Today I want to show you a quick easy background that I used on this elephant
painting that I painted this week. If you're like me you dread painting
backgrounds in watercolour. It can be scary to paint the background on a
watercolor painting and I admit I hate doing it. I've avoided doing it for years.
I've always preferred the contemporary look of a plain white background and I
do still love that simple unadorned look but more and more lately as my work is
evolving I'm starting to paint my backgrounds. I want to start to be more
expressive with my work. I don't want to fear painting backgrounds any more.
So today we can banish the fear because I've got a simple background technique
that I want to share with you. You might have already seen some artists
demonstrate the use of plastic wrap with their watercolor paintings. It's simple
to do and it's effective but I don't think it would suit every painting. I
would use it say on an underwater scene where I could do the water with it but I
don't think I would use it on one of my flower paintings. I'd use it on my bird
paintings and definitely on my animal paintings which is why I thought it
would be perfect for this elephant. So I'm going to quickly demonstrate how to
do it on a piece of scrap paper first and then I'll show you how I painted the
background on this elephant. This is a piece of Arches rough paper that I'm using.
I've got the Grey that I used on the elephant. I'm painting it onto the
dry paper here and then while this paint is wet I'll get some of the plastic
cling wrap and I'll place it over the top of it.
I place it over flat and then I use my fingers to push it around and create
shapes in the plastic. The color I've mixed up here is a mix of French
ultramarine and burnt sienna. When I've got it sitting the way I want with
the shapes forming the way I want them I need to let it sit and dry. Here it is.
Tt's dried and that's what I'm left with. You can see those beautiful geometric
shapes that the plastic wrap has left. I'll show you a little trick at the end of
the video that you can do with those little geometric shapes if you want to
draw attention to the focal point of your painting. ok
coluors for backgrounds. To be safe I often use some of the colors that I've
used on the subject of the painting and that will keep everything harmonious and
I don't have to think too hard. Sometimes I might use a complementary color like I
have here on this little yellow Robin but most often I repeat the colors that
I've already used which I did for this painting. Now I want to give you a closer
look at the background on the elephant but before I do I want to thank
Skillshare for sponsoring this video. As I've told you before I've been working
with Skillshare for a few years now and I have 11 watercolor classes published
with them and before too long I'm going to start working on my 12th class. I've
put links to all my classes in the description of this video.
Skillshare is an online learning platform where you can choose from
thousands of inspiring classes on lots of different topics not just painting
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workshops. An annual subscription is less than $10 a month. At the moment
I'm watching this class by floral design duo Derek and Michael Putnam - it's called
'Modern flowers arranging a stunning centerpiece'. If I wasn't an artist I'd be
a florist. I love flowers and I love flower arranging. I don't know much about
it but I'm learning. It's so inspiring watching what they can do. So if you're
at home and you're wondering what to do with yourself go and have a look at
Skillshar. I've put a link at the top of the description of this video.
The first 500 subscribers to click the link will get a 2 month free trial of
premium membership so you can explore your creativity. Alrightt let's have a
look at this elephant painting now. This is a piece of Fabriano Artistico
cold press watercolor paper I'm going to paint a very light layer of water all
over the top over the top of the elephant as well as the background. I
want to work on the damp paper so that I've got a bit more time. I'm not
wetting it really well I'm just giving it a light coverage of water. Before I
put the paint on I want to show you the reference photo that I took. At the top
of the head you can see that it's a warm sand color and that color runs down the
front of the head and then it starts to turn gray as you move your way down
the trunk. So when I put the paint on I'm going to carry those colors off onto the
background as well. This colour that I've got here is brown ochre. I paint it
onto the elephant but also onto the background as well.
I just picked a bit more paint up because I thought it was a bit pale
there. I'm taking the brown ochre down as far as I see it on the reference
photo and then I'm going to switch to gray. I'm just taking a bit of paint off
the eye there and off the areas where it's lighter on the elephant. Now I'm
just wetting it a bit more because it's starting to dry. I've just put a bit
more moisture there and now I've got the gray. This is a mix of French
ultramarine and burnt sienna. I've mixed the two colours together to create this
cool blue gray color.
