I took a couple of the ink and watercolor works and revised them by
first, using sandpaper to get off some of the dark marks in ink (black) and china marker(red).
In both instances, the marks "bled" into the watercolor around, creating haloed effects I didn't like.
So I got out my white gesso, watered it down a lot and poured it over a pre-spritzed painting,
letting it roll around and settle a bit.
I like the more muted look of both of these now.
If you don't have white gesso, you can use white gouache over these to push some of the color and intensity back. I used white gesso because Alex Powers uses white gesso (80 to 20 ratio gesso to water) over his work to push things back and make lighter passages and I'd tried that before so I knew it worked. Plus, it's no longer a pure watercolor painting as soon as you put the markings on so adding an acrylic medium doesn't matter at this point.
I have one more watercolor and walnut ink painting drying and I'll share it tomorrow. Then maybe I'll go back to landscapes and other things of interest. More crows? Why not?!? ha ha
8 comments:
Much more subtle and aged looking now, Rhonda. Thanks for the tip about watering down gesso....
The gesso for ageing suits the process well. I have tried gesso only once but I don't think I watered it down enough so thanks for sharing tip Ill add more water and try again
still liking the pictographs. Now they look older.
Its looks almost like parchment paper now and works well with the hierolglyphs. I haven't considered watering down gesso either, good idea.
Nice to see you experimenting with other mediums and I love that you always share the methods.
Thanks, Maggie, Lorraine, Carol, Jeanette and Sherry. I bought an Alex Powers book when I first started painting in watercolor - loved his paintings. He waters down gesso and "floats" it over paintings he wants to change and they look great. He uses charcoal, too, so definitely isn't a purist when it comes to watercolor.
Rhonda - some great tips in this post as well as ink drawings. Looks like you are having fun with your experiments. Thanks for sharing.
i like the walnut ink one above rhonda... interesting to see and read about watering down gesso ..to try ... just looked at alex powers incredible work...thanks
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