New Painting Technique

Hello Friends,

The following blog entry is taken from a post I did on the Jansen Art Education forum. I decided to repeat it for anyone who does not participate in this forum but is still interested in decorative painting posts. With that being said, I would highly recommend that anyone who does not read the forum (which can be found at jansenarteducation.com under the forum link on the left side of the screen) considers doing so as it is a wonderful and informative home for decorative painters of all skill levels.

I have been working on developing a new painting technique for a while. I wanted this technique to be very casual, relatively easy for a beginning to intermediate painter and very fast.

Last summer I was at a workshop at the Jansens and we experimented with a technique that we called "mosaic' painting. I liked the technique but found that it had certain limitations which I won't go in to right now. So I have been experimenting and have come up with a technique that I call the "Global Harmony" technique. I named it this because everything is pulled in very thick global paints and the use of White paint and Faux creates a harmony throughout the entire painting. Very simply the entire technique is done wet on wet into very thick global paints. (If you are not familiar with global paints, they are Heritage MultiMedia paints that have been prepared so that Extender and Blending Medium has been substituted for the water in the paint which makes them have an extended drying time like oil paints.) Specifically I started with the background done in globals and pullted the leaves directly in the wet paint to give a soft look. The background was painted around the pattern for the elements similar to direct painting. To paint the elements I blocked in color with absolutely no definition. It is very important that the globals be fairly thick so that they create some resistance in the last step. Finally I filled a very scruffy #8 shader with a mix of Faux and various values of white. I pulled that mix directly into the thick globals creating all of the elements in this step.

It is a very fast technique. This is the first piece that I have painted with this technique and it took me about 2 hours including tray preparation. It is fun and fast. I am going to continue experimenting so that I can get a bit more value and intensity range in the painting. Now that I have done this I know where I am going. This is a work in progress but I thought I would let you all know what I have been working on. It has been a really fun day.

Sincerely,

Paul