San Fran - Corrections and Japantown

Ever get that feeling that you know you're making a mistake when you're creating a piece of art, but you just can't see it?

Well, that's what happened when one of my cyber friends let me know that I had misspelled macaroon on my page...it should have been macaron. And I knew it, but for the life of me, could not see it! I had a good laugh when she mentioned it.

Normally, I'd let the mistake stand and simply add a note below, but I thought I'd show you how I corrected it instead.

The first thing I do is to "white out" the area to be corrected. I either use a Sharpie Poster Paint pen or white acrylic paint. The Sharpie Pen is acrylic white ink. This helps to cover up the area quicker and it stops any bleeds I'd get if I happen to be using non-permanent materials like watercolor.

Once dry, I add a thin layer of Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground and let it dry. Then I add two more very thin coats. The reason for adding the thin layers is because this stuff is thick and it shows up on the page if you don't thin it out. In fact, you can sand this stuff it's so thick.

Once it has thoroughly dried, I repaint the n, s and the exclamation point. Done! DS Watercolor Ground is fun stuff to play with and has many applications beyond just making corrections.

Moving on to Japantown, I wanted to capture some of the cherry blossoms that were in full bloom as well as a modern, metal lotus bloom.....and I nearly ruined the page!

I decided to use non-permanent ink for the lotus bloom and then flood with water. It turned out okay, but obviously, my mind was somewhere else when I drew the shadow. So I stuck a Maido sticker to help camouflage the mistake. Maido is a pen/stationary/journal/office supply paradise for anyone addicted to pens, pencils, journals and office supplies!

The cherry tree did not turn out anything like I'd hoped and I wound up salvaging it by using a Uniball Signo White Gel pen to create more of a blossom look to it.

After completing the page, I realized I had started off the page with the word Chinatown rather than Japantown....erk! So our comes the DS Watercolor Ground again to  fix that mistake—are you seeing a theme to this post yet?!

This was the view at dinner and it was the end of our third day on foot—we were exhausted and sore. We had seen this quote in the Jack Keroauc Alley we had visited in Chinatown. It seemed appropriate for the page and the memory.

This was also as close as we came to actually seeing a sunset. We were either no where near the water at the end of the day or it was foggy/cloudy. Still, it was a beautiful evening!

Next up, we get some wheels so we can really start covering some ground...