Making Backgrounds that Pop!

One of the most amazing things about colour is the way different hues affect each other. The vibrancy that can be created by having the right colours next to each other is a powerful tool for artists to use when creating their work. It's often said that colours occurring in nature tend to work well together, and sometimes when the aim is to attract or warn, they are used to create powerfully vibrant effects. In this week's post, I'll be looking at the colours from the Colours of Nature series so far and using a select few to create an energetic background for a sketch.

When choosing the colours to study as part of the 'Colours of Nature' series of posts, I was careful to include a range of hues. The book 'Nature's Palette' gives each colour what's meant to be their closest match in the Caran d'Ache and Winsor and Newton ranges and this is what I've swatched below (for the supplies I have). The Naples Ochre isn't a brilliant match for 'Greenish White' and the Grey Blue and Cobalt Green are both different from each other and the 'Greenish Blue' colour they're meant to represent, but I guess they may have been the closest colour at the time.

'Colours of Nature' Colour Swatches

I intended to select a few of these colours to paint or draw a picture of an insect (as it's the Royal Entomological Society Insect Week this week) but a technique to create a background caught my eye on Instagram and I decided to test it out. I can't remember the origin of the video on Instagram as I just noticed it as I was scrolling and didn't think much about it at the time. When I saw the colours in the swatches above though, something sparked in my brain and I remembered the technique.

I decided to use the Payne's Grey, Winsor Green and Winsor Yellow for this experiment as I love this combination and I've already used similar colours in the mixed media artwork 'Sunbird', so I know they work well.

'Sunbird', Coloured Pencil and Watercolour by Emma Butler

The technique for creating the background is shown in the video below:

The technique is simple and just requires the placement of quite concentrated watercolour around the edges of a circle and then the careful addition of water to the centre of the circle so it draws the colour in and creates interesting mixing and swirling effects. I was doing the addition of the water quickly and grabbed the most ridiculous brush in my haste. It was too big and as I washed it afterwards, I realised it was one of my acrylic brushes! Oh well, if it can work this well with crazy equipment choices, then just think of the possibilities if one takes more care!

I used Pigma Micron pens for the ink drawing after the paint was dry and really enjoyed sketching on such a lovely background. It was much more inspiring than just a plain sheet of paper and the round shape influenced me to draw curves and more interesting shapes than I would have done within a rectangular frame.

Here's the background created with the Winsor Yellow, Winsor Green (blue shade) and Payne's Grey:

And here it is after the inking:

I'll definitely be having a play around with this technique again. I'm interested to try my Qor Cadmium Yellow Medium instead of the Winsor Yellow as the Qor paints contain the Aquazol binder that tends to give these watercolours quite a lively nature. I also want to try some more analogous colours, such as shades of red and red browns, to see what effect that gives. Now I think of it, shades of blue could be interesting as a background for flying birds, or swimming fish...I can see many hours of happy swirling in my future!

Have a great week!

Emma