uplifting

I was exchanging a few words, via the web, with a NYC artist, Fred Hatt, yesterday about watercolors. He, moving from another medium, basically noted with watercolors, the working from light to dark & using the paper itself for the whites is, if not daunting, counterintuitive for most non-watercolor artists.

-Which, of course got me to thinking about moving from dark to light with watercolors. :-)

So! I laid down a ground, wet on wet of the three basic colors, blue, red, yellow. Just vertical stripes, blending where they met. Then with a damp brush and tissue, I lifted colors off the paper to create the image of the kneeling nude. The first lift was done while the paper/paints were still wet, increasing the blending of the 3 colors. I did this about three or four times, letting the paper dry between liftings, until I had this image. Other than time to allow drying, the I probably didn't spend more than 15 minutes creating this (I know, I know, it shows!-grin-) piece. None the less it was, for me, an interesting exercise working from dark to light in watercolors.

On Canson's 140 pound cold pressed paper, 9 by 12 inches.