Negative Painting and Ear Kisses

Outside this time, sitting near our picnic table, looking at a pot of pinks on the patio and some backlit orange lilies. On the table, a sudden plop, and who is there but our athletic dog, Smudge. A few licks on the ear, a number of turns on her cushion, and she is sprawled out in her favorite spot. She loves to jump up onto the table, in part to get away from her sister, Inky, and because she likes to get up on stuff. She used to climb a tree in our backyard . . .

But, I digress. This time I decided to work from real life. It’s gloomy and overcast here in California, typical for this time of year along the coast. Even inland, we still enjoy (or not) the May Grey and June Gloom. Perfect for being outdoors – comfortable. And good for plein air.

First up, pinks or dianthus, members of the carnation family. I worked on these with two goals – large washes of color to become defined in shape by negative painting. I did the drawing with a Micron .oo5 pen, a waterproof pen with a delicate tip and good, dark ink.

While that dried, I started the next painting on the opposite page in the sketchbook. Here I used much the same approach – drawing in waterproof black ink (this time using one with a thicker point) and then working on colors and shapes, and giving more shape to leaves and flowers with negative painting.

Both of these are painted on 100% cotton paper and I am much happier with the results. The paintings are a bit fiddly, but it is also the result of trying to capture the flowers and leaves in light and shadow, painting from lighter masses to more detail, trying to indicate stems, leaves, and individual flowers to some degree which is identifiable but not like a photograph.

Today’s adventure was more to my liking than yesterday’s with the not very pretty pale waterproof ink. I feel a bit more successful about the end results. And I certainly am a lot happier with the paper.