Interesting Works

One of my most favorite work of Patricia is the Draco Nebula.

This work really caught my attention cause of the fact that its related to the Galaxy in some way , after all nebula. Galaxy- like paintings are 'my thing' . In almost all of my works, its a must to have a galaxy-like sky, starry skies and so on.So this one is my favorite painting by Patricia,followed by the 'Touch a phoenix' my second favorite.

Touch of Phoenix

She's shown this process of painting Step by Step.

"Touch a Phoenix" step-by-step

The process for painting "Touch a Phoenix" is similar to the process she used for most of her paint. However, she felt that each one has its own needs and she could paint in whatever way will work best to create the image she wanted.

With this painting she started off by sketching the image on tracing paper then transferring it to watercolor paper with graphite transfer paper. she seemingly used graphite paper, because the wax transfer paper would act as a resist when painting with watercolor.

Once the image is on the paper she stretches it by getting the paper wet and placing it on a wooden board. Brown gummed tape, the kind you use to get for mailing packages at the post office holds it to the board as it dries and shrinks. The reason she stretched watercolor paper is to keep it from wrinkling when it gets wet. It takes a few hours for the paper to dry completely, but once that is done, she then masks out the image so that she can paint in the background. she used liquid latex to mask out the edges of the figures and plastic wrap and tape for large areas.

Step 1: She took the picture upside down, so the angle's a bit off. It shows the paper stretched and masked without paint. Once everything is dried and masked out she proceeds to paint the background in a series of layers. Starts by getting the paper wet with clean water them adding the paint. This wet on wet technique is difficult to control. The paint flows and pools in all directions, so by careful placement of paint she can guide it to where she would want it to go. Keeping the area for the tail feathers clear of color is very difficult doing this. Some color will get in, but since she will be painting over the area later it's not that much of a concern.

Step 2 :This one shows the image with the first layer of paint. She's using yellows reds and blues and as has to be careful that the colors don't run together. She stated that To prevent this she sprayed workable fixative to help set the paint for the next layer. This also prevents picking up colors and creating a "tooth" for the next wash of paint to grab onto. This way she could keep adding layers and deepening the color intensity.

Step 3: Once she was done with the background she painted in the tail feathers. This is done with a mix of watercolor and acrylic as she stated, Since watercolor paint can only get darker, she had to use acrylic if she wanted any white or pale yellows. When she finished with the feathers she gave it a final spray of workable fixative and then she removed the mask. she then had to sharpen the edges so she could have a clean surface to paint on. At this point she said she really could see the painting coming along.

Step 4:The feathers are a bit dark from shadow, but still you can see them and get the general idea. Painting the phoenix and woman also is done in layers, but these are done with more control. she used a wet on wet technique, but with less water. Supposedly it allowed her to control where she wanted the paint to go, but also keeps it damp enough that she had time before it dries. It also prevents getting the "water mark" look were the paint stopped and a thin line of color shows the edge which was able to achieve a softer look with this technique.

Step 5: the image isn't as sharp, but you can see the colors better.More details are painted in, such as her face and hair. On the figure she masked out part of the pattern on her robe, so that she could more easily paint it an intense red. she said that she usually uses a dry brush technique since the areas are much smaller. This is the point were she cleans up any areas that she didn't like. Inevitably, there are drops of color that splashed on the painting in place she doesn't want. These need to be either cleaned up, but lifting with a wet brush or painted over.

Step 6: And finally the complete panting. Once the painting is done she added her chop marks on the bottom. The chops are her name in Chinese.