Add Some Bling to Your Paintings!

    "Golden Summer'                    8x10              pastel            ©Karen Margulis     available $265 

This month I am exploring unusual underpaintings. One of my challenges is to take the same scene and paint it each week using a different underpainting technique. I had fun with this variation! Here is what I tried:

• I repurposed an older painting done on LuxArchival paper by brushing on some Liquitex Clear gesso. This turned the pastel into a muddy gray brown. I left the original light blue sky and used my brush to push the mud color into the shape of my mountains. 
• I liked the effect of the muddy color and the random brushstrokes but I have done this technique before and wanted to add something extra!
• I did a scan of my art supply shelves and found a bottle of gold powder by Schmincke. The powder is meant to be wet with water and brushed into watercolor paintings but I wanted to see how I could use it for my underpainting. 
• I sprinkled some of the powder on top of my still wet gessoed paper. The powder stuck to the gesso and was so shimmery and interesting!
• Everything dried and the gold powder remained secure and stayed shiny. I was ready to paint on it. 

The finished underpainting was exciting! The texture of the gesso gave me enough tooth to layer as much pastel as I wanted.  I made sure to use a light enough touch so some of the gold shimmer would show through the pastel layers. I love this effect and will be sure to try it again....perhaps in my next video demo!