Today’s ink and watercolor experiment:

I haven’t found a systematic way to explore the interactions of my different colored inks. I have tried placing two different colors on two different arms of a ‘Y’, allowing them to combine on its descending leg. However, I have too many colors and, although I was trained as an engineer, it seems very tedious indeed to work out all the combinations and permutations. I can imagine the resulting network of  ‘Y’s that would form hexagonal outlines (like fencing wire they use to confine chickens). This would be an interesting experiment that would require planning and perhaps a drawing board and a T square. Alas, some other time.

In today’s ink and watercolor experiment, I began with the idea of mixing red, indigo and yellow on the upper left of the study pictured below. The runoff from this mixture dripped diagonally down the paper until I smeared it, using a chop stick.

In the upper middle part of the paper, I mixed verde and turquoise inks in a ‘V’-shaped form, allowing a thin drip to merge with the red pool below.

The inks I used in this study do not have the brilliance of other of my ink compositions (for example, Ink Abstract 052815), largely due to the resulting muddiness where they mixed.

I chose to complement the dullness of the ink with earth tone watercolors. I applied burnt sienna below the arched smear of red. I echoed the ‘V’ shape composed of the turquoise and verde greens with Payne’s gray and Moonstone (a Daniel Smith pigment).  Below the ink mixtures, I added swirls of Moonstone.

Comment:

Although the tonal range of this composition is limited, it does not detract from the visual design elements. However, this study does exhibit contrast: it is between the boldness of the ink and the watery application of the earth tones.  These entwined elements contribute to the success of this composition.