I distressed an 11″x14″ piece of 90 pound watercolor today. It was significantly easier than wrestling with 300 pound paper (see 300 Pound Abstract and Another 300 Pounder), even though it was much smaller (8″x8″). I did some painting (Prussian blue and quinacridone gold) on the paper before immersing it in a pot of water. Then […]
Since my foray into abuse of 300 pound (Rough Free Form) watercolor paper, I have learned to handle it a little more delicately. Usually I get a cue from the random design left by the folds in the crumpled paper. Today I relied on an internal (and unidentified) source for inspiration. The red-orange and blue-green […]
Again, I began with crumpling the paper, my version of ‘action painting’ (see Does This Count?). I planned to pour ink on the not-quite-dry paper and looked forward to watching it diffuse along the disrupted grain of the paper. Alas, the red ink I poured onto the paper just sat there, with minimal diffusion. I […]
It is hard to wrinkle up 300 pound paper without tearing it. I was fairly successful at it today’s watercolor. Below is the first phase, where I used mainly earthy colors with blues along the ridges. The patterns on the rough, unpainted paper made me think of how some of Paul Klee’s later work were […]
I prepared my paper yesterday by soaking it and balling it up. I flattened it overnight between two boards for a while, while the paper was still damp, I laid textured towels between the paper and the hard surface and flattened it some more. The result was paper with a distressed, somewhat embossed surface. Distressed […]
I used different materials for today’s watercolor. I used a very heavy paper (300 pound), square in format. I drew a charcoal outline and painted inside the lines. I wanted to continue my version of ‘action painting’ by crumpling it up and returning it to its flattened state. I knew it would be different than the […]
Before I crumpled today’s experiment I drew a free form with charcoal and painted within the confines of the lines. There were features of my brother Mike (autistic, low functioning and nonverbal), but not as pronounced as in my previous posts (see Imaginary Brother – New Ideas, So Simple, and Yet…, Imaginary Hug, with Feeling, Tri-Clopean Portrait, and Self-Portrait with […]
