ON THE WAY TO A BATIK ROSE

An old photo I had caught my eye.  It was printed on simple printer paper and had hand-written notes about colors to use, etc.  But what caught my eye was that, somewhere along the line, it had become covered in water drops, making the flower look interesting.  So...that led me to think about how to make a batik rose in watercolor.

First:

Draw the picture onto tracing paper

Second:

Trace the drawing on the watercolor paper (I’m using a block of Stonehenge Aqua hot press paper for this)

Third:

Begin with the background, getting everything very wet and letting the colors run and play

After that dries, time to go into the petals and do a little bit at a time, working very wet and letting the colors dry and put in more color, wetting even more.  The trick is to stay with the painting as the color dries.  You can use a hairdryer to hasten the process and see what you get as far as a batiked look to the petals.  

More to come!!