Lover's Lane

"Lover's Lane"
 by Jane McElvany Coonce 

I've been taking a break from my oil painting and doing some acrylics.  They are fun to do, and I can do a piece in one sitting.
I did this one last night.  I call it "Lover's Lane".

Basically what I do is I use a special type of watercolor paper.  I put gloss medium over it to keep it from being absorbent.  When that dries, I use three transparent colors ( phthalo blue, Magenta, and Yellow Orange Azo) and do an abstract underpainting.  I add a lot of water so it's very light in color.  After this dries, I add a 2nd coat of the 3 colors.  Sometimes, I take a paper towel and dab it off.  It leaves an interesting texture. (That's the texture you see in the people's pants.)  After that dries, I draw with water-soluble crayons and sketch in my figures.  Then I begin painting and having fun. I don't cover up all the abstract underpainting.  The shirts, the pants, and the umbrella are the abstract painting showing through. Sometimes I follow the photo, but other times I just let myself go wild.  I never know how it's going to turn out.

If it doesn't turn out, and that happens sometimes, then I just put another coat of the 3 colors over top of my mistake and start over.