February 10, 2010 - Day 184

Acrylic and watercolor on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

Acrylic and watercolor on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

I really love doing these paintings! I did the yellow one first and really liked the way that it turned out. I first sprayed the paper with so much water that it puddled. Then I took thinned black acrylic paint and just touched the water. As the paint touches the water it pushes the water aside and creates the most amazing designs. The areas where the black paint doesn't flow remains white. When the black paint dried I painted a wash of bright watercolor over the entire painting. The finishing touch was to flick white acrylic paint over the painting to create stars.

After I completed the yellow painting I came up with the idea of placing stickers or tape down before applying the water to see if the technique would still work. I used green painter tape for the large planet, a smiley face sticker for the medium planet and packing tape for the smallest planet. I really didn't think that it would turn out so I created the painting on the flip side of one of my failures. Now I wish I would have used "good" paper.

With the planet painting I used red, yellow ochre and black paint in the first stage to create the multiple colors. Once dry I removed the tape and sticker and used watercolor to create the shading on the planets. I could have used acrylic but I think that the watercolors are more vibrant than the acrylics and better suited for this type of painting.