A Light in the Forest - a mixed media painting tutorial

 

Last week I talked a little about adding some depth to an abstract by shading the elements in a way that draws the eye into the picture rather than just across it.  Today's piece uses the same technique with a different color palette, and in a much larger size so that the elements could be spread out a bit more.  I wanted to see if that would make a difference in the perception of depth.

 

The background was rolled with Green gold and allowed to dry.  I then painted around the center, moving outward, with Sap green, Phthalo green, and Turquoise phthalo, these three being both mixed with white gesso and plain.  I then dripped in the most "distant" trees, white ink with a couple drops of turquoise paint.  After they dried, I sponged the whole piece lightly with Iridescent copper (not shown above).

 

The next step is to drip in the "middle distance" elements, this time mixing the white ink with a bit less turquoise.  When they were dry, I sponged over just the area with the existing trees.

For the last area, the "foreground", I used plain white ink with no added turquoise.  Once dry, I sponged the entire piece with the Iridescent copper.

This composition breaks a "rule" by putting the focal point right smack in the middle, but I'm ok with that.  More bothersome to me than the central placement is that the focal tree is more realistic than the others, and I do think that was a mistake.


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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.