For the rainbow background, I lightly sponged on paint allowing the white of the canvas to show through to suggest a dappled light effect.
For the rainbow background, I lightly sponged on paint allowing the white of the canvas to show through to suggest a dappled light effect.
STEP ONE
Take photos of your preferred fish, and then prime your canvas. Sketch your fish.
I draw the basic outline of trees and tree roots. I always draw directly with ink pen on paper. Usually, I prefer Artline pens (0.1 to 0.8), or Rotring pens.
With an old brush – a badly looked after round bristle is my favourite – draw in the main areas of the scene.
I do a thumbnail sketch of the composition I have in mind. While the thumbnail sketch shown is very loosely done, I have at the back of my mind a very detailed vision of how the finished painting will look like.
Having given the canvas one coat of Gesso the day before, I painted roughly half the canvas with a light mixture of Titanium White and Cobalt Blue mix, added a little Alizaria Crimson and Titanium mix and finally added whispy white clouds with Titanium White, all painted with the one brush.
Start with a strong all-over background colour of Phthalo Blue mixed with a touch of Phthalo Green to create a vibrant summer feel to the entire painting.
You can first start by doing a light cobalt blue wash over the canvas. In this instance I haven’t used the wash. Secondly start by constructing a grid which will help you accurately draw the landscape scene.
STEP ONE
I sketched a simple drawing to identify the main shapes.
A drawing is made directly on the canvas with a mix of Permanent Mauve and Zinc White, thinned down with fast drying Underpainting Medium.
Prepare the surface i.e. stretch the paper. With 185gsm paper I generously spray each side with water, allowing time for it to absorb and for the paper to buckle.
The first thing I do when confronted with a white canvas is give it several coats of coloured gesso. In this case, because I had already determined the mood and setting,
I roughly painted my canvas by using up remaining paints from a previous painting in earthy tones. I rubbed out some areas and added more paint into sections and left any marks that will represent the dry earth and twigs etc.
After transferring my sketch of Sandy onto the canvas, I began blocking in the background. As the background will be shrouded in mist, I wasn’t concerned about putting in any great detail.