Painted Modern Art Canvases

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

• Triple Primed Stretched Canvas
• Graphite Transfer Paper
• Pen
• Paper and pencil
• Eraser
• Brushes: Large Wash, 1" Chip, #1 Round
• Palette
• Acrylic Paint

DIRECTIONS:

1. Ombre painting
2. With a pencil on paper, draw a rectangle similar to the shape of the canvas. Draw random, irregular rectangles inside the rectangle. Or rip strips and rectangles out of paper that will fit inside the rectangle shape. Rearrange the shapes to desired locations. Overlap some shapes and vary the distance between the shapes for positive and negative spaces. Apply color to the rectangles to determine locations of the values (the lightness or darkness of a color) and colors.
3. Transfer the desired layout on to the canvas with very light pencil lines. These may be removed after paint is dry using an eraser.
4. Fill all the rectangles with a coat of paint close to the final color value. Work one block at a time, wet on wet, to blend paint colors. Move to the adjacent block and continue.


5. Tonal Sunset
6. Layout the mountains. Draw random layers of irregular horizontal lines on a sheet of paper. Vary the space between the start and stop points along the sides of the paper. Keep the top line around 1/4" down from the top edge of the paper. This space will represent the sky. The top mountains may be rather smooth curves and the bottom mountains may have more defined angles. This will give the illusion of distance between the mountain ranges.
7. Transfer the lines on to the canvas with very light pencil lines.
8. Use a wash brush to paint.
9. Start painting at the top of the canvas.
10. Blend wet on wet colors in horizontal strokes from side to side of canvas throughout the sky area.
11. Start with the lightest value of mountain paint. Follow the top edge of the furthest mountain. Blend with slightly darker value to next mountain line.
12. Continue to work toward the bottom of the canvas painting one mountain at a time. Work wet on wet. Darken the top edge and lighten the bottom edges of each mountain section as you move down the painting. The bottom mountain may be quite dark. This will add the perception of weight to the closest mountain.


13. Botanical
14. Use transfer paper and a pencil to transfer the image to a canvas.
15. Use a #1 round brush to paint image black.
16. Keep the original pattern close while painting as a reference to the positive and negative spaces.

JOANN HACKS:

• Botanical painting images may be drawn from pressed flowers or plants. Lay thin leaves or flowers between newspaper and press between books. Arrange on a printer to make a copy for transfer.