of its width extending past the border of the black paper.

What did the piece look like after the metallic silver had been added?  Like this--

At this point, I turned to collage, selecting papers that would play nicely with the 3 colors and shapes already existing....

Above:  I will be using an embellishment-strength gluestick to secure papers to my background.  In earlier years I used heavy matte gel medium for adhering papers, but these days, because of poor ventilation, I limit myself from exposure to fumes from gel medium and similar substances.  This gluestick gives permanent adhesion, in my experience.

Above:  Here is the finished artwork.  The photo below shows close-up detail in one area --

Abstract Composition Backbones Masks 1, 2, 3 and 4 look like this, when still enclosed in their original 6" x 6" borders--

s864

s865

s866

s867

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Color!

There are lots of artists who know way more about color than I can pretend to.  My outlook comes from my own personal experience and my own individual quirks and preferences.

But because I've been asked what colors I use, I offer today's post.

In all honesty, I can't tell what colors I've chosen for any given piece of completed art, because I don't keep records.  Some artists do keep records, and I can't even imagine how they have the discipline and time!

I can only describe my general approach to color.  

The biggest two influences on my "go-to" palette are, first, the color wheel; and of secondary importance is my notebook where I record color combinations that I've seen and enjoyed.

Above:  The right page holds a collection of paint combinations that have tickled my eyes.  A modified (atypical) color wheel fills the left page above.  This particular color wheel differs from a traditional color wheel; it's modified to show the complement of each color right below the color itself. For example, at the very top, directly under the reds, you see their complementary blues. You can buy color wheels of the traditional kind from artist supply companies, but they're also free online.  Just Google "color wheels." 

Every brand of acrylic paints has its own individual array of color name assignments.  "Magenta," for example, is an assigned name that will differ slightly from brand to brand.

My favorite brand/manufacturer for acrylics is Golden Paints.  Their colors are highly pigment-saturated, lending themselves to endless varieties of shades when thinned with clear acrylic media.

Primary colors are yellow, red and blue.  

For those on tight budgets, I recommend buying 2 each the three primaries.  (In the modified color wheel above, you can easily find examples of each of the colors I'm listing below.)  

a warm yellow (a yellow faintly tinted with orange)

a warm red (faintly tinted with yellow)

a warm blue (faintly tinted with red)

a cool yellow (faintly tinted with green)

a cool red (faintly tinted with blue)

a cool blue (faintly tinted with green) 

I suggest, at least for starters, that you keep the cools separate from the warms.  Cool primaries work best when used together; likewise, warm primaries work best when used together, as a general rule.  It's fine to eventually break "rules" -- but first it's important to know what the rules are.

Golden Paints offers a wealth of information online; if their website's color charts don't answer your questions, you can personally contact their experts via their website.  They're very helpful in explaining everything, not only about acrylics but also watercolors and much more.  https://www.goldenpaints.com/

In addition to the 6 color suggestions above, I would add a white and a black.  

But in honesty, I think it's better for beginning painters to buy 2 types of white and skip black, at least for the time being.

I rely heavily on two types of white -- zinc white, which is translucent; and titanium white, which is opaque.

Some artists use white gesso for white and thin it when they want more translucency.  Personally I don't like that approach as much, but every artist has his or her own preferences since we are all individuals.  Nothing wrong with that!

To my eye, the main difference between white gesso and titanium white is that titanium is brighter.  So when I use it, I often dull it down a notch or two with an acrylic paint that fits into the color-scheme of whatever my current project happens to be.  Because Golden Paints are so richly pigmented, it takes very, very little of that tinting color to offset titanium's brightness. 

White is useful for creating pastels.  

Black is a shortcut color, often used to darken the other colors.

But colors can be darkened with the use of their complements (hence the need for a color wheel, which shows complements for each color and shade.)  You will never get a pure black by combining complements, but do you really want a pure black, anyway?  It's a question worth asking; the answer is up to the individual.

Besides Golden, I've also used other high-quality brands occasionally ... Holbein, Liquitex, etc. 

I don't recommend Liquitex "student grade" paints or any other brand of "craft" paints because I think their end result can discourage a beginning painter.  The cheaper alternatives are not highly saturated with pigments, and this matters. 

In my Golden Paints acrylic collection, my favorites are Manganese Blue Hue, Diarylide Yellow and Quinacridone Magenta.  

But that's just my personal preference; it's what I grab if I want to do a painting in a hurry.  Most often that's not the case.  So I generally branch out into a much bigger range of reds...and another, darker yellow...and a more violet-like blue.  My biggest collection is in reds.  I love reds!

