Today’s watercolor experiment:

I really like liquid latex resist. I create a design with the semi-viscous fluid which, after drying, goes largely unnoticed during the rest of the painting process. I must admit that it is difficult to draw an intricate design by dripping the liquid rubber out of a bottle, but it serves its purpose as a relatively simple underdrawing.  After placing the rubber masking fluid, I tilted the paper back and forth in order to steer the drips where I thought they should go.

When the masking fluid dried I wet the only area totally enclosed by the masking fluid and placed a drop of red ink in the middle. At the edges, I dabbed yellow ink, creating an obvious focal point. I had subdued earth tones in mind to color the rest of the composition.

I have some exotic, non-traditional pigments in my paint box. Two of these are on the Daniel Smith Luminescent Watercolor palette: Duochrome Autumn Mystery and Duochrome Desert Bronze. My palette today consisted of, Moonglow (Daniel Smith), burnt sienna, cerulean blue, all grainy pigments. I used an excess of water, to make them run down the paper.

I also used turquoise, indanthrone blue, Payne’s gray, quinacridone purple, English yellow and cadmium yellow.  I can’t recreate my thought process in applying each of these colors except to say that I placed them in between the traces of the earth-tone drips, where I thought they should go. I tried to maintain balance.

Here is stage 1 – before I removed the latex resist.

Abstract 52715 Stage 1

This is the result after removing the latex:

Abstract 52715
12″X16″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

Comment:

I enjoyed the painting process: deciding which colors to choose and where to place them. I like the stark white negative spaces that revealed themselves when I removed the mask.

Unlike yesterday, when I rushed to the final stage of inking the white spaces, I left them as they were. I will sleep on it overnight. Tomorrow, I might have a better idea of how (or if) I should continue. (A little Photoshop, perhaps?)