Monday, January 30, 2012

Watercolor with Pastel

I take a watercolor class once a week, and we've been working from the book Powerful Watercolor Landscapes, by Catherine Gill.  This past week we did an exercise combining water based pastel with watercolor.  The pastel flows and oozes a bit when it gets wet and the watercolor can intensify the color effect of the pastel.  The pastel adds texture and can be opaque or transparent, depending on how much pressure you use.

I'm very pleased with the dramatic results and it was REALLY fun to do.  You have to work fairly quickly, while the paper is wet, so it sort of forces boldness and abandon. 

I'm not sure how close to done this is.  I could
  • deepen the values in the sky to make it more dramatic, which might be a good balance with the water at the bottom;
  • darken the ochre triangle shape in the upper right hand bit of land;
  • tone down the phtalo in the valley at upper center;
  • add some white strokes to the water; OR
  • call it finished...
What do you think?

Lake Nicasio