Note: Tomorrow continues a daily posting of ideas for using my newly released Abstract Composition Backbones Masks s864 thru s867.  These daily posts will eventually come to an end but in the more widely-spaced posts to follow, more ideas for these new masks will be posted here, along with ideas for using my other stencils and masks. 

Exploration 8 -- One Way to Use Abstract Composition Background Masks

"Crazy-papers," as I call them, start life as pages from old picture calendars or old magazines or old books.  They develop slowly, as I use them to wipe off my brush after finishing my painting projects.  Not just my brush, but also my palate paper.  

This way of using leftover acrylic paints is a "green" practice; it means less acrylic paint goes down the drain or into the wastebasket.

One of the reasons I like using "crazy-papers" as backgrounds is that some of them start life printed with text, and as today's post will show, this text can subtly peek out at viewers even after an artwork has been fully developed.  This layering adds drama to art.

One way to use my four new Abstract Composition Backbones Masks (s864, s865, s866 and s877) is this:  

(1.) Lay out a collection of crazy-papers that measure at least 9" x 11".  

Using crazy-papers as bases to build upon, lay down one of these masks on each sheet of this whimsical paper.  Directly below, I've covered crazy-paper with Abstract Composition Backbones Mask 1.

(2.) Start taming the crazy-paper chaos with daubed-on heavy-body acrylic paint.  Or soft crayons.  Or color pencils.  Or spray.  Or any combination thereof.  In the example below, I've squeezed heavy-body acrylic paint onto palette paper.  Nearby is a sponge dauber, the applicator I'll use in the next step.

(3.) With these media, use two or more border areas of a mask's imprint to guide you in extending the 6" x 6" size into a structure that's longer and wider.  

Note in the photo below:  Before using the sponge-tipped dauber to apply heavy-body paint thru Abstract Composition Backbones Mask 1 s864, I have added 2 strips of green masking tape -- one is a vertical line extending vertically upward, nearly reaching the top of the paper; the other is extending vertically downward, nearly reaching the bottom of the paper.  Notice that these tape-lines are extending from border areas of the mask. 

The taped-off areas will remain clean of daubed-on paint, when the mask has been lifted.  They will be guidelines for extending the size of the image, to stretch it from 6" x 6" to nearly 8" x 10."

Another example is below -- Abstract Composition Backbones Mask 2 s865, placed onto a sheet of crazy-paper, has been visually extended with the use of green masking tape.

Below:  Abstract Composition Backbones Mask 3 s866 is shown during the same stage of progress.  Again, masking tape lines are creating guidelines for an image larger than the original 6" x 6" print.

In the next photo, you can see that Abstract Composition Backbones Mask 3 s866 has been lifted off its background paper.  And if you look closely, you'll notice that some of the paper's original text is peeking thru.

(3.) Bring the piece into partial organization or complete organization.  You are create a world of your own that has visual logic and structure, with a little or a lot of "chaos" to set a spark!

Examples:

Above:  The original print made with Abstract Composition Backbones Mask 1 s864 has been extended using guidelines provided by masking tape, as well as additional linework made with Sharpie markers.  I also used markers in increase the contrast in the focal point area, placing very dark values next to near-white values.  (A soon-upcoming post will discuss values in depth.)

Below:  Abstract Composition Backbones Mask 2 s865 was the basis for this finished abstract.  After the mask had been lifted, I did a light spattering with yellow paint.  With the same yellow, I added linework.  And I used a Gelato crayon to darken areas around the original print.

 

Above:  Abstract Composition Backbones Mask 3 s866, now finished, retains the paper's original text that peeks thru layers of paint.

Again, I've added linework, both to heighten contrast in the focal area and to elongate the image. With a Gelato crayon, I've darkened selected areas.

Below:  This artwork created with  Abstract Composition Backbones Mask 4 s867 started its journey in the same way, but after lifting the mask from its background paper, I veered in a new direction, completing the piece with linework and collage....

 

Abstract Composition Backbones Masks 1, 2, 3 and 4 look like this --

s864

s865

s866

s867

  

Many thanks for checking out my blog today! To follow this blog by email, please use that option in the upper right sidebar.  To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.

Exploration 7 -- Abstract Composition Backbones Masks on Black Watercolor Paper

A few posts ago, in introducing my 4 newly released Abstract Composition Backbones Masks s864, s865, s866 and s867, I mentioned the option of cutting all four from their 6" x 6" frames to make it easier for combining them to make artworks on a larger scale.   

Today's post brings a lineup of photos that suggest one way to start combining all four masks in developing a single artwork.

