Just for fun I decided to try something completely new today, something I’ve never, ever attempted to paint before. And, instead of doing research, looking at other paintings, following tutorials, I simply sat down with a reference and some paint & paper and played around for an hour or so.
The flames were working really well without a background, but I couldn’t really leave it blank, so I tried a couple of different colours to see how they worked. A bit more experimentation will probably improve the relationship between the flames and background – I think I need to work out a way to get the yellow and the blue washes to sit together in just the right place, while they’re both still wet.
A very positive experience though, and great practice in controlling washes.