Night in Fairfield

Night in Fairfield
Watercolor, ink, hot wax on rice paper
purchase here

I had finished my nocturne painting - the first painting of the Fairfield Fall Foliage Paint Out, and had put my gear away early.  Visiting with the other artists who were still out painting, I walked up the street to "Hucks" - a small town gas and convenience store.  I passed this beautiful building, illuminated by the glow of lamplight.  Snapping a photo with my phone, I am painting from that reference today.  This is my first attempt at painting a nocturne - and a street scene - in this new watercolor batik style.  Not at all sure of the results, I forged ahead! I've never even tried to do a night scene in watercolor, and it is SO much different in application to oils on my panel!  The tricky part is determining where I want that "glow" to be - and making sure I save those areas in the light!  Using indigo for my darkness, I dropped it in wet, after waxing off the buildings already blocked in with their color.  Wadding this up and unwrapping it three different times, I then floated the brownish tones into the cracks if the wax.  After ironing as much of this wax out as I could between brown paper, I used the side of my round brush to barely paint along the tops of the creases for added dimension.  I have noticed that my india ink fades a little through this whole process, and I can not go back over my painting when done - there is just too much wax embedded in the rice paper at this point.  So, I will need to be sure and darken those lines a bit, if I want them to remain.  Painting number 652 in 652 days :)