Something Completely New

During this shelter in place, I challenged myself to try something entirely new. I took a sketch from a class on abstract painting and art board which I don’t usually paint on, and worked to figure out how to do it with such strong lines. First hint is to run a piece of paraffin wax along the edges to minimize bowing of the art board

I covered the board completely top to bottom with a slight overlap using a 2” clear artists tape.

positioned my drawing on tracing paper and taped at the top to secure

Using tracing paper, traced the drawing onto the tape lined board

Using this cutter often used by quilters, I cut along the lines to keep all the white and black areas in place, carefully removing the tape that would give me the grey background. Be sure to seal all the edges of the tape with the wallpaper seam roller tool. Wish i had done this better on the small pieces outside the main image. Then, mixed several grays on a scrap of watercolor paper and decided on this mixture in a medium tone using Phalo Blue and Burnt Sienna

Had to apply about 3 coats of the background color to get a smooth wash appearance and the mid tone I desired. If too dark, I added titanium white to the next coat. Let dry well between coats as the paint sits on top the art board; it does not sink in as it does on watercolor paper. In wiping paint off the tape, I erased some of the tracing lines and had to retrace the inner ones to highlight the black and white areas

Once background was completely dry, I carefully cut around the black areas and removed that tape, keeping the white sections in place and re rolling the edges to keep secure. Then painted the black made with Ulramarine Blue, Burnt Umber and a little Alizerin Crimson. The first coat was thinned slight with water to get the edge lines against the grey edges using a 3/4” slanted flat brush. Did 2 more coats with a little thicker paint, drying well between coats. Take a breath before putting brush in place as a little dab of black means you have to expand a line.

When completely happy with black layer, I carefully removed the tape on the white areas (be especially careful to move slowly in large areas as tape has been on the board for several days). Then, there was some touch up to connect black areas, clean up white areas by using a small flat brush and a little water to ease off grey and then use Titanium white to clean the edges of the shapes. If black has slipped under tape it is hard to erase so best to reshape the line with black paint - breathing before placing the brush on the line. Once dry, I put the painting face down and put a board on top to flatten any bowing at the edge.

This image is a little different grey tone because I always do my finished photos outside in the shade on a sunny day for natural light and shoot straight down with my iPad.