Longing - a mixed media painting tutorial

Longing
Cyndi Lavin, 2017

 I decided to see if I could interject some more personality into my ink trees.  That involved controlling the ink more than when I was just letting it drip from the top. But I still used a pipette to draw them in!  The background is acrylic paint.

1. Use a large brush to wet your watercolor paper.  Working from the top, layer in Phthalo blue, Phthalo green mixed with glaze, and white gesso with the large brush.  Clean the brush, and from the bottom, layer in Jenkins green, Sap green mixed with glaze, and white gesso.  Blend and let it dry.

2. Using a pipette, add swirls in the sky with waterproof white ink.

 

3. Use another pipette to draw in the trees with waterproof black ink.  Add some "flowers" with Hansa yellow light.

 

4. Use Naphthol red light to add a few spots in the sky, flowing from tree to tree.

5. Use white gesso to make a few of the ink swirls cross in front of the tree.  This helps to give more depth and more of a sense that the swirl is traveling deeper into the picture to the farther tree.  Top it with several thin coats of Krylon clear acrylic spray.

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Copyright 2017 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. The tutorial only may be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.