Continuing on from the last BobBlast, which was all about gessoing and trimming a full sheet of watercolor paper into six 10x10 inch practice paintings - my standard warmup size.
This preparation also illustrates why I sometimes begin with a warm background tone, for me an orange mid tone over the entire surface. When I scrape into wet paint, orange lines appear and gives my work added visual excitement.
Letting a little bit of the orange peek through is an added bonus!
Back to my warmup paintings and how I begin... after the orange gesso has dried, I begin with my selected color combination - 4 colors from my Goof-Proof Color Wheel - plus black and white.
I am using Holbein Acrylic Artist Paint:
Dominant Color is Blue
(Holbein-Compose Blue #2)
Focal Point Color is Red
Yellow (Holbein-Marigold)
Spice Color is Purple
(Holbein-Amethyst)
Spice Color is Green
(Holbein-Cad Green Deep)
The dominant color blue is loosely spread on the surface. I have chosen the
Horizontal design composition for the 2 warmups in this video demo. Both are Landscapes.
Painting #1 has a low horizon line -
it is a painting of the SKY
Painting #2 has a high horizon line -
it is a painting of the LAND
After the dominant color is on the surface of both paintings, I add the focal point color - loosely near the horizon line. The spice colors are always placed near the focal point.
This loose painting warmup exercise gets me going early in the studio and in workshops.
Keep it fun, loose and wet!
