Stretching Colors with Tatyana Binovska

by Redbubble, August 31, 2016

By Tatyana Binovska, Resident Artist

Despite the fact that my knowledge is of old school of painting techniques, I’m incredibly interested in acquiring new skills. Previously on my Redbubble Page, I would show my new work without thinking about how it’ll be used on different products. Now, it gives me real pleasure to create images that can be turned into real products. I’m very grateful to the team at Redbubble and the past residents for their help. So in turn, I want to share my experiences and tricks on painting.

I named this painting technique, stretching tone & colors. I based my private art classes on this technique, and I’m very proud of all my students. It’s possible to use this technic in both watercolor and oil painting. You can also use it to make backgrounds and any other details.

Watercolor Stretching

First, we will start with watercolors, and we’ll will try to stretch some blue from light to dark. To do this, prepare a small container with a few drops of water in which we will add a small drop of color. Then take a blank sheet of paper, wet it, and let it dry. Then apply the paint.

It is very important the paint does not dry. Add another drop into your container to intensify the color, then mix it properly, and apply it to the paper again. Now repeat this step by step, and as you add some more color, the paint will become more intensive until we come to the darkest tones of our paint. This will cover the entire surface with one color going from light to dark.

Now we will stretch our color the other way, from dark to light. Firstly, start by putting just a few drops of water in your container. Then, begin add the color that you’ll be starting with. This mix needs to be very dark. As we go along, we will keep adding drops of water to make the color lighter.

This will stretch the tones from dark to light. The only thing you need to remember is to keep the paint wet the entire time. We can also mix colors in the same way, by adding more water drop by drop and mixing it together. It is possible to go through all the paints in our pallet and make a stretching rainbow! Stretching colors can be used in different ways, like as a background for a painting. This is real fun, I promise you!

Oil Stretching

It’s easier to do these tricks in oil painting, because there’s no risk your paint will run down your canvas or page. If you want to start with a light color, begin with some white paint on your pallet and then drop by drop, add the next color. Mix them properly before starting on the canvas. Every time you paint the canvas with a new color, it’s important to blend that color with what was painted before. This way, you can show the shape and form of your painting and it looks really very decorative.

To paint from a dark color, you will need to start from the darkest tone then add bits of white until you find the tone that you need. You can also add different colors.