BeckerArt FLOAT-YOUR-PIGMENT Newsletter Feb. 25th, Background Design

Published: Tue, 02/25/20

Hello

Welcome to the FLOAT-YOUR-PIGMENT Newsletter #248, Background Design

What a great weekend we had here near Chicago, 52 degrees. this kind of weather gets all the plein-air artists all excited about getting outside to paint. If you get excited about painting outdoors you should sign up for the Paint Cedarburg Plein-air event in Cedarburg, WI., in June. for more info go here. I think there is still time to sign up.

TWSA notifications came out yesterday, I sure hope for anyone that entered that they got accepted and if you did Congratulations.

Yes to Class at the Civic Center in Libertyville,Thursday, Feb. 27th 1pm to 3:30pm

Yes to Class at the BeckerArt Gallery in McHenry, Saturday, Feb. 29th 9:00 am to 11:30 am

Simple Background Design

There are times when I make the background of my paintings very simple and then I start to look for how I can make them work better for the design of the painting. Last year I started experimenting with stencils and little by little I have been using quite a lot of them to enhance the backgrounds to a bunch of my paintings.

After finishing this dove painting I came to notice that my background was pretty bland.
I started thinking about things I could do to it and then it dawned on me that I should try using a stencil on it.

Below I go over my steps for this dove painting and how I used a stencil to enhance it.

Thanks
David

The step after I drew the pencil lines for the dove was to paint in my light colored background and the light colored shadows on the bird.

After I painted in the lights I then put in the larger details of dark.

I then put in the detailed darks and also put in more darks in the background to pop out the dove from the background. I took it to a finished state but then after looking at the painting I felt it needed something more in the background. The painting at this point I felt was just not an exciting or finished painting.

I then decided that the background could use a stencil to give the background more interest and also help out the design of the painting.

The dark application of the stencil was painted over a stencil while the light part of the stencil work in the painting was rubbed out.

To rub out the stencil part I use a damp magic eraser and just rub over the stencil on the painting and it lightens up the area on the painting, like the upper right corner of this painting above.

WORKSHOPS and DEMOS of 2020

WORKSHOP Morris Watercolor Guild, W/C, Morris, IL., March 6th Sold Out

WORKSHOP Lake Superior Watercolor Guild, W/C, Duluth, MN, March 26th- 28th Sold Out

DEMONSTRATION_DILLMAN'S FEST at my Gallery in McHenry, IL. May 3rd INFO HERE

WORKSHOP Dillman's, Lac Du Flambeau, W/C, Wisconsin, June 29th to July 2nd INFO HERE

WORKSHOP Vermont Art Event, W/C& Acrylic, Burlington, Vermont, July 27th to July 31st INFO TO COME

WORKSHOP Thousand Island Art Center, W/C, Thousand Island, NY, August 4th to August 6th INFO HERE

WORKSHOP Goshen Painters Guild, W/C, Indiana, August 13th to August 15th INFO HERE

WORKSHOP Dillman's, Lac Du Flambeau, W/C, Wisconsin, Aug. 31st to Sept. 3rd INFO HERE

WORKSHOP Artisan Expo, W/C & Acrylics, Santa Fe, MN. Sept. 24th to Sept. 26th INFO HERE

WORKSHOP Sangamon Watercolor Society, W/C, Springfield, IL. Oct. 9th to Oct. 12th INFO HERE

Product of the Week
Mechanical Pencil, Leads and Sharpener

great for using to sketch in your sketchbook!
Buy it here

Artist of the Week

Fred Graff

I spotted this artists work on a watercolor societies website and had to go look for his page. I love the loose technique!

BeckerArt Brushes

Click Here to Purchase BeckerArt Brushes

Shop Amazon by clicking the logo below to help me fund this newsletter... Thank You!

For any other info please email me at david@davidrbecker.com