It's going over the elephant as well as the background I'm not going to go
too dark with the background because I want the elephant to be fairly dark so I
don't really want a dark background as well as a dark subject so I'll keep
the background a bit lighter. I'm putting a bit more water on again
because it's starting to dry and now I've got the gray paint again. I use a
good-sized flat brush so that I can get the paint on fairly quickly. This is a
DaVinci flat brush. It's about four centimetres wide or two inches or so.
I've just looked at my reference photo and I can see that area of the trunk
there is a bit lighter so I'll just take a bit of paint off there. Ok so now I'm
ready for the plastic wrap. I'll do it in two pieces because one piece won't be
big enough. I'll do the top section first. I lay the plastic wrap on there
and then I start to move it around with my fingers and that creates all those
lovely shapes on the background. The more I move it the more shapes I get.
You can play around with it a little while while the paint's still wet to get it
the way you think you want it
and then I'll get another piece for this bottom section. I'll get another piece
for down here and I do the same thing. I put it down and then I start to use my
fingers to move the plastic around. I'm not concerned with the elephant itself
because that will get covered over with more paint. It's the background that I'm
putting all my attention on. I'm pushing my fingers up towards the eye because
that's the focal point of the painting. I guess I'm using my fingers to push
the plastic towards the eyes if it's pointing towards. This has to dry
completely before I take the plastic off. I'm going to let it sit overnight and
I'll come back to it tomorrow to see what it looks like. OK it's the next
day. It's dry so I can peel it off and reveal the background and I'm really
happy with that. I think that looks lovely. It has soft colors - not too hard. I
don't think it will detract too much from the elephant and I think it'll just
create some lovely textural effect on the background there. So I'm really happy
with that. So now I can start to paint the elephant. I'm going to mix up
some more of my grey which is French ultramarine and burnt sienna mixed
together and that's what I'll use on the elephant. I use this on the background
and it will also be the colour of the elephant. When I paint the elephant I'll
cover over those textural parts of the background that have crept onto the body.
If my paint doesn't completely cover those shapes on the body I'm not worried
about it at all. I think it will add interest to the painting anyway.
Up here I use the brown Ochre - painting straight over the background that is
crept onto their elephant there.
Then I work my way down the trunk and I can still see those geometric shapes
through this wash but that's okay. I'm not worried about that at all.
I knew I'd go quite dark in places with the elephant so that's why I kept the
background fairly light in color. I'm more than happy with the one who this
painting has turned out I'm going to use this technique more often. I think it's
going to look fabulous on a new giraffe painting that I've got planned. I said
earlier that I'd show you something you can do to enhance those little geometric
shapes that the plastic makes. Have a look at this. Back to this little
piece that I painted earlier to practice on. I'm using this same colour that I use
to wash the background in and I'm painting it carefully onto one of those
shapes. My paper is dry. Then I choose another shape nearby and I do the same
thing. I put the paint on following the shape that's there and then I wash the
paint out of my brush and I use my damp brush to soften the paint egde so you
can't see where that painting stops and starts. I've got a video where I
demonstrate how I softened painted edges. So watch that if you're not sure how to
do it. Now I wouldn't do this all over the background but I thought that it
might be a good way to draw attention to the focal point of the painting if I
needed to. So I choose the shapes that were right near my focal point and then
I'd add some paint on them like this to darken them so that would then add some
contrast near the focal point of the painting. So you can see how that defines
a certain area on the painting and makes them stand out from the other ones.
This would be a good exercise to practice softening paint edges if you
needed practice doing that. So that's one way to add some interest to your
backgrounds. It's not difficult so give it a try and have some fun while
you do it. I hope this video was helpful. Thanks for
watching. Don't forget to hit the like button and be sure to subscribe because
I've got plenty more hints and tips and I want to share with you. today we're
going to banish the fear because I've got a simple background technique to
show with you but a simple background tape to show you I use it on lots of my
paintings and definitely some of my animal animal paintings I've told you
before I've been working with school share for a few years now and I've got
eleven watercolor published I've got eleven water color published eleven
watercolor publishers I'll show you a little trick at the end of the video
that you can do with those geometric shapes that the plastic make something
here at the moment I'm watching this class by floral design zero at the
moment I'm watching this class by floral design zero zero why can't I say zero
zero zero zero floral design duo try again the first 500 subscribers to click
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