This weekend I tried a new technique - Negative Painting which I learnt from the internet obviously. Don't think its will be some kind of black and white old type of painting. Its actually absolutely opposite. Negative Painting can be as colorful as one can imagine. The main aspect of negative painting is Imagination.
So lets talk about the technique of negative painting. In this technique I had to imagine whats my painting would look like, which places I wanted to place the object and where the dark and light shade should be put - all before even opening the sketch book. So you can understand that I had to imagine everything before painting. In this technique, we apply a layer of color in light shade of the object that we want to be on top. Then leaving the area around the object we paint another layer but in a darker shade of the color. Here we are going backwards hence the name 'Negative Painting'.
So here is the painting. Its a simple foliage of leaves. How does it look you tell me.
First of all I took a very light green color and washed the whole paper with it. One thing to keep in mind for this painting use a good quality watercolor paper because you have to paint a lot of layers. After the first wash of light green, I drew a few leaves - the ones that I wanted to be visible at the top.
Then I took a darker shade of green and applied it to the page leaving the leaves which I drew. But before applying the second layer I made sure that the first layer was completely dry. So the second layer would leave top leaves as it is and in light color.
After the second layer dried, I drew few more leaves some as if they are below the upper layer of the leaves and some here and there. Then I took another darker shade of green. To make the green darker I added little bit of blue with it. It not only gives a darker shade it also gives a variation of colors to the painting on a whole. Now I applied this darker shade around the new set of leaves and the old original set. This gives an amazing effect of depth in the painting. It will feel that lighter leaves which are above the foliage are on top of the more darker ones leaves.
Again after the layer dries, I again drew a few more set of leaves around the previously drawn leaves. This time I took a very little green and a lot of blue color to make even more darker shade of green. In this way I kept on adding layers and leaves.
So lets talk about the technique of negative painting. In this technique I had to imagine whats my painting would look like, which places I wanted to place the object and where the dark and light shade should be put - all before even opening the sketch book. So you can understand that I had to imagine everything before painting. In this technique, we apply a layer of color in light shade of the object that we want to be on top. Then leaving the area around the object we paint another layer but in a darker shade of the color. Here we are going backwards hence the name 'Negative Painting'.
First of all I took a very light green color and washed the whole paper with it. One thing to keep in mind for this painting use a good quality watercolor paper because you have to paint a lot of layers. After the first wash of light green, I drew a few leaves - the ones that I wanted to be visible at the top.
Then I took a darker shade of green and applied it to the page leaving the leaves which I drew. But before applying the second layer I made sure that the first layer was completely dry. So the second layer would leave top leaves as it is and in light color.
After the second layer dried, I drew few more leaves some as if they are below the upper layer of the leaves and some here and there. Then I took another darker shade of green. To make the green darker I added little bit of blue with it. It not only gives a darker shade it also gives a variation of colors to the painting on a whole. Now I applied this darker shade around the new set of leaves and the old original set. This gives an amazing effect of depth in the painting. It will feel that lighter leaves which are above the foliage are on top of the more darker ones leaves.
Again after the layer dries, I again drew a few more set of leaves around the previously drawn leaves. This time I took a very little green and a lot of blue color to make even more darker shade of green. In this way I kept on adding layers and leaves.
This is how the painting looked after adding the fourth layer of colors and leaves. You would be asking how many layers we need. I will say as many layers as your imagination tells you to. Keep adding leaves and darker shades.
Towards the end to make the color even more darker, I started adding black color with green and blue. On the last layer when their was only some spaces and crevices left, I applied black totally in the crevices and the spaces.
After the last layer has dried I started adding detailing to the leaves on the top. The leaves that had lighter shade from the very first layer of color. On the the top leaves I started adding the mid rib and the veins. Similarly added the veins to the lower layers of leaves but with a slightly darker shade of green to match the layers. After adding the veins and the mid rib I applied shadows where the leaves overlapped. This gave a depth as well to the painting.
Isn't the painting beautiful with lot of depth. But be patient while doing a 'Negative Painting'. Let the layers dry before applying a new layer and imagine...
So this is 'how to make a negative painting'.
Towards the end to make the color even more darker, I started adding black color with green and blue. On the last layer when their was only some spaces and crevices left, I applied black totally in the crevices and the spaces.
After the last layer has dried I started adding detailing to the leaves on the top. The leaves that had lighter shade from the very first layer of color. On the the top leaves I started adding the mid rib and the veins. Similarly added the veins to the lower layers of leaves but with a slightly darker shade of green to match the layers. After adding the veins and the mid rib I applied shadows where the leaves overlapped. This gave a depth as well to the painting.
Isn't the painting beautiful with lot of depth. But be patient while doing a 'Negative Painting'. Let the layers dry before applying a new layer and imagine...
So this is 'how to make a negative painting'.
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