Twists and Turns of a Painting

I hate to waste paint! For many years I wiped my brush onto an old telephone book. This would later be used for collage paper. I then switched to using deli paper and made a whole lot more collage paper. Turns out I made enough to last a lifetime! So I started to wipe my paint on Strathmore Mixed Media Paper in a large size - 18x24”. I continue to add paint to it during and at the end of my session to use up what is on my palette. These papers make great starts to paintings. The palette can also be surprising! It is nice to have several of these at the ready for when you feel like getting started. They may morph into a landscape, I may juxtapose a figure on them or simply do an abstract. Today I did an abstract and I am going to share the twists and turns it went through to get to the finish line.

Messy Underpainting

All started by cleaning my brush while painting. Here you also see some graphite lines I added to define some shapes.

Calming things down

I started to apply some neutral shapes around the edges. You might have noticed I also flipped the painting upside down!

A little help from technology

I took it into the you doodle app and made some changes.

The final painting

Here you see I use the Youdoodle changes but also follow my intution.

Tell me what you think in the comments below.