This paint on metal project has had many ups and downs with unexpected twists and turns. Mostly, it has been a big experiment with interesting discoveries. My biggest discovery is understanding what I like the look of and what I don’t. What has become crystal clear to me is the look of the metal glowing through the paint is really beautiful, especially on the copper. Here is an example of a background that is both thin and translucent (on the right). The left side of the sample is more opaque, but there remains a few holidays in the opaque paint also. The thin paint allows the brushstrokes to suggest a mysterious background atmosphere. By pressing my brush quickly with a flourish, and wiping away excess paint, the interesting streaks were left unblended as a painterly statement.
I used raw umber and chromium oxide green for the background color. Can you see the thinness of the surface? What are your thoughts on how to achieve depth and atmosphere?