Patterns

tulips on red patterned cloth
Size 36X18
Acrylic on board

Just finished this new painting, it was fun to put some patterning in again, in this case on the tablecloth. I vary a little how I approach painting patterns on cloths, but in this case I painted with fairly strong colors and then toned the contrasts back with a series of glazes. This is a process that works better with oil than Acrylic, since Acrylic washes do tend cover so poorly. The problem of course with oils is you have to wait a long time between each layer, so Acrylics can get the job done quicker.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the amount of tone and contrast in the cloth design, though I preferred the color tone of the little gray/blue/purple squares before glazing. I could have repainted these, but I wanted to keep the continuity across the design. Additionally of course the focus of the design is not solely the tablecloth, but I thought it was note worthy.