Creative Problem Solving: Ripple

Welcome to my new series where I share the problems I run into while painting and how I solve them. In other words. I make the mistakes so we can learn how to fix them together! Today's topic will be my newest piece, Ripple, which was created using acrylic paint on canvas.

As artists, we often avoid starting new projects or finishing existing ones because we're scared of making mistakes. I hope by showing you the challenges I ran into and how I fixed them you'll feel encouraged to toss aside the fear of making a mistake and embrace your inner creative genius!

Problem 1) Tinting a Color Without Losing Saturation

In order to make the coral look dimensional in this painting I knew I would have to layer the paint from dark to light. However, I also wanted my coral to be brightly colored.

I found adding white paint to my color muted it too much and wasn't giving me the effect I wanted.

Enter the wonderful acrylic painting technique called glazing! To glaze you start by painting the white onto the canvas where you would like the lighter sections to be. Then, taking a thin mixture of lots of water and a little paint, you wash the color over top of the white. Just keep in mind the more water you use the more translucent your mixture will be!

Also, glazing isn't just an excellent way to retain color vibrancy, it also allows you to paint without stressing over color. You can paint in simple black and white, get your values where you want, then glaze your color on top!

Problem 2) Executing an Idea Only To Discover You Hate How it Looks!

This happens to the best of us. You come up with an idea you think will look great, but once your translate your thought onto the canvas you realize you absolutely HATE it!

I was really happy with how dimensional my smallest and largest hot air balloons looked and I wanted the medium sized balloon to look the same. So, I decided adding lines going around it would help when in reality it had the reverse effect.

One way you could avoid this problem is by testing an idea out in Photoshop to determine if you like it BEFORE hitting the canvas. However, if you're like me and you have a tendency to not think things through first, then no worries! The best way to handle this particular problem is to keep in mind anything can be covered up with a little paint!

In fact, half way through the painting I decided the pattern of the smallest hot air balloon was too simple and looked out of place. So, grabbing my trusty tube of white paint, I painted over it and produced something I was significantly happier with.

Problem 3) Re-Mixing Exact Colors

As I just mentioned, I painted some lines on my medium sized balloon that I decided absolutely had to go. But, covering up these lines required mixing the same colors I had mixed before (unless I was willing to repaint the entire thing but I REALLY didn't want to).

What really helped me re-create these colors was that I was painting with a fairly limited color palette for majority of this piece. Although this painting is super colorful, I tried my hardest to stick to one shade of each color and mix the rest as needed.

Not only is using a limited color palette extremely beneficial when trying to remix colors, it's also a great tool for learning how to improve your artwork. While learning how to paint with acrylics, using a limited color palette allows you to focus more on contrast and less on colors, while simultaneously helping you learn color theory and color mixing! I know owning all the colors can be so tempting but having less options is actually a great learning opportunity.