I was really happy with how this canvas turned out. I had the idea to add more color, and the Ocotillo came to mind. I used Derwent Inktense watercolor pencil (shiraz), and I like how the watercolor highlights the canvas texture. Keep it simple Sheila.
Thought I was done with this. It was sitting on my desk, and I decided it still needed work. I added more texture and I like it better now. The spot on the top left edge looks terrific in person. It looks like the paint has been chipped away.
I am not sure this is interesting or attractive, or balanced. Not sure it even matters to me. I had fun scratching into the white paint. I had fun playing with color and trying something new!
I thought I was done, turns out I wasn’t. Below you can see the first two sessions. A short GIF. The colors in this were difficult to show true. It is not pink, but mauve. And the mauve is evenly distributed from left to right, (you can see below, but it is showing darker than it is) Also, the streaking is not as prominent in person.
First two sessions.
In the second session, I noticed I had some “holes”. Bare spots. I added more white. Something was still off so next I added sand. And finally more of the clay color. Better.
The soft tones are very calming to me. The darks add a nice pop of contrast. I love that the texture of the canvas is showing. It catches the paint off the palette knife in a nice pattern.
This isn’t the painting I intended to post today. At the top of my blog page I tell you that I will even share my failures here. I will share the fiasco I worked on today. I am going to try again tomorrow. Hoping that I will have a good painting to show along with the ugly.