Amy's Onions + Class Work

Yesterday was the first day I'd been back to watercolor class this month - it felt odd - but maybe that's because I started the morning with a migraine. I was NOT going to miss class, though, so I just soldiered onward.

We worked on our own things (so I finished Amy's Onions - with a bit of darks and a background and some drizzle) at first, while we waited for an order of hotpress crescent board to arrive - but it never came - so we started the Stephen Blackburn-style project of poured painting on coldpress 300# Arches (I had some with me and others bought some or waited until they got home to start their project).

Here's how it goes: First, you pour misket (any misket works but the grey Pebeo drawing gum works the best at thinning and drizzling) on your dry paper with a pipette. Quickly, with a spray bottle, spritz the misket so it moves and creates drizzles that look like tree limbs moving up and around the whole paper. Then that has to dry completely. This will be your pure whites so you don't want too much or too little - be Goldilocks and find what's just right. Since I could tell Sandy thought my first one was too much, I did a second and was lighter with the misket.

After this step dries, you can (#1) take the misket off and reapply misket in the same and different patterns or with (#2) you pour on a second color. It helps to pour your yellows first, then your reds or blues so you get clean glazing.

And of course I couldn't just do this - had to start another project while waiting for things to dry. So back to pears and a grid design behind them. So 3 things to work on later this week.