First Layer of Background and Masking Fluid

I usually fiinish the flowers first but this is a complicated painting so I decided to put the first layer of the background in to see how dark the shadows of the flowers have to go. The upper right background will have more different colored layers of paint and will probably be as dark as the bottom right corner in the end.  I am not making it dark yet because if I were to accidentally drop water on the dark, I would have a blotch in the the thick layers of background.

Rick on Facebook on my 'Plumeria Paintings by Marcia' page asked me about masking fluid. It is like rubber cement. You put it over the areas you want to keep white and then peel it off after you have finished painting around the mask. It preserves the white of the paper under it.  I have used Winsor Newton's Art Masking Fluid but started using "drawing gum" by Pebeo and like it better because it is thinner and goes on more smoothly. If you look closely on the right side, I have not peeled it off around the light green leaf edges and you can see areas of lighter color with a bluish tint that will be removed later. I still have the mask around the edges of the leaves on the left. I paint around the white flowers. You can see how light the flower shadows look against the dark background so I will have to go back and darken them.

I am going to activate the comments capability of the blog in case anyone wants to ask specific questions. I used to be a teacher and love to share so feel free to comment or ask me a question.