My next piece is going to be a second attempt of loose wet on wet! My mother has been watching Lian Quan Zhen, a Chinese artist who incorporates Chinese painting with watercolor. He has amazing techniques for both styles!

I have been wanting to paint a leaf ever since fall hit and the leaves started changing. In his Youtube video Lian Quan Zhen, shows techniques through two paintings. For the second painting he shows how to paint a maple leaf and mix the colors with both color dropping as well as brush painting. This is similar to my last post of the apple and cherries. He starts by sketching the leaf with just water.  This piece will be my main focus. I am going to first sketch the leaf with pencil and then go over it with my brush. After that, I will do the piece again, this time sketching the leaf with just my brush. Ambitious? Yes :) The first part of his video I find intimidating, it is very loose, but the technique of blowing the water and softening the edges using your fingers can not be passed by!

For my second post, I chose to follow a simple still life from Andrew Geeson's wet into wet series. I find loose watercolors intimidating so I chose his Apple and Cherry still life as my first effort before I move onto a more difficult subject!

Andrew Geeson does not instruct with commentary, just through paint and example. I prefer verbal instruction but I found myself more attentive to watching each step.

My attempt was a comedy of errors. First, I recommend not being in a hurry when you paint, second clearing your space. I am still not sure quite how it happened but I ended up with paint on the down side of my hand causing smudges on my paper as I rested my hand on the paper to angle my brush.

The purpose of wet into wet is that the paint will only move where water has been. This is a general rule, the exception is if you have too much water it can spill over into dry areas. I sketched out the apple and cherries and followed Andrew's example, applying clean water to the subjects, leaving dry spaces where I did not want paint to go.

 In the future I will sketch the borders of the white spaces I need to leave as it would be less stressful for me to practice the placement and the shape through sketch until I am ready to do it through brush only.

 You can see my smudges on the right of the cherries!

 It was fun to drop the paint into the water and watch the colors move and blend. Loose wet into wet is a very creative and flowing process. If you are a little bit of control freak, expecting instant perfection, this is both a stressful process as well as the perfect process to learn. There is still skill and mastery in the flow.

Learning what you don't like and what didn't work the way you wanted, which is different than what you expected, helps you see what to do or try differently the next time!






The cherries, leaves and the shadowing were done with a liner brush. That is not a brush I am used to working with and need a lot more practice. I wasn't thrilled with the shadow outcome, I wanted finer lines, especially with the cherries, but as I went through the process I started to see the technique practices I need to do to learn how to maneuver the brush!

The main take away point from this exercise- stretch yourself! Do something new, do it in wisdom and order, make the right time, clear your space and have fun! Let practice sessions be for practice, do your best, but learn the process, learn through the process and appreciate the outcome, whether it's a piece you frame and hang or toss doesn't matter, you are better at the end than when you started. :)