Wash, Imprints and Formed Landscapes

A short while back, I accidentally made some imprints from one sketchbook page to another while some paint was still wet, creating a new page with new marks. Today, I wanted to try this in a more conscious way to see what outcomes came about.

I made a simple wash over a large piece of watercolour paper.

Then I pressed 3 A5 pieces onto it while it was still wet.

The wash pressed onto these piece. I wasn't sure about the mottled texture of the paper being so apparent so I decided to work into it with a sponge.

After doing this, they looked much better, primarily because the paint was more distributed over the paper and it looked more full. I really liked how each piece looked very different despite it being printed from the same source.

Next, I worked over the top of each, adding more paint and definition, teasing out what were essentially imagined landscapes.

Once the paint was dry I added more definition with dry materials (pencils and pastels). This gave them a more representational quality. I will only know from doing more of these which works best, (or maybe it won't be a case of seeing what's 'best' but more, embracing the variation and chance of it all).

I particularly liked the yellow on the lower piece. Perhaps this is because I'm often drawn to blues and greys. Next time, I'm going to push more with yellow and see what happens. What's really liberating about this method of painting is that the first wash on the large paper really is totally free and expressive - it's not going to be seen or resolved in any way. As I continues this type of experiment, I'll add more to this post.