Thursday, March 12, 2009

Background technique using Lumieres

Hi everyone! Thanks for coming by! Hope you enjoy this tutorial.



I'm going to show you how I made the background color/pattern on this canvas.


First thing you need to do is pick out the colors of Lumieres you would like to use. Once you have your colors picked out, you'll need a piece of mesh, a canvas, and a foam brush or two, to get started.

I have alot of colors of Lumieres out in this photo, but actually I ended up using only two (and some olive green Glimmer Mist).

Lay the mesh down over the canvas and using your foam brushes, start randomly dabbing on some color (alternating colors). The mesh will move; it's not going to leave a perfect "grid" look, but you will definitely see patterns. In some places, the color will be in larger patches; that's okay too.


I liked the look of the blotching here and there with the random grid mixed in, but I also did take my foam brush (without adding more color to it) back and forth across the canvas, in a cross hatch pattern.

You can just play with this to get the effect you like.



I then took my "olive green" Glimmer Mist and spritzed it over the entire canvas. I only let it stand about a minute and then used a paper towel to whip it away, leaving a slight overall green. It did a great job of filling in any of the white that was still showing through after the Lumiere/mesh technique. Both of these mediums take to canvas SO well!


You can see below how the green is subtle. I just wish I could capture the "shimmer" better in these photos. Between the Lumieres and the Glimmer Mist, the shimmer is really beautiful.


So much "shimmer;" it's hard for me to get a good photo of it to show you. LOL




You could use all kinds of things to get different patterns. (If you don't have any mesh around, you can use one of those plastic net bags that onions come in.) The Lumieres probably won't go through burlap, but you could brush it on the burlap, turn it over on the canvas and brayer over it. What about wadding up some saran wrap, wax paper or just regular paper, and dabbing the Lumieres onto your canvas that way; or just dry brushing it on? The possibilities are endless.



Here are a few close-ups of the finished canvas.






Anyway you do it, it's a fun and different way to use your Lumieres and make a gorgeous background for a canvas, right? Hope you give it a whirl!

Thanks again for coming by!
-Vicki