Good to be back! We were away last weekend with friends and hence had limited time to get creative and write. And it is indeed the middle of Fall! My least favorite season as not only because days get shorter and hence more depressing but I hate tidying up the fallen leaves in our garden! Rake and sweep then the next day, the leaves are falling again. Rather than get all worked up about it though, I thought I’d see the beauty of these leaves to make myself feel better. How about a bit of abstract art with this?
Working on the Background
I was initially not sure where to start and hence did what I normally do: To work intuitively and see where that takes me! First was a scribble across and around my Strathmore Mixed Media sketchbook with Derwent’s Inktense ink blocks in green, followed by more random scribbles with orange and yellow acrylic inks, allowing the two mediums to somehow merge together.
Then I was going to write something with red ink but decided I didn’t like it anymore and tried to smudge it off with a wet brush. It didn’t work as I had planned but in times like this, I have a contingency plan: Cover up with collage paper! A variety of paper napkins and colored wrapping tissues were then glued around the page. Once dry, I introduced some stenciled marks with fluorescent red acrylic paint and rubber stamped some plant shapes with Ranger’s Distress Oxide in Pistachio. What a chaotic piece now, but this is when I decided to create some negative space art…
Creating Negative Space
And what is negative space art? This is when the background is developed into the subject by creating silhouettes and painting AROUND the shapes instead of filling them in. As I ended up with quite a lot of orange and green here, I thought I would try images of autumn leaves! The leaves were first penciled in where I had wanted to place them. For the palm shapes, I merely made a cardboard cut-out of one and traced around it and repeated this around the page. Once happy with the placements, background was then developed by painting around the leaves with Golden Liquid Acrylic in Ultramarine Violet. Looks promising so far!
Finishing Off
During painting that part, though, I realized I preferred a more blue-ish shade to bring out the colors of the leaves. A bit of pearlescent blue acrylic ink was then blended in along with some Medium Magenta Heavy Acrylic to brighten up the blue a bit more. Now that’s much better! Once the paint was dry, I went about incorporating little shapes of origami paper for some variety in sizes. And now, I think I’m done now!
An exciting session that was! First I was not sure what direction my painting was taking, but as I decided upon developing it into negative space art, the result turned out quite amazing. The contrast between warm and cool colors really brings the shapes of the leaves out along with all the mysterious details in them. I also love the energy this painting brings! Now when I look at it, I feel more uplifted despite the depressing moments of my least favorite season.
My Kawaii Quarter 