I began today with my very thick-nibbed dip pen. I love the fat lines it makes and the thin ones, if drawn in a perpendicularly to the ‘fat line’ making direction.

I’ve read that some oil painters work on their canvas for a while and, if they don’t like what they see in one section or another, they will scrape off the paint and replace it with something more pleasing.  This is difficult to do with watercolors. The paint tends to be absorbed into the paper. Short of cutting off the bit that doesn’t fit, there is not much to do.

Today, I was a little overzealous with my black ink. However the black watercolor paint did a good job of masking when I applied it to my mistake.

Abstract – Colors and Lines
9″x12″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

You can see the results on the bottom right of this design. This dark area inspired a corresponding one on the upper left corner.

I like the bright colors above. The lines however, coalesce into certain figurative images.

Some expressionist painters (about whom I’ve read) were so insistent on being abstract – without any trace of figuration in their work – that they would scrub any figure that had accidentally appeared in their compositions.

Perhaps I should have as well.