Great how that way you wiped off a painting which failed you has turned itself into an advanced technique! It's no different - you've performed it perfectly when you wanted to start all over again on that canvas.
What is different in advanced painting is that other advanced techniques are under the work, so what you get is not just wiped-off paint, but a whole new range of effects. Instead of having to start again, you're now reinvigorated about what you have created with that painting, and then again you may just leave it right there, finished to the final touch!
The Wiping Off technique is effective because of the work under it, and because of the paint you remove. Is it a glaze? Is it the Creative Knife you wipe off? These sorts of combinations give you incredible control over where you want your painting to go, and what effect you want to have arrive.
Sometimes, it's done because it's just straight-out fun. Sometimes it's done because you want to refine some rawness, or to lessen the amount of paint on the surface while keeping a creative effect. Or because you want to instil movement, or an effect of light. Maybe you do it because your advanced painting can go anywhere, and you want to discover something new.
Creative Rag Technique #10
The rag is not just for wiping things off - it's also extremely creative. The rag can apply paint, and it can do it in various ways. Much of the variance is due to the amount of medium mixed into the paint you apply, and of course to the color of the paint, and the amount of paint itself.
It's easy to do, and if you can see the results today in your work. Use your Number Two Medium, mix up several puddles of paint on your palette - keep the paint very runny and as see-through as possible for this exercise - then scrumple up a clean rag, and have a go!
Did it work? It more than likely did, yet the technique does require some knowledge. Firstly, did you dab a flat surface or rag into your paint mix? It's that scrumpled varigated surface which makes the effect. And did you pick up several colors to apply - that's often important too (depending on what you want to achieve), because that one stroke of scrumpled rag dipped in several colors will create an effect like nothing else.
Try it first with colours that suit a particular area of your painting. And if you want to be a bit daring, flap the moistened rag around a bit.
We may be starting to lose you with that latter application - flapping the rag as an application works best at certain stages of the painting's progress, and - as always - it's best when the Creative Rag technique is combined with other techniques.
It can finish off a painting, and it makes a wonderfully different foundation, too. Want to loosen up? Then this might be just the thing!
Liner Stroke Technique #11
Commonly taught, and an obvious stroke in many art books and schools. However, it's not the stroke which is important to learn - it's how you prepare the paint on the palette, and how you pick it up.
The Liner Stroke is clearly a refining technique, and is used to create lines or points of focus. It doesn't create detail - that's all been created with your advanced techniques before. You'd be there forever if you wanted to create detail with a small brush, and that 'detail' always tells of amateurish work. That's why we only use the Liner Stroke once detail has been naturally created, and why it's so effective when it's used at the time of purpose in the process.
These lines or points of focus are places the artist chooses to first engage the viewer's eye, then, having connected with the painting, the viewer slowly comes to experience all that magic captured by preceeding techniques. Talk about control over the process! As an artist you can make that viewing process happen any way you want.
How to prepare the paint and how to pick it up? It's simple, really. Use the knife to create a small ridge of paint on the palette. Then carefully lie the long hairs of your Liner brush against that ridge, and wipe gently through the ridge, drawing the brush at an angle through it. You can see it better in the DVD of course, but you'll get it with a little practice.
Now then, if you're really dedicated to Fine Art painting, you'll practice making the Liner Stroke so that your brush doesn't touch the painted surface. That way, you transfer - with care and control - the ridge onto the painting. Ah...you'll love the difference of that.
Scribble Stroke Technique #12
Once you do this stroke you'll see why it's been called this weird name. That's the sound you'll hear when making the technique. It's a very unusual thing to do, and once you do it you'll see also that every empowering technique you use can be refined right at the end of a painting such that all that mad wonderful powerful creativity can be subdued into something just as awesome in its subtlety.
You can completely alter the energy, effect, color and viewer connection to your work by this technique - and that's an amazing power to have right at the end of a painting.
The technique is performed with the specially-made correct mix, picked up from the palette along the length of your bristle brush, and applied with the brush flat against the canvas. Get the mix wrong, and you'll ruin your painting - get it right, and you'll have power and control in gentle abundance at your fingertips.
This technique can result in drastic or subtle change when and how you need. It can turn a work from raw and crude to finished in milliseconds - giving you ultimate power and control over when and how you finish your advanced Fine Art paintings.
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Telephone help service - Creativity Counselling with Robert Bosler - one-to-one personal telephone help with your creative requirements if you are experiencing exceptional difficulty. Bookings here Please note: if you are seeking assistance with your art, on-canvas or in your career, the DVDs provided at art-techniques.com have been designed to give you that success.
