watercolour rescue

One of the best ideas I got from my friend Cluny was to take an old "trasher" (goodness know that we all have plenty of those) when you have not painted for a while and work on it. You have nothing to loose and it helps you get over that fear of the blank white paper. Sometimes this particular piece of paper is still destined for the bottom drawer but sometimes you end up with an interesting painting for your efforts.
 In my recent class on using ink with watercolour I started to add some ink lines to an otherwise lifeless painting.

 This painting always needed something and has been living in a drawer for quite some time.

 I started by adding some cross hatching in coloured ink to the shadowed areas of the pots and then enhanced some of the dark using a bamboo dip pen and India Ink. At this point I decided that what this painting had been in need of was some stronger darks. I continued working at home by adding some gripping dark areas and some cooler blue shadows to compliment the orange of the clay pots.

                                Newman's Pots (9 x 19 inches)