Through the Bamboo Grove (watercolor 17 x 23) on reserve for La Salles show

As promised, here is a larger more finished version of the Bamboo Grove.  I left the composition pretty much as it was in my little postcard painting, but I greatly increased the contrast by darkening the shadows and underbrush.

This time I poured the painting.  Pouring watercolor is a process much like batik.

I began by making a value sketch of the painting in graphite.  I transferred my sketch to the watercolor paper with graphite paper.  Then I used liquid mask to save all of the white highlights.  In this case highlights were thin strips of light on the edge of the bamboo, and the ridges where the sections of bamboo meet.

Once the painting was masked, I mixed three colors of paint very thinly in cups: cadmium yellow, new gamgee, and phthalo blue.  I wet the painting and then poured the paint out of the cups across the paper working from left to right and sloping downward.  I poured the yellows first then the blue.

After the painting was dry I masked all of the pastel values, mostly sky and unshadowed path and poured again.  This time I used hansa light and new gamgee for the yellows and both phthalo and cobalt  for the blues.  I added quinacridone deep red rose too.  I mixed all of the colors more thickly than on the previous pour.  I used very little red and tried to isolate it on the bottom on the picture.

I repeated the mask and pouring process two more times masking two sets of medium values.  The last time I poured only shadows and underbrush.

After the painting had dried completely, I removed the mask and assessed the results.  I had beautiful varied greens in the bamboo and nice dark shadows, but bamboos were mostly one value and looked flat.  I darkened the rear bamboo, and shadowed the sides of the bamboo to round it.  I dropped some color into the highlights on the path and added some blue to the sky. I soften the skyline foliage and varied the greens a little there.  I had left a roadway from my reference photo running across  the painting  just below the skyline foliage.  I decided that that was a distraction and painted it out.

Prints available from my gallery at Fine Art America.com.