I let it dry completely and I washed over it with India ink. I let that dry completely overnight.
Then I washed the ink off in the sink.
You might be able to see that the paper (decent paper) was destroyed in the process. I highlighted areas where there’s hardly any paper left. Then I balled it up and took it to the trash. I might have been using really cheap gouache, I might have put too thick a coat of ink, I might have rubbed too hard (although I don’t think so), or something else. I went online and found a Blogger post by a woman named Sonjia called paperpaintprint who does this too but she paints a rough watercolor then goes over the places that she wants to save with white gouache. If she really wants to save a color, she’ll paint another layer of gouache over that part. After completely letting it dry, she uses a brush and running water to wash off the ink in the sink. After it dries, she touches it up with watercolor. It looked great but I can’t figure out how to point you to her blogger post.
I’ll try again.
So I walked around my neighborhood to do a little urban sketching. I found these morning glories that live across the alley from me.
5 X 5 hot press
I tried a little more abstract.
5 X 5 hot press
Then I found some black eyed susans down the street.
5 X 5 on hot press.
Not happy with any of this. Back to gouache resist for another try.
First things first--I love that first morning glory. The composition and graphic quality are stunning. I also like the colors in the second morning glory and the way the black-eyed susans dance on the page.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your gouache resist steps. I'm not quite sure what happened. We did pretty much the same things. I put the ink on pretty heavily, so that's the same. And I really went at mine in the sink--with a scrubbrush, not just a paintbrush--and the paper held up. It was Arches rough, if that matters. I used cheap gouache, but I painted thickly and may have used more garish colors than you. The wash at the end seems to take away about half the vibrancy and color saturation of the gouache. That blogger process you found sounds interesting, but a little convoluted for me!
Love that first morning glory, especially the way the fence and the background are painted. The dark background just sets everything off. And the black eyed Susan’s are great against that sunrise effect in the background.
ReplyDeleteOh my. Have you figured out what happened with the gouache/ink experiment? I wonder if you can paint with gouache over top of the ink, just for the heck of it? So the following flowers are all in watercolors, right? They look stunning, especially the close-up morning glories.
ReplyDelete