Following the completion of a low-tone painting using Burnt Sienna, Ron was not entirely happy with the result, asking “Since the brown had dried, I tried to lighten sections by blending Burnt Sienna with white, resulting in a nasty opaque pinkish brown. What is the best way to lighten areas? I was contemplating painting over the areas I want to lighten with gesso, let dry, apply Burnt Sienna, then wipe while still wet. Is there a more efficient way?”
A good question and I’m not sure I have an ready solution!
What you are finding is the difference between transparent effects using the white behind (the light passing through the paint and bouncing off of the white surface), versus opaque effects (where the light bounces straight off of the paint surface). When opaque paint is applied, it is difficult to go back – re-gessoing and repeating the transparent process seems like a lot of work. You could cut Burnt Sienna with some orange to bring back a bit of that orangey, transparent glow, however it will still not look the same as your transparent areas. Assuming you are continuing the painting, this is less of a problem, as this layer will be covered on the next paint application. Should you wish to keep it as a low-tone study, applying some opaque paint to other areas (once you have perhaps “de-pinked” the colour) is your best bet. I’ve attached one of my underpaintings and you will see the same sort of pasty areas!
I’ve often bemoaned the loss of transparency as a painting progresses and it’s not really possible to go back. When you are intending to use transparent effects, paralleling those processes familiar to waterclourists, the needs for transparency have to be taken into account from the outset. In this case, oil painters have the advantage of slow-drying paint, in acrylic one has to move fast (or perhaps try a slow drying type of acrylics) and an underlying layout (just a few light marks in paint or dry media) may help here…not too prominent though, as you don’t want the work to look like a coloured drawing.
Break-a-Brush!
David