Wrap up.
Keeping the rock transparent was not working, so I decided to just paint it opaque with acrylic white and watercolor paint. Putting the rock in shadow emphasizes the area around the rock as the center of interest. I was also able to change the shape so that it did not look like a “submarine” –which bothered me from the beginning. At the risk of isolating a color, I put some dark green foliage near the rock to give it some “life”. Making just one object or area opaque could destroy the unity of the painting, so putting it in shadow helps by putting it in a different lighting. On to the next subject!
1 Comment
Painting is hard!
Happy with the results but it could be better! That is always the dilemma we are faced with in a painting. I have ruined many paintings by trying to do too much. There are limits to what you can do in a watercolor painting. Yes, the rocks are too evenly spaced. I tried to add smaller rocks, you can always go darker in watercolor to change the spaces. The smaller rocks were too similar in color and I changed a few of those. I did some scratching for the spray near the center in interest. Wasn’t happy so I tried the tearing technique. That didn’t work because the Khadi paper has very little internal sizing. So, the tearing created “craters” in the paper. I tried burnishing and then applied full strength sizing, and that didn’t work. Last resort is the use of acrylic white paint. That is working! Because I feel that the painting is one of my better paintings, I want to make one more correction–which could ruin the entire painting. The large dark rock is a bit too dark, so I am going to lift some of the paint to lighten it. Painting is fun! |
Archives
January 2023
Categories |