Blue/Orange/Gray: Developing Some Abstracts

Blue/Orange/Gray.  Watercolor and Crayon.
Approximately 3.5 x 3 inches.

Last weekend I sat down and started painting (or doodling) with a limited palette on hot press paper. Hot press, of course, is super smooth.  It handles the paint very differently than cold press or rough--it almost seems as if it's a race to get the paint to stay fluid on the paper.  And, if you ask me, the colors look different when they are dry--different in a way that's more chalky than if I was painting on one of the other types of watercolor paper.  This is just my opinion--I honestly don't paint on this type of paper frequently, and am not doing any kind of systematic study.

Today, I took one of the paintings and finished it with a crayon overlay.  Finished piece above.  Can  you tell which one it was?  Yeah, too stripey with a weird growth.  It's the second abstract I've finished with that blue.  You can see the first HERE.  I should probably finish all five so that they're interconnected by color, yes?

Cobalt blue, quin burnt orange, quin red, and undersea green (all daniel smith) and overlaid with light blue and light gray caran d'ache crayon.

Four Abstracts.  Watercolor.
Each approximately 3 inches square.

Found Some Claybord!

Golden Field at Sunset.  Watercolor & Crayon.
5 x 7 inches.

I went to collect some watercolor paper yesterday and ran across a piece of Ampersand's Aquabord. I bought it ages ago, and I suspect it may be claybord, but a few minutes of research tells me that it's one and the same--just renamed.

This is a piece that's 5 x 7 inches, and one of the big advantages is in the framing.  No glass.  Can plop it right in the frame.  I tried mounting watercolor paper at the end of last year, and I'm not particular enough.  To mount paper requires patience and attention to detail.  You can look at my painting style and know that's not me!

I liked the way it handled the water and paint.  I did the first cut yesterday and went back today to add some darks and a tiny bit of gray crayon just at the horizon line.  I'm pretty pleased.

Indian yellow, phthalo blue gs, and quin violet with a touch of gray caran d'ache.

Welcome Back Cobalt

Welcome Back Cobalt.  Watercolor and Crayon.
Approximately 4 inches square.

I haven't used cobalt in a long time, and I'd forgotten how much I like the way it granulates in washes (see the sky), or can be used as an almost opaque color (see the foreground),  Nice.

Indian yellow, prussian blue, cobalt blue, and quin violet.  Plus some crayon.  On a scrap of paper, which is probably 300 lb Kilimanjaro.