I love the Pink Panther movies. Inspector Clouseau, a bumbling French detective, brilliantly played by Peter Sellers, is prone to misguided theories, unending hilarious pratfalls and other sight gags. I don’t remember which movie this scene was in, but Clouseau’s antics caused the destruction of a grand piano. One of the guests exclaimed, “That was a priceless Steinway!” To which Clouseau replied, “Not anymore.”

I received a nice complement from Sarah, of FirstNightDesign.wordpress.com about my watercolor from yesterday. She called it a charming watercolor. I appreciate those kind words. All I have to say after I worked on it some more is, “Not anymore.”

Here is that watercolor in its original configuration:

Arthur with New Growth
9″x6″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

I tried to separate the stem and leaves from the background, first with pen and ink shading and then with red, the complement of green. Here is the result:

Arthur Sketch Continuation #1
9″x6″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

I really did not like this, but figured I’d sleep on it and look at it again in the morning. I did not like it then either.

Today, I decided to take radical action. I detached the paper from the block and ran it under hot water to see what would happen. Most of the color stayed on, although the cadmium red is staining and the red remained visible, although lighter in shade that what you see above.

I still wanted to separate the form from the background, so I used pen and ink to fill in the areas adjacent to the leaves and stem. I used combinations of lines and random squiggles to fill in the space. Here is the result:

Arthur Sketch Continuation #2
9″x6″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

I also used my ink pen to outline the leaves.

Comment:

I could have been satisfied with the original watercolor sketch, but I wanted to see if I could make something more of it. As I mentioned yesterday, I don’t consider my art precious enough to stop working on it before I try implementing ideas I have in mind which might physically realize them. If they don’t work, I am non the worse for wear.

If my ideas work, I have learned something and can use it in future compositions. I they don’t work, at least I tried. I can always start over again.

Having said all this, sometimes it is helpful to know when to stop.

I am not entirely satisfied with the final configuration of the sketch above. As promised, here is another sketch of Arthur.

Arthur Re-Sketch
6″x4″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block