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I decided to use acrylic paint on canvas paper. I began by covering the paper with long strokes of dark blues, purples, greens, and black. Occasionally I added white or light teal. After I blended the colors together with a flat brush, I took a piece of illustration board and pulled it over the paint, squeegee style.

I love this spontaneous style of painting. It makes me a little nervous that I won't know how to unify everything as I go, but I love allowing myself to paint how I feel:).

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Today I added more layers to my piece. I mixed a mauve-rose color and used a palate knife to move it around. I also stippled a light blue-green with a round brush to try to connect the top layer with the background. Then I used another piece of illustration board to drag certain parts in a vertical direction.

I had fun experimenting with the palate knife and using that to mark-make. I discovered how to create different effects by holding the knife on different angles.

I've found it to be challenging to unify the colors I chose. I don't like the color scheme at this point, so I'll need to add another color to bring everything together.

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I took a risk in how I was mark-making. While the paint I was layering was still wet, I made big streaks across the piece with a palate knife. It helped with movement, but it also covered up a lot of my previous colors. I like the textures the palate knife has been creating, but right now there isn't much focus. It feels random and messy.
I am proud of the textures and color combinations I have thus far, but I still need something to pull it all together and to focus. I think I'm going to add more reds and possibly yellow to create a bright focus.

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The art piece analysis that we did on Day 4 inspired me to try covering my base layer in order to develop my piece. I thinned out a deep blue-green and glazed part of my painting to try drawing attention to the lower corner.
So far I haven't had a huge method in my color scheme, but it's been my plan to add a yellow-orange, which will make my scheme triadic. I've done a lot of tinting and shading with the blue-greens, and I've experimented with saturating the rose color. In order to create the dull-rose I added a little bit of green to a purple-red.
My next step is to continue layering. I plan to add bright color over the dark top left to create depth.

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The base layer of Ricci's piece was a busy combination of patterns, which now peeks out from underneath the top layers.
Ricci used masking to create this effect. She covered the background in a pattern of circles, which creates balance on either side of the piece. She also always used circles or curvilinear shapes as she masked, helping the unity and rhythm. Ricci doesn't depend on the background patterns to make the piece. She added more design to create a unified, complex piece.

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In my piece, I am using movement in the way your eye is drawn along the swept paint. There are streaks of color from three corners that draw you back and forth between each part. I am also using balance in the way I use the same colors evenly over the piece. I've used contrast to create emphasis--the light colors contrast the dark background, making you focus on the lighter, higher foreground areas.
I've used a triadic color scheme and have spent a lot of time mixing the tints and shades of those colors. I've also focused on putting the lighter colors in areas that I want to highlight and emphasize.
There is rhythm in my mark-making, as I have used the same scraping and swirling patterns with the palate knife.
I want my viewer to feel like the colors are moving, almost in the way clouds move in the wind or ocean waves. I want it to seem as if the rounder, bubbly shapes are rolling around and through each other. The colors and shapes I've chosen are reflected after the way flowers and greenery look at night.

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I've been challenging myself to cover up certain things. The idea of covering something that I like or think is important has always scared me. But by covering up almost half of the piece during day 4, I was able to add even more layers that now seem to come off the paper.
Today I added the orange, which was a bit unnerving... I wasn't sure if I would like the greens with the orange. But I LOVE it! The orange helped to draw everything together and unify the entire color scheme. It feels warmer, which is what I had been originally going for.
I want to add something more to the detail in order to help the complexity and unity. I also need to figure out how to continue refining my layers and help each layer to pop more. It's been tricky to keep everything from meshing

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I decided to try the subtracting idea, where I painted a thinned down, glaze-like dark paint over the top left and other corners of my piece, and then I used a paper towel to wipe it away. This allowed the texture I've been creating on my piece to become more accentuated. It also helped the depth, contrast, and emphasis of my piece by darkening certain areas. I also added more dark colors to the more shaded areas, creating more shade and contrast, which I really like. The dark of the background is now more balanced in the foreground and in the entire painting.

I've asked a few other students for their opinion and perspective, and many of said that it reminds them of flowers or aquatic shapes, and that it moves very very well. After hearing those comments, I know that I'm moving in the right direction in order to achieve the end product that I want :).

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Today I focused on detailing my piece. In the areas I wanted to highlight and emphasize, I added very light tints of the colors already in those areas. On the pink swirls, I added layers of a very light tint of that pink, as well as mixes of yellow and teal. I only used the very very tip of a palate knife to add those colors, so the areas I was painting were very small. This allowed the focus of my piece to develop and it added the detail needed to draw my piece together. I am very happy with the outcome.

I decided to temporarily mount my piece on illustration board. I kept the single panel horizontal, and I used a plastic saw-tooth hanger to attach a string and hang it from the ceiling.

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I started by covering the canvas paper with streaks of teal, black, and deep blue. The next few days I worked with red-violets and blue-greens, causing my piece to have an analogous scheme at the start. However, it wasn't quite fitting together, so as I covered things and darkened areas, I decided to add a gold color. This completed the triadic scheme of blue-green, red-violet, and yellow-orange. There is still an analogous flow in some areas, but it is predominately triadic. I discovered the power of adding contrast and greatly developed my painting by adding more potent shades to the dark areas and pale tints to the lights. The contrast helps the movement and increases the depth and space.

If I am being honest, I didn't especially enjoy documenting this process because it slowed down my work. However, as I got further into the project, it was extremely beneficial in helping me to develop my painting. It made me think specifically about the composition and balance of my piece, as well as help me to decide on a color scheme and focus on specific principles. I think documenting the progress and process of art making could help me to solidify the goal of my project.
I am especially proud of how I used layering to create space and depth. When I took the risk to cover half of the painting with a glaze of dark teal, it pushed some of the color back. That risk allowed the complexity and detail of my painting to develop. If I hadn't taken that risk, my piece wouldn't be where it is now.
If I were to do this piece again, I think I would try to have an idea of a color scheme before I start. It took some time for the colors to connect in the way I wanted them to, and I could've saved time if I had thought through the colors a bit more beforehand.
I wonder what the outcome would be if had begun in a completely different way. What if I had begun with a base of the gold and allowed that to peek out as I layered? Or what if I had done the subtracting technique with a lighter color, allowing the base colors to come through differently. It wouldn't have created the darkness and shade that I have now, but it may have allowed the colors beneath to show through more.