Felipe Adan Lerma

2nd Progress Update Working with Golden Absorbent Ground and Fineline Masking Fluid, on Violet Blooms 02.11.20

2nd Progress Update Working with Golden Absorbent Ground and Fineline Masking Fluid, on Violet Blooms 02.11.20
2nd Progress Update Working with Golden Absorbent Ground and Fineline Masking Fluid, on Violet Blooms 02.11.20

My big takeaways from the current stage of my work on Violet Blooms via the design I detailed in my 1st big progress report using Fineline Masking Fluid, are —

  • For my 1st effort using masking fluid – not bad, lol! 😊
  • And, I made a “lot” of design application errors 😂
  • Plus, Designing with Fineline’s applicator tip attached has its own distinct possibilities in regard to creating designs for paintings!

Among my mistakes, I —

  • Drew masking lines around objects vs the highlights of those object
  • Left gaps I thought I could fill in with color without harming my intended design – I was wrong!
  • Masked too many details of too many small objects within the image
  • Didn’t define adequately my larger shapes
  • Didn’t define adequately my most vulnerable highlights
  • Didn’t realize some areas, if I choose to mask them, require a brush, vs an outline I may lose control of in regards to protecting the right mass within the image

Over all I feel my realizations and near misses, design-wise, outweigh my mistakes and the very real possibility this will become a “conversation learning-piece” work vs anything I can call finished and available for sale.

I’m hoping I’m wrong about that last part, and find a way to finish it 😊

Very briefly, these are my prev steps from the beginning —

Below, is my 1st application, in early January —

Fineline Liquid Masking of 6x6 crop of Dorset Street Vermont Community Gardens Violet Blooms Vertical
Fineline Liquid Masking of 6×6 crop of Dorset Street Vermont Community Gardens Violet Blooms Vertical

I thought it a beautiful design back then and think it was pretty darn beautiful now, lol!

It just wasn’t the right design for the original image I wanted to create.

But, what ideas it gives me for future paintings! 😊

https://amzn.to/2NVKtBa

Below, is my 1st application of paint, with the masking fluid still intact.

Begin Removing Fineline Liquid Masking of 6x6 crop of Dorset Street Vermont Community Gardens Violet Blooms Vertical
Begin Removing Fineline Liquid Masking of 6×6 crop of Dorset Street Vermont Community Gardens Violet Blooms Vertical

In the image above you can also see the beginnings of my masking fluid experiment in what 1st became First Twinkle of Snow, but was altered beyond redemption when, with no problems previously, I applied a brushed on isolation coat for eventual varnishing.

That, was a loss I felt very hard, and is a story for another post.

You can see my progress with First Twinkle of Snow right up to before I ruined it at –
https://felipeadanlerma.com/2020/01/25/progress-update-working-with-golden-absorbent-ground-and-fineline-masking-fluid-on-the-first-snow-01-25-20/ .

These are some very tough lessons for me. I used to ruining work that was better off being ruined, lol! 😂

And for those familiar with First Twinkle of Snow, or that go and read my post, it wasn’t the masking fluid lines that ruined it, but brushing on an isolation coat on too fragile a watercolor work, particularly because I’d used gouache. A very successful transition from finished piece to placing a fixative coating on a delicate piece is on Flowering at Dawn, at –
https://felipeadanlerma.com/2020/02/09/adans-product-reviews-on-amazon-spectrafix-non-toxic-fixative-spray-fon-watercolor-flowering-at-dawn/ .

The masking fluid lines though, on First Twinkle of Snow, would have become a different problem of their own.

I came to realize that, working with First Twinkle of Snow, and trying over and over to redo the image on the fixative coat (from Spectrafix, which worked), but never being able to not have some of the ends of the masking fluid “poke” through all the coats of all those differing applications of paint and fixative, left the work vulnerable to literally being pulled apart, line by line!

Meanwhile, after that info-detour 😊, below is Violet Blooms minus the masking fluid lines —

Fineline Liquid Masking removed from 6x6 crop of Dorset Street Vermont Community Gardens Violet Blooms Vertical
Fineline Liquid Masking removed from 6×6 crop of Dorset Street Vermont Community Gardens Violet Blooms Vertical

Violet Blooms, as seen above, remained that way for several weeks as I studied it on and off, slowly realizing I wouldn’t be able to just “fill in” the blooms. I’d obviously not applied the masking fluid correct design-wise.

Coverage-wise it worked wonderfully! From fluid meandering lines to fine expressive points, general bodies of forms.

Unfortunately, I don’t know if I lucked out enough with this experiment (as I do with most I try 😊) to salvage this into more than a long term study piece. Valuable in itself of course, but I would like to sell more of these 6×6’s, lol! Like I did Bird’s Eye View ❤️

I think that’s coming though – I can feel it 💕

2nd Progress Update Working with Golden Absorbent Ground and Fineline Masking Fluid, on Violet Blooms 02.11.20
2nd Progress Update Working with Golden Absorbent Ground and Fineline Masking Fluid, on Violet Blooms 02.11.20

Corrective-wise, I think the only thing I may do is lighten portions of some of the meandering yellow lines.

https://amzn.to/2NVKtBa

Beyond that, I’ve got lots of projects I’m working on, from ideas for Fineline’s masking fluid, maybe some brush applied masking, and a pen and ink project.

All on Golden Absorbent Ground on canvas 😊

https://amzn.to/2ZaLIRz

I’ve even been experimenting using these grounds as white paint, and painting over mistakes or changes in an on-going painting. All fun stuff 😊

Thanks so much everyone!
As I believe I mentioned in my 1st Fineline update –
May your creative efforts be more rewarding than frustrating!
It helps me to remember that most fun things are a mix of something or other, lol! ❤️

Adan

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Thanks everyone! 😊

Adan

Artist self portrait - photo of Felipe Adan Lerma on converted railway track bike ferry for the Island Line Trail connecting mainland Vermont to South Hero on Lake Champlain.

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9 comments

  3. This is quite a nice painting, Felipe, and what is more it has taken you effort and lots of time and work and those are the defining qualities of real art and talent, after all, talent comes as the result of hard work. What comes too easy is not as valuable, but what requires all the effort one can muster, has incredible value, the value, the creativity and the skill I see in your work. There are painters (artists) that are bad painters, like Joan Miro, who in ten minutes can create a series of several huge paintings, abstract, he called them, but I am sure he took ten minutes to finish them. They say nothing, he didn’t even take the trouble and work to develop a palette, he used the same blues, the same reds and yellows that came right out of the tube. So, don’t be too critical of yourself as you are doing the right thing. My greetings and all the best, may your middle of the week (Thursday) be a great one!
    Francisco

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • That is so heart warming, Francisco! Thank you so very much! I like Miro, but never much thought of him. I envy my one sitting-finished work, the ones I can’t touch again without ruining, they whisper wisdoms to me I feel but can’t articulate into repeating much less varying & recreating. I leave them on my wall, and listen to their murmurs as I – yes – put in the work, its own reward thank goodness! 😊

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • I often hear those whispers from mine own on my walls here in my studio and sometimes from the one that is still in the easel I hear screams! Well, maybe the canvas screams because I haven’t finished it or maybe the painting is not happy with my jazz which I usually put on while painting.
        You do tremendous work and I understand what you are saying!
        All the best, it is a beautiful evening here in Spain and I hope that in America it is just as blessed a day.
        Francisco

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

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