March 13, 2010 - Day 215

Ink and watercolor on 140lb Acquerello Portofino hot press watercolor paper

This painting looked very cool in black and white but since I said that days 201 to 300 would be ink with watercolor washes and I added the green and red to make it into a flower garden.

March 12, 2010 - Day 214

Ink and watercolor on 140lb Acquerello Portofino hot press watercolor paper

Tonight I decided to put more black on the bottom half of the painting. I really like the way it turned out. The bare spots looked like water to me and I thought if I did a pink wash that it would look really nice.

March 11, 2010 - Day 213

Ink and watercolor on 140lb Acquerello Portofino hot press watercolor paper

This is another free hand ink and wash painting. I like the looks of the paintings when I just let the ink flow where it will and then bring out the hidden landscape with watercolor washes. I would like to achieve the same result with real places but when I try to create a specific place I get too detail orientated and lose the flow. That is what happened with yesterday's painting.

March 10, 2010 - Day 212

Ink and watercolor on 140lb Acquerello Portofino hot press watercolor paper

Today I tried painting a photograph I had of the country roads in Saskatchewan. I used the brush and india ink to create an underpainting. Once the ink was dry I put watercolor washes over top.

I am fairly satisfied with the result except that I would like the colors to be brighter. I think that when I start to paint the watercolor over the gray/black ink that I underestimate how strong the washes need to be because they look so bright against the ink. Tomorrow I will try using stronger washes and see if that makes any difference.

March 9, 2010 - Day 211

Ink and watercolor on 140lb Arches hot press watercolor paper

I was so bored with using a pen to ink the outline of the subject that I decided to use india ink and a brush. I also decided to spray a small amount of water on the paper first. This was a similar technique to the one I used for the space scenes with acrylic paint.

I prepared 3 ink solutions - one full strength, one slightly diluted and one very diluted. I dipped the brush in the full strength ink and started free drawing onto the slightly wet paper. Then I repeated the process with the diluted ink and let it dry. Once it was dry I then added the color with watercolor.

I like the way it turned out so I tried a couple more paintings. One of those paintings I decided to not add color. I think I prefer the black and white one over the colored one.

March 8, 2010 - Day 210

Ink and watercolor on 140lb Arches hot press watercolor paper

Too tired to right tonight. Very long day and I am lucky that I had the energy after work to create my painting today and post it.

March 7, 2010 - Day 209

Ink and watercolor on 140lb Arches hot press watercolor paper

I almost became inspired today - almost. I could feel the beginning of an idea taking form in the back of my mind. I was thinking how I liked the look of these paintings but that they didn't inspire me to create. It occurred to me that what I need to do is experiment more with what this medium is capable of and go from there. That was the extent of my inspiration.

Oh well, maybe one of these days I get will get some grand idea of how to use this technique to create something absolutely fabulous instead of something that is just nice. One day but not today.