Watercolor - Spattering

Another look of watercolor that I really like is that of spattering. Spattered paint makes those little dots you often see on paintings. There have been tools made specifically for spattering or some people like to use an old toothbrush, but I find that a paint brush is always near by if you are painting, so why not use it? I just dilute the paint in the brush and tap it on another brush as seen above. On this example, I am spattering into a wet wash, so I am actually working wet into wet. When two colors get together in the soup, they become friends and mingle. Thus, the spatter you end up with will be soft over the wet areas and hard over the dry areas.

Above is an example of the difference. I usually do spattering as sometimes the wet spattering gets a little out of control just as it did above! Those party animals! Until you get used to spattering, you might want to test your paint over on scrap piece of paper. How much water is in the paint. how hard you hit the brush, how close you are to the painting...these are all factors with how your spattering will turn out.

I delved into my box of cards I had that I made with previous Serendipity Stamps to get some more examples. Pulling these out was like getting reacquainted with old friends! With many of these cards, I remember exactly where I was when I made those cards. These two cards actually were published in an article about watercolor. The dandelion stamp was stamped with brown ink rather than black and the pussy willows were stamped using watercolor crayons rather than ink. They are both good examples of spattering. I love spattering with things from nature.

You probably cannot tell but on both of these, I did water embossing on the dandelion blossom, the seed pod and on the pussy willows in the forefront. It is a very effective technique on both of these subjects. While on my trip this summer, I saw the largest dandelions I have ever seen in my life and I also saw pussy willows growing in Canada. Joyce kept photographing the dandelions and I was making fun of her taking photos of a weed. Eventually I succumbed and took some also and she considered it a personal victory! :-) We saw the seed things a big as tennis balls!

These are also good example of cast shadows. Using a cool very faint blue, I came in and silhouetted the stems with paint. Unfortunately, the shadow was still wet when I spattered, as you can see that the brown spatter made itself at home in that shadow. That is okay...it is watercolor!

I love the variation of tones you get with the watercolor crayons. With the dandelion, I love the detail you get with Versafine ink. Thus, it is hard to set hard fast rules to tell you when to use which. Often I will try both and see which I like best. Another good thing about watercolor paper is that you can flip it over and use the other side!

I am planning on heading over to Alabama this weekend to see the kids. We aren't all together at once very often any more, so it will be a treat. I just have to get my husband home from his mother's first. She had surgery this week and he is over there in SC seeing to her. Speaking of surgery, my sister also had surgery this week on her rotator cuff. She probably won't be able to read this with her sling, but giving a shout out to Lisa (yeah, the one I gave dogfood to and told her they were fritos...in a fritos bag). No wonder she was so mean to me!

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend. I probably won't be able to post until I get back, so you have the weekend to practice your water coloring!