Do a Restart

Imagine this: You are in the middle of creating a painting and you love, love, love the background or a particular portion of it. You don’t know whether to stop or continue painting. We say before going any further, scan, copy or photograph your work so you can use it later in another piece. Then you can finish the painting and have two pieces (or more!) for the effort of one.

TECHNIQUE ONE: Just a Little

Whether the colors in an area of the background, the looseness of the strokes or a portion of a pulled paper transfer—if you love it, scan, copy or photograph it for future use. This way you can enlarge it and change the colors, too!

This photo above shows a fabulous underpainting texture. It is an alcohol resist done with two different colors. The image was scanned and slightly enlarged. It was then used as a gel transfer onto a canvas. Paint, crackle medium and collage were added to finish the new painting (below).

LIGHTER THAN AIR

Sandra Duran Wilson

TECHNIQUE TWO: I Want It All

A friend was just starting a quintet painting and her strokes and colors were yummy and loose. We knew she would get tighter and cover up much of that looseness so we convinced her to take a photo of the whole piece to give her a starting point for a future painting.

Here are a few examples of backgrounds that have been scanned and saved. They can then be finished, cut up, transferred or otherwise morphed into new paintings. Once scanned, the backgrounds may be reused and finished differently multiple times.

A small sample is saved and enlarged.

An assortment of ghost transparencies can be rearranged.

A loose background of drips and runs is preserved.

Textures, layers and color combinations are preserved.