Pages

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Tulips in a yellow vase

Tulips, 24 x 45 cm (n/a)

Initially I was planning to have a dark background behind the flowers. Now, however, I am afraid that I'll ruin the whole picture if I try to add any background. So, I am curious to find out how others approach similar situations. Would you do the background first or last? Are there any tricks for dealing with the areas around the small details - leaves, stems and flowers in this case? How to prevent forming of hard edges or back-runs if wetting one area at a time? I suppose the answer to all of these is "experience" :)

6 comments:

Judy said...

Wonderful painting Blaga!
I think it is easier to do a dark background first than the other way around, but I struggle with dark backgrounds too. I'm curious what other people answer to your questions.

Carol Blackburn said...

You can put masking fluid around the edges of your flowers and vase before dropping in some color for the background. Or, just leave it white. If you leave it white use a colored mat when framing to add that background color. Good luck! It's a wonderful painting.

cathyswatercolors said...

Hi, Love your painting. I like the mask idea. I have also seen people taping plastic wrap over the top of the painting and then splashing on paint. Good luck it's a beauty all ready1

Blaga said...

Judy, I'm glad you liked this painting.

Carol, thank you so much for replying to my questions. The masking method would probably be the best approach. It would let one work faster and avoid the other problems. Yet, the masking has to be applied very precisely. I decided to go with the colored mat idea - it seems like the safest option.

Cathy, the plastic would be a great idea to protect a part of the painting with a simple shape. If I were to darken the table, for example. Thank you!

Thank you all for the nice comments!

Jane said...

Dear Blaga. For sure the experience helps!! But this is a very, very beautiful painting, DON'T TOUCH THE BACKGROUND, please! It is so perfect the way it is. I sometimes do the background first, and sometimes the other way round, for me it depends a lot of the subject.

Blaga said...

Jane, I was hoping to hear your opinion, given your recent experiments with the hydrangeas background :) It's been decided, no dark background here!
Thank you for the enthusiastic approval of this painting!