I'm Positive About Negative Painting

Watercolor and gouache on YUPO paper 9x12

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln

Next week I’m excited and honored to be doing a YUPO painting demo for an art club in the area. In preparation, I painted this little abstracted garden this morning using transparent watercolors, opaque gouache and a 9x12 YUPO pad.

Here’s what I started with—basically a wet in wet abstract watercolor which I let dry overnight. So you’ve got an interesting base painting like this, then what? Could you leave this as a more abstract painting? Of course. But I like options...

Shape "hunting" with watercolor pencil on the original painting.

As an artist who paints in both oil and watermedia I can’t imagine not having negative painting as a key option and skills. So I wanted to share 5 negative painting tips that I hope will help you the next time you face a painting challenge.

1. Consider the power of your mind’s eye. We need to be skilled shape makers and finders as painters. Negative painting fine tunes these abilities. In other words, what do you see in those big blobs of paint? A figure? A tree? An octopus? Keep looking…..And enjoy the process.
2. Want to push your more non-objective abstract painting over to a more representational painting? Negative painting helps you modify what you already have like I did today. It’s also a great way to “fix” or “salvage” a so-so painting you might have in the studio.(Don't we all have a few of those??)
3. If and when you negative paint over an existing background don’t be shy. Consider a bold value contrast that will really “pop” your image. For example, try black (or near black) over a very light painting or light negative painting around darker shapes.  Along the same lines if your base painting is very high chroma try a more neutral negative painting again for contrast.
4. If you enjoy painting nature and organic subjects like I do I think negative painting often looks less forced and more natural than positive painting.  That doesn’t mean you can’t paint any branches positively but consider using more interesting negative shapes as well—such as sky holes.
5. Take your time. Don’t rush negative painting if you’re not used to it. If you need to use a non-permanent light drawing tool (i.e. pastel pencil, watercolor pencil, soluble graphite, etc.) to help you find the shapes before you commit to paint.

P.S. If you want to improve your watercolor negative painting skills check out Linda Kemp's Painting Outside the Lines. She also has some videos on Artist TV Network.

Flying High with YUPO + Birds!

"Groovy Bird" watercolor and gouache on YUPO (9x12)--collection artist

I had a fantastic Saturday yesterday thanks to all the creative artists who attended my YUPO/bird painting workshop. Thank you again to the Heritage Fine Arts Guild for inviting me to share my passion for YUPO painting -as well as birds! A perfect painting match IMHO!

Much like my YUPO painting above, the workshop artists began with an abstract background using watercolors to which we added texture (stamping, stencils, lifting, salt, etc.). Many of the artists then worked their bird painting into their abstract painting. (I plan to post a step by step demo on this technique soon.)

Artist Sue rolled black gouache around her rooster shape--Love the colors and texture!

How sweet is this colorful hummingbird??

Beatrice working on her lovely snowy cardinal.

Since YUPO is "erasable" your subject can be developed using a positive or negative approach which yields really cool and unique effects. At the end of workshop we had at least 20 great paintings to show for our hard work. I wish I could post every one but here are just a few of the inspirational paintings that took flight! Awesome work ladies!

Great example of abstract with representational component. 

Anita added colorful leaf printing (from real ones) to her vibrant rooster--which looks great on YUPO!

A lovely jay on a really high energy background.

A gorgeous owl in progress--love all the color splatter!

Beautiful cool colors in Amber's abstract and texture painting.

My sincere thanks again ladies (guys you'd enjoy YUPO too!) for sharing your creative time with me on a Saturday!! I know your paintings will help to inspire other artists (as they did me) to give YUPO a try (or another chance!) the next time you want to "play" or just re-energize!

Challenge Day 15: The Half Time Report

"YUPO Feathers" 9x12 watercolors on YUPO (collection artist)

Happy Sunday everyone--How’s your challenge painting going? Whew, today’s the half-way point. 15 days down, 15 to go…

Briefly, today’s painting is a study of feathers in YUPO. It’s a photo I took in the park this summer and have been thinking about for a while. Maybe for a larger abstract. So I thought it would be interesting to do a color study in the YUPO. (FYI, came across some helpful YUPO tips from the Beautiful Hello blog for those of you who want to "Do on it on YUPO.")

I’m not a runner but I imagine if you’re a long distance runner at the half way mark in a marathon it’s a mix of emotions. Elation that you’ve made it this far yet at the same time disheartened to that you’ve still got a long ways to go…

I was thinking today too even though it’s the weekend why is it sometimes so difficult to focus on something we actually enjoy? Is it guilt? Is it changing priorities? Is it fear of success? I love painting so it's not the desire that lacking. I think most artists I know would love to paint for hours upon hours with no life interventions...Music on, colors flying, lost in creative bliss...

But like any other creative passion, it’s finding that balance that I think is the tricky part. For example, if I start painting like crazy, I tend to need a long break at some point. Nothing wrong with that approach per se.

But I often wonder if I’d be more productive over the long run if I just maintained my creative energy inside of “sprinting” too hard and too soon.  So if an artistic life is like a marathon that you plan to run your whole life what’s the best strategy for success? Can’t say I have an answer for that right now. But I do think I’ll have a better idea at the end of the month…And thanks again everyone for cheering me on along the way. Because cheerleaders do make a difference!

Yupo Saturday

First, what is Yupo? As some of you may know, it's a 100% recyclable "tree free" synthetic paper from the commercial printing industry. I first came across Yupo at a workshop almost 10 years ago. Because Yupo more like plastic, it's very durable and super smooth.

Today, with Yupo's growing popularity as an artist "paper" you can easily purchase Yupo online at places like Cheap Joes--who even sells Yupo in a pad.

I find Yupo's to be a versatile and adventurous painting surface that works well for both detailed representational work or loose abstracts as I've done here. In this particular painting, I used Golden liquid acrylics for really bold color saturation.

In researching Yupo art, I found this demo of painting sunflowers on Yupo as well as a great looking Yupo demo video from master watermedia artist George James.

I love introducing Yupo to my watermedia students, for more information please write to me at ScarletOwl@hotmail.com.