Today's art-making adventure began with black watercolor paper.  At this point in my series of experiments, my masks already bore stains from other projects; this was an advantage, since it made them stand out on the black background.  I used green masking tape to secure all four of the masks in a downward moving design.  As you can see in the photo below (at far right), Mask 1 s864 was used only partially; the rest extended beyond the right edge of the black paper.

 

Above:  I've applied spray paints.  Below:  I have lifted off the masks.

Above:  a close-up of one of the sprayed areas.

This artwork on black watercolor paper is still in progress.  Lots of possibilities come to mind as to which directions I may take in developing this piece.

Abstract Composition Backbones Masks 1, 2, 3 and 4 look like this (and can be ordered individually)--

s864

s865

s866

s867

  

And I plan more projects with black backgrounds because a black background has so much visual drama!

Thank you for stopping by here today!

Exploration 6 -- Linework & the Importance of "Unbalanced Balance" in the Value Range

 Linework!  It can really transform artwork!

Below is a project that at first struck me as blah -- so I got out some Sharpie pens.

All four Abstract Composition Backbones Masks were used in this 4-layer piece ....

layer 1 -- Mask 4

layer 2 -- Mask 1

layer 3 -- Masks 2 and 4

layer 4 -- Mask 3

Above:  My background was a sheet of computer photo paper on which I'd printed a photo years ago.  My first three layers were made using acrylic paints.  My top layer, created with a Sharpie pen, was a combination of outlined masks.

Below:  This is the finished artwork.  I've added a thick white line with a refillable marker and Titanium White (opaque) acrylic ink.  My goal in drawing the white line was to lead the viewer's eye thru the piece; in so doing, I connected the thick white line with white areas had been part of the originally printed photo, and that remain visible despite layers of acrylic paints. 

 

More explorations in linework --

Above:  All four Abstract Composition Backbones Masks were used in this 5-layer piece ....

layer 1 -- Mask 1

layer 2 -- Mask 1

layer 3 -- Mask 2 

layer 4 -- Mask 4

layer 5 -- Mask 3

In adding the linework with a marker, I established a visual path to bring a viewer's attention down thru the entire piece.  My final touch was to spatter matching ink on the left side of the art.

Below:  A single line added pizzazz to what would have been a simple art sample created with Abstract Composition Backbones 2.

Above:  On the edges of the central image, I used cotton swabs and Gelato to slightly highlight earlier prints that had been made to the left and the right of the central image.  The earlier prints left enough of an imprint so that it could be made more clearly visible when highlighted.  (The substrate was a sheet of Yupo, a slippery synthetic that comes in sheets of assorted sizes.)

Above:  Linework in a very dark color definitely enhances this art sample which otherwise is nearly dominated by middle-range values.

What is the value of values?

Picture a foot-long ruler with very dark markings on one end and white or near-white markings on the opposite end.  This represents an overall value-range, which goes from very dark to white or near-white.  Between the two opposites there is a progression of values, starting at the dark end and getting lighter as they move toward the white or near-white end.

For an artwork to succeed, it's a big advantage for its range of values to fall into three categories -- Large-sized Area; Medium-sized Area and Small-sized area.

Considering the entire area of the artwork above, you can see that only a small part of that space is used to establish the presence of a very dark value.  This makes very dark the Small-sized value.

The Medium-sized value in this particular painting happens to be white and near-white, because these areas take up more physical space than what is used for the very dark value.

Most of the values across the body of the artwork fall into the category of Medium-sized Area. 

This three-part approach keeps an "unbalanced-balance" that pleases the viewer's eye, because it avoids having all one value across the whole area.  

As a general rule, sticking to just one value makes an artwork less exciting in the viewer's eye.  Of course, exceptions exist, but it helps to first know the rules or guidelines, before going against them.

The three categories are completely flexible.  In the example above, if dark areas had taken up the majority of the physical space, they would become the Large-sized Area.  If the linework had been white or near-white, it would have become the Small-sized Area.  If the medium values would have been placed in the areas that are now white and near-white, the medium values would fall into the category of Medium-sized Area.  

If it helps, you can think of the Large as the Maxi-Van; the Medium as the Mini-Van; and the Small as the Sedan.

Range of values has importance in all artworks and photos, whether representational or abstract.  But in abstract art-making, the value range has even more importance.  It's a guideline that gives an artist a tool for catching and holding the attention of viewers.

Much of the above art-making advice was learned from a wonderful teacher of abstract art-making, Jeanette Goulart.

Abstract Composition Backbones Masks 1, 2, 3 and 4 look like this --

s864

s865

s866

s867

  

My sincere thank you for checking out my blog today!  To scroll thru the pages of my StencilGirl stencils and masks, please start here.