Selective

Watercolours are compact. They do not take up much space. I am delighted my creative spirit can still be indulged in an effective manner even in cramped quarters. The image shows how I approach watercolour most of the time. En plein air and life drawings in watercolour are quite a bit looser simply because of the time restrictions. There are certain principles that I always follow nonetheless. One is the wisdom in keeping my colours clean. This applies to any medium. I tend not to mix either watercolours or acrylic preferring to allow the individual colours to mix and mingle on their own, supplying their own vibrancy to each piece. In the photo you can see several jar lids in which I have premixed washes of various colours. There are two lids per colour, one light wash, one medium to heavy wash and the palette has been sprayed with water to activate the pan colours so that should I choose to have a stronger, deeper shadow for example I can go directly into the pan and apply the very densest colour to an already wet surface on the paper. Each colour has its own brush. There are two pots of water, one for cleaning the brush between colour changes and the other for adding pure, clean water to the brush or the lids as needed. There is a strip of paper with dabs of paint on it. That is the test strip. If I am unsure of the strength of the wash I wish to apply to the painting I test it first to see. The other essential ingredient in the process is the folded paper towel at the top. Once I have selected the area I wish to paint I go into it with the first wash then, before it dries, I choose another colour and drop that colour into the wet paint until I a satisfied with the result. Often this means that the second brush has been contaminated with the first colour. A little dab on the paper towel usually cleans things up. If not I dip the brush into the clean water and dab again. In this way each brush and its pigment are kept clean. There is another brush. It is a clean one. I use it to soften edges and pick up overflow collections of liquid. It is a great eraser too. So that is the lesson for today. Happy painting!