This technique is my way to stay loose, wet and take advantage of accidental drips. I call these my "Drip Trees..."
Starting with a canvas or watercolor paper, gesso the surface and let dry. Next, wipe on a warm tone color all over the entire surface. Let dry.
Now comes the
fun part. Using fluid acrylic paint, start with a light color and pour, drip or brush the fluid paint near the top of the surface. While still very wet, lift the surface and allow the paint to drip and run down. This effect will begin to look like tree tops with tree trunks!
Let this layer dry. And again - apply the same haphazard blobs of wet paint, but each time the color should be a little darker. I continue to layer several more colors, using darker colors each time. Visually the first (lightest) colors and drips will appear as "distant trees" where as the darker drips will appear closer. This helps to add depth to the scene.
When dried, I paint out the "tree trunks" I don't want with opaque sky color. This is known as
reductive or negative shape painting. Keep painting like this until you're satisfied with the row of trees.
Try random, non-local color each time for a creative, exciting effect. This technique keeps the painting from looking predictable and ordinary. The unexpected colorful drips are visually more interesting to me... Which reminds
me of something I heard -
The problem with ordinary paintings is that there's so much competition.
Let 'er Drip!
