#WorldWaterColorMonth Day 4-5

Still trying to catch up. Chicagoland was blessed with gorgeous weather, so we were out in the yard and clearing some of the damaged bushes. In and out of the house I played with the masking again today on two paintings. Tomorrow, I think I will catch up.

Day 4 Prompt: Family Fun

Since this was the Fourth of July, I had to do fireworks.

Palette colors: Lamp Black, Thalo Purple, Lemon Yellow, Thalo Red, Cerulean Blue

I enhanced this photo to bring up the color of the tinted masking. Masking needs to completely dry before painting. So, I was in and out all day, dabbing here and there.

Remember when we did wax resist pictures in grade school, basically crayons on paper and then a dark wash over the top. That's basically what I was going for. Next, I washed large areas with with 

my primary colors, lemon yellow, cerulean blue and Thalo red.  I let this dry and then painted bigger areas and more starburst streaks with the masking.

Next wash is larger and more complete. I expanded on the color areas...and introduced background colors of lamp black and Thalo purple. I used cerulean and purple to create a smoky atmosphere of the bottom. Removing the masking at this point, I had some really bare areas. I added more color with daubs of paint and faint colored streaks.

I spritzed the edges of the painting and daubed more intense color, tilted the board in and around.

I spritzed water on the centers of the bursts and let the dabs spread while laying flat.

I'm pleased with the overall results. It looks like a spontaneous painting, but I think I did 6-7 several different sittings to do this though only for a few minutes at a time. Patience is not my strong suit, so technique this was a challenge.

Day 5 Loose and Free

Well this ended up being neither.  My thought was Butterflies are Free. We've planted lots of Dill this year for the butterflies, since finding caterpillars on my old stems at the end of the season last year, and research said that butterflies love Dill stems.

Palette: Lemon Yellow, Cerulean Blue, Viridian Green, Thalo Yellow green, Cobalt blue, lamp black, some mixed browns on my palette. 

Since I had Days 4&5 on the board at the same time....I used the masking to do some stems and the heads of the dill.

My plan was a Blue Swallowtail on/near Dill stems. Preliminary washes/strokes with cerulean, lemon yellow, yellow green and cobalt. The yellow of the masking is apparent here also.

After a few more washes and some line work, I removed the masking and added detail on the Dill heads. The butterfly got a bit clumpy---my future recommendation on a butterfly would be to mask around a drawn shape instead of letting the colors wander too much. I was still trying to be spontaneous, though. LOOSE and FREE and this wasn't either. 

Photo from late afternoon light.

I peeled off the masking on the butterfly---and it lightened up a bit.

This photo taken in morning light, definitely a bit brighter. I should probably add more to the dill, but not sure what. This is out of balance...due to the blob of a butterfly.

I may try a similar composition on some large watercolor paper all in one sitting with no masking

 and see what happens.  My paper is actually  9x11 and I'm thinking to be 'loose and free'

this subject  needs to be bigger.

Hope you are enjoying this journey with me, I'm sure am.

Disclaimer: Any products I am using are not a recommendation, but only for reference for the reader's use. I am in no way affiliated with any of the companies or products, or have I received compensation or products. 

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Sandi