Today I started working with blue pigments. I’ve always liked Prussian blue. It is a bit on the green side, and it stains – at least it stays on my brushes forever. I began with my backward ‘S’. I was hoping for a bit of a dry-brush look, but my brush was too wet. I positioned the watercolor paper on its point, reloaded my brush and traced the ‘S’ form again, forcing the paint to drip. I then used Indian yellow to paint the a splotch above the left end of the ‘S’ and squeezed out some pigment into the ‘S’, where it merged with the  blue. The blue drip streaks turned to green.  I painted the area between adjacent Prussian blue swaths with Indian yellow and left it untouched.  I feathered in some blue strokes and painted more yellow in the white spaces between the streaks of the brush. Finally, I painted a black line at the left edge of the ‘S’ and red on part of the inner curve.

Abstract 111016
16″x12″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

As a whole, the composition is coherent. There is motion to the upper right, while the center of gravity resides in the red streak.