“Festival”. The name very much suits my newest little abstract. I switched to canvas for this one, so it has a nice natural texture to it, as well as being busy and fun, and… well….festive! 🙂
I started out with just the base colors. I was going for bright(what else is new? hahaha), sunny, and happy. So yellows, red, and magenta mixed with deep yellow to make a nice deep orange, fit that bill…
I had a sketch in mind, so was just going for an interesting background for the bottom layer…and a whimsical treed landscape for the final piece. I did fun stuff….like drips, different little brushstrokes with more bright colors, and scratching through layers to add visual interest….in about the spots where I was going to put the trees. Soaking acrylic down when it is wet, and just letting it sit, creates some interesting, often unexpected effects…especially on canvas, where it pools and blends, and the colors look “melted” together….mixing playfully with each other. Love that! 🙂
Anyway, as is my usual, I ended up with a pretty little abstract as my “background”, then had that seemingly endless debate with myself over whether or not I actually wanted to paint over it! haha Especially when I posted it, and it looked so good on a phone case and other stuff!
So, it sat there for a day…I was busy and had to stop for a while…which is ok, since it is usually good to let it dry really good in case I want to “fix” my top layers in any way. If the paint is not completely dry underneath, and I use water to “erase” any fresh marks or painted areas I want to change, the under paint will just come off with it, and completely ruin the bottom layer. Gotta love acrylics for this “erasure with water” ability, I must add!
Anyway…. I sat here staring at it, getting completely attached to it as it was. Having this “color joy” come over me whenever I looked at it. 🙂 Plus, I could not get my transfer paper to work on it with my sketch, and my other fallback transfer method….white chalk…was never going to show up in all that busyness! I then tried black conte, and covered the back of my vellum sketch with it, turned it over, and couldn’t see my sketch because I had only done it in pencil, and not ink. Nearly completely invisible, so I couldn’t see the lines to trace! Argh! Except then, I realized that maybe it was not meant to be…that maybe this was not the background I needed for this sketch. That this little painting was destined to just stay a happy little abstract, colouring my days! 🙂 Check out that cute little heart… 😉
BTW…I had my energetic 60’s playlist at 8tracks playing while I worked on this one. Enjoy! 😀
Sunshyne Art & Design 