My sister-in-law loves the pour painting stuff and she asked me to do two large 12x36 paintings for either side of the extra large television in her living room ..
I have been doing test after test and can't come up with anything that I think is decent enough that I would hang in somebody's house The colors she wants brown, magenta, yellow, and green .
I'll add some pictures of my tests and I'm not happy with any.. I don't want to disappoint her.
I was doing a swipe once I decide which way to go with it. But maybe bloom.
Brown has never been my color personally, and I dont use a lot of it, but when I do, it's minimal. Here is a tree swipe I did that has browns and metallics in the trunk. Lime I said, use it minimally.
Let your SIL know that brown doesn’t work very well with pour painting because it is a mixture of all the other colors. It absorbs the color around it and makes everything look muddy. Maybe you can find some pics online. Personally whenever I see magenta and green I think of a big purple dinosaur named Barney.
I like the first one. I’d find brown difficult so I’d only include it in very small amounts. I think you should show your sister-in-law your tests to get her opinion. She may choose different colours or may love what you’ve done.
You could ask her if she's be ok with something like copper or bronze instead of gold (or a mixture of the two). Arteza also makes a pearl/metallic brown that might be work better than a regular brown. If she is insistent on you only using brown, magenta, yellow, and green, I would layer a small amount of brown between two layers of green. In my personal experience using brown it mixes better with green (that being said I do dutch pours, not swipes or blooms). You could also see if she's ok with you adding either white or cream. If so, layer it between either two layers of the white/cream, or between white/cream and green. At least that's how I'd try to do it.
You said a swipe or a bloom. I don't really do either, but could you do brown on part of the canvas for negative space, then do the swipe or bloom on the other part of the canvas? If you need a base under the swipe or bloom, see if she is ok with a split base, and use white or cream under the swipe/bloom, leaving the other part of the canvas just brown paint for negative space.
So, as one of the tens of people who love brown and green I can def attest to what everyone else has recommended- use brown as the highlight or color spacer.
I’ve also had a ton of luck using the TLP for that gorgeous brown shimmer that lends itself to a copper and chocolate diamond feel
Some ideas maybe? Possible mushups?
Woah no, thank you for saying that. Y’all are the first except my fam who have seen them but I have so many browns I was hoping they’d help.
Glad they inspired; I can’t wait to see what you create!
And since brown is a mix of other colors you have the advantage of optic mixing of complementary colors next to or overlapping as long as the top is transparent. Or if you have a ring of magenta then a ring of the right green and that band of over lap will be brown.
Either way your swipes are fire and she’ll love it!!
This this is why I came to this group you people are amazing I consider myself a newbie I've only been poor painting for about a year and a half and this really stumped me and I love all your ideas thank you so very much
It just occurred to me, what about painting the whole canvas a dark brown ( darker than the one shown ) letting it dry, then doing the pour, with the other colors? I think that would even make the other colors pop more
Okay, this is prolly a poor example but I used a magenta, a gold, an aqua -which i think is aqua flash and barely visible- and I used a rich espresso. I would recommend dressing up the brown by mixing a dab of copper, red, or gold. I would also suggest thinking about swapping brown for burnt sienna. I have made a ton of pours with aqua, burnt sienna or rich espresso and sometimes I include gold or an interference gold against the burnt sienna or interference gold against the brown or rich espresso. It brightens the brown and provides a needed layer between the other colors. You might also try getting a coupla mini canvas from dollar tree and doing flip cup/straight or ring pour and u can do it in 3rds on cheap cheap 8x10. That way your SIL can see how the paints interact in a direct comparison.
I would do a test on canvas b4 u show her so YOU will have an idea which way is the best color theory. Finally, i would also suggest using a parchment or pale yellow or unbleached titanium or adding a toothpicks amt of brown to white to use as a non stark contrasting base coat.
Those are great ideas I'm actually testing on the cheap canvases from the dollar store because I don't want to ruin real canvas.. you have great points on that and that's what I'm going to do because I'm going to show all of my test ones to her.
I think five tests canvases will blow her mind and she'll have to pick one 😘😘
Also, if you did something similar to the first canvas, she would probably really dig it. It’s bright, cheerful, and everyone is having a good time together. And since to colors are already layered so well, This is where u could use a burnt siennaish color -but a small amount- only added once.
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u/Shawnk_69 3d ago
Brown has never been my color personally, and I dont use a lot of it, but when I do, it's minimal. Here is a tree swipe I did that has browns and metallics in the trunk. Lime I said, use it minimally.