Peek a Boo!

I am now on Lesson 3 (“Happy Accidents”) of Tracy Verdugo’s Jump into Abstract Painting on-line class. There she demonstrates how accidents or mistakes made during painting could be turned around and recreated to something interesting! Recounting her experience with her students, she tells a story in which one was trying to help another draw an animal on her painting but rather than use soft pastels she inadvertently drew with oil pastels! As you know, oil pastels cannot be erased unlike soft pastels. An idea then cropped up to see what would happen if you pour paint over it…

Grabbing Some Old Work

Well, as oil pastels resist water, anything you draw with it pops up when water-based paints, including acrylic, is applied on top. The lesson called for grabbing some old artwork from the past in which you had been stuck in a rut or just didn’t like but didn’t want to throw away. I grabbed some scrap paper on which I have been brushing on excess paint, testing colours or even cleaning rubber stamps. Great I had some handy!

Doodle Away!

With some white and silver oil pastels, I began randomly doodling little animals all over the paper. Another idea suggested by Tracy was to use some wax candles so it comes out uncolored. That I should like to try! I don’t have any candles handy at the moment so should make a note to buy a couple of cheap ones.

Going Green

Once happy with the look of the animals all over the paper, I began adding some green. Although I made the mistake of covering the paper too much, I used some water spray to dilute and spread the color better and some paper towels to tap out the excess. And here we are for now!

I love the emerald green background although I could have better distributed it. Nevertheless, it is quite impressive how the animals do pop out! That part worked out well which was the point of the exercise. It is like the little creatures are going “Peek a Boo!” In future, if I should get stuck in a painting or not like it, I now know what to do!