Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Watercolor with pastel is cheating

After I established my light pattern, I painted from a photograph the wetlands near Willapa Bay, at Ocean Park, WA. Watercolor is a tricky medium. I am so out of practice it did not go very easily.

I felt like I was juggling odd objects. A bowling pin, a kitchen knife, and a baby.

Water. How much water? Pick up the paint, don't over mix, confident stroke. Wait a minute, I didn't mean it to be so red! Aaak! Go over it with more blue. Now it's too dark. Blot it with a paper towel. Don't lose the light pattern. It was a frantic bit of time. Finally, I decided to let it dry and see how it looked.

Well, it didn't look that great. So, I grabbed my pastels and mucked it up a bit.

The best thing I can say about it is that I didn't lose the light pattern. I'll do better next time.

Willapa Bay Wetlands, 22 x 30, watercolor on 140# Rough

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