I played around with drips today, as I have for the past couple of days. I used a new combination of pigments, though: bismuth yellow and Peacock blue. I created an underpainting of bismuth yellow, edged with a bit of Indian yellow, a fairly unsaturated pigment, closer to orange than yellow. At the top of the paper I made a pool of Peacock blue, and as it dried, added blots of the bismuth yellow and allowed them to drip. Some of the blue pool dripped undiluted by the yellow. The yellow blots maintained color at the center and created green variegations at the interface with the blue.

I flipped the paper 180 degrees and interdigitated drips of Indian yellow and bismuth yellow.

In and Out of Focus
16″x12″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

I considered using a very dark Payne’s gray and ivory black combination to paint between the drips. I did paint a light wash of ivory black over most of the right portion of the composition. I quickly blotted this, as I wasn’t satisfied with the look. I painted more defined patches of Payne’s gray between several pairs of pigment traces on the lower left of the paper.

I like the clarity of the underpainting in contrast to the more washed out portions of the painting.