Dandelion Dance

Dandelion Dance
Watercolor on paper, 7x10.5

Dandelions are a wonderful subject for this technique in watercolor!  Using the Pebeo Drawing Gum and my thinnest plastic palette knife, I marked off all areas that I wanted to remain lighter than the background painting.  Once I had haphazardly dropped in the colors on the dampened paper, I started brushing on a bit more of the grasses - getting stronger, drier pigment for the closer weeds.  I have various watercolor papers, which I know nothing about - so I am trying them and marking the backs to see which I prefer.  This was a Canson 140 lb paper, and what I like most about this paper is that the Pebeo comes right off when the watercolors are dry.  I would guess it is because of the sizing on the paper.  I have another unknown make of paper - and it was quite hard to rub off the drawing gum.  I do like how fast the watercolor is to work when compared to the oils.  I know there are some cool effects that can be achieved by adding salt, and something about crinkling up plastic wrap and putting it on top of wet paint, and laying a book over it until it dries.  This is just some of the random info that has seeped into my brain over the years - even though I wasn't using the medium.  I think it would be very fun to paint something whimsical - like fairies in this style!  I can just see a fairy hovering above one of these dandelions!  This painting makes 536 in 536 days :)