Choosing Colors for a Design...Friday, August 8, 2014

I recently joined the Puddles of Paint Club…Click  HERE to go to Susan's site.

Susan Kelly sent us a line drawing and asked us to put OUR TWIST to it…WELL, I didn’t twist TOO much, but I did decide to use Scrapbook Paper as my background since I had a piece with lily pads on it!

I really do like Frogs…I painted them long ago and stopped because THAT wasn’t what I had time to paint, BUT in the past few years, I started painting them again…SO this line drawing had me HOPPING to paint it…

After I chose my back ground, I had to choose the colors that I wanted to use…WELL, the frog was going to be GREEN, but I had to find a green that would stand out, so I chose Sour Apple.  WHEN I chose the MAIN color, I had to get a color that I could use to SHADE and to Highlight…I decided to go to the DecoArt’s website to find the colors that they suggested that I could use…Click  HERE  to visit this HELPFUL site…You will want to bookmark this link for future reference.

I went through this process several more times as I decided WHICH colors that I wanted to use…OFTEN we choose the colors we want to paint with BEFORE we decide on a background, but since I had my background chosen, I was working somewhat backwards...

 I have been working on painting backgrounds the past few months.  I painted SHAPES for so long that I never had to put any thought into a background  AND I also thought that IF I painted a design well, then the background would NOT matter…WRONG!!

Choosing a background is the same process as choosing a wall color or a piece of furniture…I think of the background as the PILLOWS on the couch…the Couch is often what we spend the most time with, BUT it is the PILLOWS that give it that POP when we add different textures, colors, shapes and designs…

I think it is important to carry the colors of your design ONTO the background so that your eye will be drawn into the painting.  Since I had my background, I decided that the mushrooms in my painting needed to coordinate with the flowers, SO I chose a Raspberry color for the BIG CENTRAL mushroom…The other colors were chosen in the same intensity, or hue, as the Raspberry…Once I had chosen my colors, then it was on to painting…

Charcoal says: REAL BOY DOGS chew PINK (French Mauve) Paint Bottles!!  LOL

I painted the edge of my wooden piece with Avocado, which was a main color in the paper.  I used Decou-Page to glue the paper to my wood…I didn’t worry about cutting the paper to fit exactly because once it was dry, I used a piece of sandpaper to trim the paper to fit~~just sand along the edge...you might need to reapply your paint on the wood, OR leave as is for a worn look...when this happens, I often antique it.

I coated the paper with  Satin Decou-Page again…NOW this is where I am not certain that I did the right thing…MAYBE I should have painted directly on the paper, but I didn’t…it MIGHT not have taken as many coats of paint to get a smooth coverage…I will be experimenting with this.

I added several coats of white paint to the design to cover the design from the paper…THEN I started building the colors…

I based everything…

Then I added the details…

AND more details…

I will be adding two coats of the Satin Decou-Page to seal the design and I THINK I will be sending this plaque down the road to a friend who ALSO loves frogs…It will need to HOP in the mail SOON…

I hope that you will take some designs and be unafraid to make the colors YOUR own…We as designers do what WE LIKE…we are just instruments to spark YOUR creativity…

Enjoy…Blessings to YOU…~charlotte♥ 

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