Sunday 25 November 2012

Rainbow Trout

Over the last week or so I have been playing with a negative space technique and have used it on this piece.  What it means is that I didn't paint the fish, I painted the space between the fish.  If that makes any sense.
The fish I didn't paint!

This is an A5 piece painted on high quality card stock.  I covered the entire substrate with various colours of translucent Golden Fluid paints.  I chose bright colours and, because the paints are translucent, they show the colour underneath when you paint over them.  (let them dry before you paint over)
As you can see below, it was really an exercise in covering the paper without creating muddy colours


Once it was dry I used a French handwriting stamp across the whole of the page in Archival French Ultramarine blue.  Using a pencil to draw the outline of the fish, I then outlined again in white paint before applying lots of Gesso to fill in the space between the fish.  I built up lots of texture but it's hard to see from the photo's.  In real life the white seems to have the texture of water swirling around the fish.

I then outlined the fish with a black permanent marker and applied some white dots using the end of my paintbrush.  

Most of my art is bound into books, but I really like this one so I framed it for a while. 
Credit to Andy Skinner for a video that got me playing with this technique.

21 comments:

  1. Wonderful. Your creation has a fantastic effect with the great frame!

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  2. This is so creative and colorful, breathtaking in fact. I love everything about it, especially being able to read the journey it took you on.

    (It's a small world. I live in Perth, Western Australia too!)

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  3. Hooooo, this is wonderful!
    I love them all very much, and, alltogether, it's a real great artpiece!
    Joyful, colorful and beautiful Liz! Bravo!! :)

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  4. Wonderful painting, well done

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  5. How wonderfully creative you are Liz...what an awesome picture!

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  6. What an interesting concept, and what great result! I can't blame you for wanting to frame it and enjoy it for a while! Beautiful work.

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  7. That certainly is an interesting technique! You've done it beautifully.

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  8. Wow, this is so cool! Thanks for showing us the process, it turned out so very well!!

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  9. gorgeous technique, it looks fabulous!

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  10. Excellent travail!
    une déco aux couleurs très gaies!
    Bravo ! bravo !
    Amicalement mary.KG

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  11. what a great technique, its looks absolutely fabulous!

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  12. What an interesting technique, Liz! Very cool. It looks wonderful framed!xx

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  13. Wow! That's a fascinating technique and makes for really colourful fish! xx

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  14. I love the concept and the process and the end result is a complete winner.

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  15. I agree, I really like this one, too. I'd never have guessed so much had
    gone into this creation. Beautifully done.

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  16. This looks so beautiful in the white frame.

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  17. Your wonderful colorful fish looks great in a frame, really creatively made.
    Anni

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  18. Thank you for the inspiration! I have a journal page that is just waiting for me to do this to it. TFS!!

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  19. Very interesting how you prepared the paper for the fish, they look really good in the white box frame.

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  20. Ooh this is a cool technique and your colourful fish look fab :-)

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Thanks for taking the time to leave me a comment, I really appreciate it - Liz