Let's talk about backgrounds...

Well, let's talk about my backgrounds specifically... and about how garishly bright they are, and how you can make them that way too...

Eileen (from over at The Artful Crafter) posted some of the pages she's been working on. She's loving some of the pages, and some... not so much. She asks in her post, "Can anyone tell me why my colors are so pastel? What kind of paint do I need to buy/use to get brilliant pure hues like June achieves?" Well, Eileen, I'm here to answer that for you. And I'm gonna do it by showing you a page from start to finish.

Because Eileen was somewhat disappointed in her yellow page I thought I'd do a yellow page. Now, let me say, yellow is not my favorite color. Don't get me wrong, it's sunny, and bright, and cheerful... and I like the brilliant yellows, just not so much the wimpy ones. I'm very likely to be not quite so excited by it, so... while yellow may be my base, it isn't likely to be the color of the page when finished. To begin... white watercolour paper... cold press, 90 lbs. The paints that I'm using first are shown up there... notice they are pretty basic acrylic paints... Apple Barrel, Folk Art and one Ceramcoat. I think I spend about 99 cents a bottle for them.

No prep work is done to the paper for this... no gesso, no sealant, I simply put a few blobs of the paint on the paper and started. Let me add here that the paint is pretty thick when I open it, and I tend to like my paint (for this project) about the consistency of pancake batter, so I add a bit of water to thin it. Then, using the Formica chip, I simply spread the paint all around the page. Notice, I don't worry about making sure it is ALL over the page, it's just sort of smudged around. The thing about using the Formica chip is that it takes that itty bit of paint and spreads it in a very thin layer over the page. You do have to use some pressure to accomplish this. And, you really want to be sort of random with all of this. The strokes of the chip drag the paint in all directions, and because of this the paint deposits in heavier layers in some areas rather than others.



Not giving this any time to actually dry between layers (although, the layers of paint are sooo thin they don't take long to dry), I add a few drops of a light orange and a medium orange. Using the same Formica chip that still has the yellow paint on it, I scrape this paint all over the page. This time I even took care to make sure most of the edges are painted.



Taking a second here to actually look at this, you can see where the yellow that is at the base of this whole thing comes through that orange. It actually brightens it through the second layer. You can also see where the orange has deposited heavier in some areas, thinner in others, AND you can see the streaks that are caused by the paint sneaking out from the edges of the Formica chip. Keep in mind, this is a 9" x 12" sheet of paper, and the amount of paint used so far is actually pretty minimal. If you were covering this using a brush you'd have used more paint and have a much more opaque layering. Dragging the paint across the paper with that Formica chip makes the layers very, VERY thin... which is probably why this works the way it does.

Next I add two drops (literally) of magenta or very hot pink. (My preference is the hot pink). Using the very same chip that still has the deposits of the orange paint I drag that all over the paper. (Many thanks to Kate for jumping in here to take the pic for me.) See how thin a layer it makes? The magenta/hot pink tends to enhance the bright orange of the orange layer, and really only looks pink where the thicker layers of pink deposits. That may be one of the reasons it all looks so bright. I know I am harping on this thin layer stuff, but I am convinced that it's important. These colors have all been very warm colors, and now, I want to add some cool colors. Mostly just because I like to stick things that shouldn't actually be together together. Between these layers I actually do give it a few minutes to dry.

Everything up to this point was covered with no particular strategic plan... but when I add a totally different color to a mix, I want to devote a moment of thought (ok, realistically, a few seconds) to where I want that splotch of color to be. It will stand out from the rest, and possibly muddy the waters a bit, so I tend to go along one edge vs from the center. First I added just a tiny smidge of the medium tone of aqua to the mix. After dragging that across a bit of the page I decided it wasn't so bad, so added three more drops. Look at the area where I've dragged the aqua across the oranges and pinks... you can still see some of the yellow shining through from the first layer up in the corner, the oranges definitely show through the aqua, and you even see some of the hot pink color... which seems enhanced by it.

Liked the aqua, but wanted it to be brightened up even a bit more, so I added a layer of lime green. (Do you notice here that the colors I use are not timid colors?)

Having meant to do a yellow page, I thought I might add a bit more of it to bring it back into the mix. I added yet one more layer of yellow paint over the entire page. It added a "spark" of yellow, but the oranges and other colors definitely shone through. (Check out the bit of the paper showing in the photo below.)


Never one to be satisfied unless I've pushed the limits, I opted to add a dark teal to the mix as well. Technically, I added Folk Art Azure Blue. It is MUCH darker than any of the other colors used so far, and the plan was to basically use it on the same side as the other blues and greens. I find I tend to "group" my colors like that, even when I am using such different colors, cools with cool, warms with warm. No particular reason, other than I guess that's my personal preference.

One drop of the dark teal, and a few firm swipes of the Formica chip and I have this along the edge and extending toward the middle. I very much like how the chip draws out those edges of color.

So, here we have a very bright, very colorful background, executed with very basic acrylic paints. But, take note that all of those paints were pretty brightly hued on their own... which probably contributes greatly. IF your personal preference are colors that are not as saturated, you won't get this sort of a page... unless, of course, you step yourself out of that comfort zone and stretch a bit...

Seven layers of paint were built. I began with a (1) bright yellow, added (2) two shades of orange, both light and medium, then a dash of (3) hot pink or magenta... a (4) medium shade of aqua was added, then a (5) lime green... (6) another layer of yellow, and then a (7) darker teal to top it all off. And that just gets the background paint on it... there are likely to be more layers when I actually begin working with the paper... which is what I'll be doing next... as well as showing you some paint and layers using some of the envelopes and junk mail I have.