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Rainbow Gravity - a mixed media painting tutorial

Rainbow Gravity
Cyndi Lavin, 2017

Cropping can be soooo important that it can even save a painting you're about ready to trash!  I had a composition idea vaguely in mind when I started this piece, but at some point it just seemed to totally go wrong.

On a piece of heavy watercolor paper, I sponged Micaceous iron oxide, and then added patches of Phthalo turquoise, Dioxazine purple, and Quinacridone violet with a small foam roller.

When it was dry, I added strings of tar gel.  Can you see the scrap paper underneath the piece?  Tar gel keeps its shape and dries to a hard finish...you don't want this stuff on your regular painting surface.  If you use a piece of scrap paper, you can run the lines off your piece, and afterwards you can spoon up the overage before it dries and pour it back into the container!  Thrifty!

Work on something else while the tar gel dries...using a heat gun or hair dryer can make it bubble.  It will be ready tomorrow!


Dilute some white gesso with water and brush it over the whole piece.  I used an old plastic card to scrape over the piece, removing the gesso from the high places and from some of the flatter places too.



When the piece is mostly dry, spritz lightly with water and add lines of lighter colors.  I used Magenta medium, Hansa yellow light, Cobalt teal, Quinacridone magenta, and Dioxazine purple mixed with white gesso.

After the acrylics dried, I added some black India ink with a razor blade, and some extra white ink.


  

Look at your piece from all four angles.  My original idea changed.  Plus, I ended up cropping it on two sides.  As a final step, adjust the colors and lines as needed.




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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.

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