So I found this artist on Etsy named Julie Fillo, if you click on her name you will see the image that inspired me. I really loved her painting, and I didn't know if it was the flowers or the birds, colors or the style, but I knew I wanted something in my house with more muted soft colors so I thought I would make a painting.
So when I looked at the painting again, after a failed attempt to make something 'pretty' I realized what made the painting different. Everything in it was outlined with a red color and she didn't go in and outline it. I realized she most likely painted the whole painting a solid color and then went in and laid down her flowers/birds, THEN she went back in with a new background color, carefully going around all the flowers and birds and letting the red peep through around the edges.
I tried it and it worked! At first I kinda hated the above bird, image, but after adding the nice pastel green, the outline really made the simple painting pop.
The above images should give you a little more of an idea of what I did, if my written description didn't. I actually loved this painting with the navy blue background, so I took a lot of pictures in case I botched it up. Still, I think I love it even more with two colors (although I'm sure my Mom prefers the all blue). Part of the reason I was hesitant with this second one was that the original painting took so much longer! Where the first painting took about 3 hours total, this one took closer to 10 total.
If you were to try this yourself you need to remember that you are not painting the lines, you are painting a little in reverse. This actually often makes for cleaner lines and thinner. I still messed up a number of times, accidentally painting over my dark lines with white/light blue (or even the salmon later), but I kept some navy close at hand so that I could quickly with my smallest brush go back over any mistake.
I definitely felt more at ease with the second one and more free to experiment more with this technique. Although it is extremely time consuming I think the effect is beautiful! It's also rather fun to paint in reverse and a bit challenging to the normal process of thinking when painting.
Both paintings are 11x14 inches, painted with acrylics on canvas board.
