rainbow study

[mek42]

Support: little less than 1/4 page of a 7" by 7" extra heavy weight paper, 180 lb, rough surface, bound.

Media: Golden Acrylic Heavy Body and Glazing medium

Palette: phthalo blue GS, hansa yellow opaque, naphthol red medium


blue_DSC_3313 by mek42, on Flickr


green_DSC_3316 by mek42, on Flickr


rainbow_DSC_3318 by mek42, on Flickr

What did I learn? There is a happy middle ground somewhere with the glazing medium. It is also easy to overwork things.

Getting tired, so need to head to bed while I am tired. Would like to hear how I could get better transitions. Or am I expecting to much - either of my current beginner skills or of the medium (brush, as opposed to airbrush) itself? Specifically, I am not happy with the sharp lines that I couldn't quite get rid of.

Did I glaze wrong going from blue to yellow to red?

Do I want to try to find a red with tinting strength closer to phthalo blue?

Should I try other blending techniques or should I hammer on glazing for a bit to get it down better?

Ok, off to bed, thanks!

[oldradagast]

Bold study here since I've never been able to figure out how to paint a rainbow in a scene.

The colors and arc have to be perfect for it to work, but they also need to be somewhat transparent or the rainbow feels solid, which isn't right. I've seen a few paintings over the years with rainbows done right, but it is extremely tricky, IMHO.

[WebCat]

I've never tired it but I looked at your bigger photos on flickr. Can you thin the paint even more? and over lap more. Rainbows have no definite line of any color. It just sorta of appears like it to us.

I'm in Florida and we have a lot of rainbows. We have storm clouds that come in and rain in small areas (so much so that the weather man will give rain reports by the streets) so it's not uncommon to be on the side of the rain where we'll see rainbows. I counted 7 on my way to work one day... two of them were doubles.

Good luck!! I'll watch for updates.