1/27/09

Staged Zest (study), 6x6


"Staged Zest, study" 6x6" Pastel on sanded paper

Lemons! Don't they remind you of Summer? In this little piece, I wanted the color to sing by using the complementary colors of yellow and purple. I used a fun mark-making technique called "broken color" where the underpainting or underlying colors are allowed to peek through, making the eye "mix" the colors in the mind. See the table-top...it has marks of yellow, pink and blue. And I just love that bright red on the lemon skin. Makes my mouth water.

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4 Comments:

Blogger loriann signori said...

Brenda,
The complementary colors make a great vibration.Do you underpaint the full thing in complements? And with what do you underpaint? Thanks! Loriann

1/27/09, 6:29 PM  
Blogger Brenda Boylan said...

Hi Loriann,
It depends. Sometimes I will paint just one complement color entirely. For example, if a piece is going to be predominantly blue piece, then I will use it's complement orange over the whole piece. Other times I will use under paintings of all the intended compliments. For this one piece, I under painted the background yellow, the dark ceramic bowl a dark green, and the tabletop I simply used a yellow to keep it simple. I use Createx Pure Pigment paint. It is a waterbased paint often used for airbrush work. It's strong, but the real beauty of Createx is that it doesn't fill in the tooth of the sanded paper~as instructed by Kitty Wallis, my local pastelist friend.

1/28/09, 7:58 AM  
Blogger Karen said...

I love broken color! It lends such a wonderful vibrancy. The tabletop is exquisite here...it makes me keep looking and looking and looking again at all the little variations and marks. What a beautiful piece.

1/29/09, 6:31 AM  
Blogger Brenda Boylan said...

Thanks Karen for the nice words on this piece! It's much appreciated.
Smiles~

1/29/09, 8:16 AM  

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