Art Every Day Month - Post 12

Wet into Wet Washes

Spruce branches - Detail of 11" x 15" Watercolor on paper -
Study of wet into wet washes

Source photo

It was a cool, drizzly day and the spruce branches were shedding raindrops in a dramatic way.  The branches bowed over as the water drained off the needles and ran down to the end, accumulating over the bud-tip until the drop got too heavy and separated, flicking the branch back and releasing a tiny spray of the water that remained on the needles. Then the process started all over again. It was worth getting wet to stay out there and watch it.

In the painting, the drops of water didn't work as well as I'd hoped in the wet into wet washes, but I know what to try the next time.

On My Back Door-Step #6

Bunch of Fireweek (#6)

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Watercolor on paper 11in x 15in
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It's a rainy day and not good for watercolor painting outdoors. So I set up my painting gear in the light coming through the back door, put a handful of fireweed flowers into a Mason jar, and settled in. Indoors or out, I still have to record the image before the light moves, so once the pencil sketch was established, I applied paint just as loosely as I would do out of doors.
This painting is a great example of wet-into-wet washes, without doubt the loosest of watercolor painting techniques.
Wet daubs of pink blurring into pale green stripes give the gentlest of neutral shadow tones. A fat painty brushstroke touching into a clear water shape defines a flower form. Then there's the background, all water and paint with a characteristic back-flow effect revealing the blue and brown pigments that this gray was mixed with. Back-flows can be disastrous or very effective, and this painting has examples of both.
So be it.