I love to peruse the magazine section when I go to a bookstore. I gravitate toward the watercolor magazines and buy one now and then. However, I find that I rarely read them once I get home. Just as “writer’s block” is a phenomenon that inhibits writing, I’m sure that there is an equivalent circumstance that prevents a reader from reading. I think it is very specific in my case. I find it overwhelming: to get tips from experts; to see who is the latest champion painter; to read about everyone’s humble beginnings, or the 12 year old who can paint a crystal chandelier with full resolution of its candle-lit grandeur.

That being said, I’m going one step at a time. I was able to open one magazine and read one article. It provided a tip about how to get glowing colors. It was something that I never would have thought up myself: begin by covering the entire paper with a white wash!

This was how I began today’s study. I only washed half the paper with white though. I noticed how smoothly the blue covered the white underlay. Painting blue over the unwashed paper did not feel the same, nor did it look the same.

I decided to make this piece about the blue streak itself. I isolated it with an orange surround, to pop it out of the paper; I provided texture with square brush strokes above the orange field; below the orange I created subdued tones by mixing blue with orange and yellow.

One can see a remnant of the blue streak that I applied without benefit of white underwash, just below the midline of the paper.

Blue Streak on White
12″x9″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block