Day 14 — Flowers from saran wrap

Flowers —  experiment in saran wrap and watercolor. 3″ x 4″

Today’s painting is a small painting of flowers, done from imagination and saran wrap!  I experimented with a technique where I sprayed clear water on the paper, dropped in rich color and then covered it with several crumpled layers of plastic wrap, weighting it down with a heavy book and letting it dry.  After that I amplified what I saw in the shapes by adding richer pigment on dry paper and negative painting.  You can see steps 1 and 2 below.

I saw a lovely example of this done as part of the 30 in 30 by Kay Smith.  You can see it here.  There are also plenty of examples and tutorials on the web, if you just google saran wrap and watercolor.  I definitely want to practice seeing the abstract shapes and letting more of the crinkled lines come through, gently putting in negative painting to define what I see.  Something to try again!

Step 1 after pigment, water droplets and saran wrap laid on top have dried.

Step 2 with some pencil lines and definition with thicker pigment on dry paper.