The Important Transparents - demo steps

Mixed Bouquet.

6"x 6" oil on canvas  $110.  SOLD

This was a demo to show the importance

of having a transparent underpainting.

Artist Note.

I am a big believer in leaving

some of the darker areas in

 a painting, transparent. 

There is a certain glow which 

doesn't happen with opaque

dark areas  - in fact I find

they can look, pretty "chalky."

My transparent colors 

used for the demo were:

Viridian

 Transparent Oxide Yellow TYO

Alizarin (permanent)

Ultramarine Blue.

 After a wash of TOY 

I did a mass shape using  Viridian.

Next I lifted out the lighter areas

using a rag.

I followed this with more lifting

with a small amount of Gamsol

on my rag and a scrubby brush.

This was to hit my lightest areas. 

I added Viridian and Ultra 

with touch of Aliz to make darker

greens in jar and leaves.

I added more TOY to back and front.

and shadowed the area 

behind the jar

 linking into the dark leaves

Bringing in color but making

sure to keep it all transparent.

Then the fun part - I fractured it!

(See FREE tutorial on tools and what

I use for fracturing  HERE )

I enjoyed bringing it back 

into form by

 taking advantage 

of the broken areas to add 

interest 

Now into the opaque colors.

I added 

Titanium 

Permanent Yellow and 

Permanent Red light to my palette

I started using a knife and a brush

at this point. 

I left the flowers 

very abstract on purpose. 

That was the easiest part -

 because they were all imaginary.

There are transparent areas

peeking through the opaque 

marks, and to me it makes 

for an exciting surface.

Thick - thin,

transparent - opaque,

warm - cool.

If you are not already using the

transparent colors - or have not 

used them for a while then

please let me know if you are 

inspired to try them.

Happy Painting

Enjoy your weekend.