A friend of mine had found a painting of cotton that she really liked, and wanted to know if I could try to duplicate it. Since I saw "palette knife" all over it, I jumped at the chance. This is the biggest painting I had ever done, so a good challenge was in the offering, too. 20X30!
First I painted the canvas Van Dyke brown. I then bought some acrylic paint and realized I would likely need more and bought sample sized latex paint at Home Depot much cheaper.
I put my paint on my very sophisticated palette.
I went to town with my palette knife and my off white base coat.
I then added some dark blue and some tan because I knew the off white wasn't dark enough for the cotton.
This simply was too abstract, so I got a paper towel dipped in water and beigy paint and even things out.
My first try was ok, but it lacked depth and I didn't add enough stem to the cotton.
I also decided to tone down some of the color at the top and left side. For better or worse, this was my finished product. Oh! I forgot to add that I used cotton balls dipped in gesso for my cotton!
This was a fun project and very easy. I hope you give it a try!
