Last week, I showed you the process I used for determining the value of the matting/framing for my Stewart Stephenson challenge piece. For those of you that asked, I chose value #3. The next thing I needed to do was choose a color. I could have gone with gray and I think it would have looked OK. But I decided I wanted to try some different colors to see which I liked best. I used some painted papers that I already had and I painted a few.
I tried mixing black and deep cerulean blue (middle row, 1st on the left) and I mixed blue and orange to try to get a color close to the darkest color in the actual piece. But I ended up with purple (middle row, 1st on the right). The remaining colors are ones that I already had painted. The orange wasn’t bad, but I really liked the blue green (middle row, middle photo) but it wasn’t a dark enough value.
I then decided to use paint colors straight out of the bottle because then I wouldn’t have to mix the color to cover the canvas. The one on the left is Cobalt Turquoise and the one on the right is Deep Cerulean Blue. I decided I liked the Deep Cerulean Blue the best.
So I painted the canvas and this is the result. It looks better in person. But I’m considering adding a glaze to the top to make it slightly darker.
This photo shows the true color of the canvas a little better. It isn’t quite as dark as the value #3 card. So I think I will mix a little black with the deep cerulean blue and then add some gloss medium to glaze the surface and see if I like that better. It has been really difficult getting the photos to show you the process as the colors have not stayed true. But I guess I’ll get this framed eventually.
Happy Fourth of July to all of our US readers!