5 paintings - Experimenting with Composition and Technique

I saw some quilts by Paula Kovarik on the American Craft Council's website and I liked the way she divided and composed her space, and the kinds of detail she stitched into her designs. It reminded me of my own work, particularly the use of nature imagery and repeated geometric shapes. These 5 small paintings (each 5"X 8") were all worked on at the same time as a group while I kept in mind what I wanted to do with shape and detail, contrast and texture.

I started by painting a flat color on each gessoed surface. (My paintings are usually done on gessoed watercolor paper). Each one started with a different background color.

Before the paint dried I scored the surface with a spatula, creating horizontal and vertical lines. When that dried I followed some of the lines in charcoal to determine a composition. Then I chose 5 or 6 colored pencils + a black pencil and colored in the areas.

I painted over all of the pencil except the black areas with white acrylic. In the painting above, the red pencil I had used bled through the paint. I didn't mind that, but toned down what was a hot pink shade with some gold.

Then I added details with charcoal and more paint, some pastel. In some areas, like the trees, when I drew in the lines the paint came away and revealed the colored pencil underneath.