SUNFLOWER PAINTING READY FOR APPROVAL

Here is the finished painting 12 x 24 on a narrow gallery canvas. I thought it might be nice to see the collaged canvas and then the finished piece next to each other. I threw in a detail photograph, as well.

I drew the image on the canvas with red acrylic ink and a bamboo pen after the collage material had dried. I then started painting with fluid acrylics. I wasn't too worried about making a mistake with the ink because I knew I could paint over any lines or shapes I didn't like. In the past, I have drawn the image on with vine charcoal. I could erase it with a soft cloth and redraw as much as I needed to until I was satisfied. Then I would spray it with Acrylic varnish to set it. After that I just paint on top of the charcoal image. With flowers, I didn't think it was so important to have that kind of accuracy and I wanted part of the ink line to show in the final painting. I use acrylic tube white because I wanted more opacity. I needed to make some changes in parts I had already painted but I didn't want to cover up more of the collage so I decided to collage some pieces on top of the painting. I had not thought to do this before but I really liked the effect. I can work back and forth and have a nice mixture of texture and painted image. The painting is a bit darker overall than I originally designed but I like how it turned out.

Now I am waiting for the person who commissioned this painting to approve the final outcome. I will then put one or two coats of clear acrylic over it as a protection. I love that acrylic dries quickly. I usually mix gloss and matt together. I used a matt varnish on two huge paintings I had done for my son and parts turned milky white. I was horrified and panicky that I had ruined it. I called a Golden rep in the area where my son lives ( I was varnishing it there) and she helped told me what to do to get it off. Fortunately, everything turned out well. I swore I would never "varnish" anything again. Anyway, she said what makes matt acrylic dull is that they add WHITE! Aha! That was what was looking milky. Now I don't do anything pure matt because of that incident.

I have this orange "Citri-solv" concentrated cleaner. It will clean brushes that still have some acrylic dried in the bristles. I needed to remove a dried drip of acrylic paint on my painting, so I put some of the Citri-solv on a tissue and rubbed and the acrylic dissolved! What are the possibilities here? Looks like some experimenting is called for. Can't wait to see what I can do with this idea.

Tomorrow is the slide show so be sure and send me what you have done this week so I can include it. Lots of interesting color combinations to share with everybody.