Saturday, June 19, 2010

Overworking Watercolors


I could not figure out why my watercolors had these ugly dark "nits" on them, like a sweater gets.  I use high quality Fabriano 140 lb paper and could not understand until this morning - painting before it gets too hot in my studio.  I had sketched out a couple of elaborate landscapes on my paper and was trying to use transparent glazes to give them an ethereal look.  Here's one of many explanations of why glazes are used and how to go about it. 

Off the subject of glazing, I worked on the below painting the other day in class and my instructor helped with the background.  It's darker than I'd intended and I will probably do this painting again in the future since I see a few changes I'd like to make, but as a practice painting, her tutelage on the background was helpful and I love the delicate simplicity of the flower. Behold, my first Magnolia Blossom:

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