Thursday, April 10, 2008

New Painting: Planets


Here is another 4x4 inch gouache on clayboard painting. (I bought several packs of these painting boards at a trade show, so you will see at least a dozen more of these...) By the time I got to this one (right after I finished "Pipes") I figured out the best way to be subtle was by mixing colored water as opposed to using just watered down paint. Because of the clay surface, it doesn't take forever to dry, and can handle having water poured on it repeatedly. (By colored water I mean water with just a hint of paint.)
This one was all about color. I have a tendency to paint in all jewel tones, which makes it hard to through in the yellows and oranges. So I was trying to create different usable palettes that still use jewel tones but that more comfortably fit all the colors into the piece. I started with yellow fading to green as a wash in the background, then added layers on top. Gouache is like it's cousin watercolor, in that it can be transparent, or more correctly translucent when watered down.
By the way, if anyone out there has a suggestion for a high quality scanner, I would lover to get your opinion. I went shopping for one last weekend and everything in the stores are meant for offices and are either really cheap or those "3 in 1" machines that are expensive but still cheap. (An oxymoron, I know, but still true.) I would like to take the little paintings like this and scan them. I think that would make a better image for you readers to see.

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