Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - Class Party + Cheng Khee Chee Saturated Technique

Last Tuesday, the watercolor class tried Cheng Khee Chee's saturated watercolor technique. I think all of us agreed that we didn't succeed! I even left my painting there at Sandy's, which I never do, because I didn't want to look at it and wasn't going to post it. I thought I might like it more the following week but it was just as hideous yesterday when I saw it again.

So we tried again yesterday, amidst our holiday party and gifts we had for Sandy and gifts to us from Sandy (a tube of Daniel Smith paint, a small paintbrush, and a Go Fish art game :) and gifts from Kathy (a pretty blue mug and cookies + Hershey kisses in a reindeer bag). I used a print of Chee's and tried to do a similar iris. I'm fairly pleased but I think it is going to take more practice for this technique! And my iris looks nothing like his - so that's a good thing!

This technique lifts color from very creamy colors laid down on very saturated paper. We used 140# Fabriano Artistico and put down Cobalt Blue and Cerulean Blue first as a base - and we were more able to lift back to whites than last week when we used Arches #300 and didn't use the blues as a base color. Chee does all his koi paintings this way and they are wonderful. You don't get hard edges unless you keep lifting and lifting and I stopped and since everyone said it was finished, I didn't lift anymore on it. I think it needs some hard edges, though...

3 comments:

Michelle Himes said...

I love Chee's koi paintings, and have even seen some of them in person. I've always wanted to try this technique, but after the disaster that my experiment with pouring went last weekend, I'm not ready for another mess yet. I smiled when I read how you left your first painting behind though. That's how I feel about my "pours". :-) This iris came out well though. Will you be doing this technique again?

Suzanne McDermott said...

Thanks for the A+! It wasn't easy but I did it! Thanks for tagging me. I was just tagged again but will have to decline passing that along as I have wracked my brain quite enough over that game. :-)

RH Carpenter said...

Michelle, I love his koi paintings, too! I may try this again but it is very messy for me - used a hand towel instead of paper towels so I didn't use the whole roll wiping up running water and paint! I like pouring much better because I do it in the garage over some large tubs that I use and it doesn't feel so messy or crowded as in my tiny art room.
The first painting I tried is now torn in 4ths and the backs will be used for test colors :(
Suzanne - you get another A+ today because you're still the only one who has replied and posted :) I really love your work and your color studies and your building your own studio - wow!! I'm glad I got to you first :)