Thought this subject would work well for a poured watercolor, but ended up never doing a true pour finding I could not let go of having control of where the color flowed. So, the first layer was put in with a large brush onto wet 300 lb. Arches CP, while the second layer was done with a pipette on a wet surface using the warm triad of New Gamboge, Naphthol Red and Cobalt Blue. The yellow areas of the butterfly were masked out after the first brushed application of paint and frisket was splattered on the rocks. Wetting the entire surface again, a pipette was used to apply the three colors again, with more frisket spatter after it dried. The rocks had too much color and were scrubbed off with a synthetic brush and water revealing the texture of the paper. After masking the other markings on the butterfly, I washed over the butterfly using Sepia and started directly painting the shadows on the rocks with Indanthrene Blue and a mixture of the two for the deepest shadows. Lastly, the frisket was removed, a bit of mixed orange was applied to the yellow areas of the butterfly and the rocks were spattered with the dark mix.
On the Rocks, 11” x 15” Watercolor, ©Johanna Cellucci
At the start, I was not happy the way it was turning out, envisioned tearing it up and finding something else to work on. After letting it sit for a week, I figured why not just play with it. The result isn’t my usual work, but does have some interest and surely a lot of texture.
7 comments:
A lovely painting with great instructions tool. You go girl!
Hi Mary, thanks for leaving such a nice comment. I have neglected the blogs lately in favor of the immediacy of FB. Glad you liked the "instructions."
Thanks for letting us know your process. Love the whole concept!
Thanks for letting us know your process. I think it worked out really well. You are so
precise!
Hi Reveille, so nice of you to stop by and leave comments on my blog post. Considering my "process," I don't know how I got this result, but I found it pleasing and decided to post it here and on FB. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive to my surprise.
You may have had a different concept in mind when you started, but for those of us who had no expectation I think this came out beautifully.
I don't think I have ever poured the whole painting, but use the pipettes to apply the first couple layers then use the brush to control the balance.
I like how the color flows unexpected creating even more color integration, which I probably would not do with a brush alone. That's why I think these kind of paintings work so well. Congratulations, Johanna.
April, thank you so much for your insightful comment and for the compliments as well as sharing your experience with this technique. You have given me more assurance in the process and the resulting piece.
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