Watercolor, gel medium, gesso, and tissue paper in Handbook Watercolor Sketchbook

This is one of the worse watercolors I've done in a really long time. It doesn't show so much in the scan, but the paint would not dissolve, so there are little clumps of paint everywhere. This particular paper doesn't allow for layers as all the paint sits on the surface. Blah, blah, blah....

Wondering why I'm posting a sub-par image? Because I haven't painted anything else lately. In our family, we have something we affectionately (not!) call the Black Ass (BA). It simply means that you have a bad case of the blues, your mood is quite dark (black) and occasionally(?) you act like an......ass. BA has a particularly negative effect on painting.

Whereas I did not get roses for Valentine's Day (a good thing), I have received them in the past for no good reason (a very good thing). I thought about all the roses that were given for the holiday and wondered how many folks save a bud like I do to dry.

This little bud is a few years old and I wanted to capture it as a memory. This didn't turn out quite as expected due to flawed choices at the beginning. I'll try it again though as the experiment worked....I recently made a purchase that came wrapped in some fun tissue paper. I saved it for use in a collage.

The piece you see is a very small section cut out and pasted to the page with gel medium. Once dry, I added clear gesso over the top so I could watercolor over the "tissue tag." I need to do a bit more experimenting, but the idea is solid.

Why the black mood? We've have a very dear friend that has been given a rather grim prognosis of congestive heart failure and we'll likely be losing them soon. My heart breaks just typing the words. I recently read an article the said our relationships don't end with death....the relationship merely changes just like it would if someone divorced, moved away, etc. I find a great deal of comfort in that thought.

If I'm not around much this week, please bear with me. I'll be back.

On the Hunt 3.5 x 8.5 Handbook Watercolor Journal Ink, watercolor & gouache

The gremlins are running amok in my life. They've gotten into my video equipment, the sound equipment, software, online services, my email account and things I've mailed through the USPO.....just to name a few areas where they're having a jolly fine time wreaking havoc! I'm not sure if they're stirred up because of the full moon or if the axis of the earth is off by some slight millisecond or it's just my turn. Whatever it is, I'm more than tired of it and ready for some semblance of what passes for normal around here.

The image above (assuming Blogger loads it as it seems to have had its fair share of gremlins, too) is one based in symbolism. The colors, the design, the items represented in the piece all have special meaning to me. Someone else looking at it may wonder what the point of the art was, but when I look back at this page, I'll know. No words need to be written on the page.

Using symbols in our work to represent things we don't want to give voice to or any more importance than it already has, is a wonderful way of getting them onto the page and out of our heads. Now that I've put the gremlins on notice, I hope they go back to wherever they came from!

Update on the Handbook Watercolor Journal....if you look at the very top of the page and along the left side, you will note dark and light splotches in the pigment. This was caused by very uneven sizing. Sloppy, really. Luckily, the paint grabbed darkest at the top of the page and is suggestive of sky with clouds in front of it. The side splotches just look like a bad wash job!

Since I don't often do full page washes, I'm not overly concerned with it; however, because of this and a few other things I've noted along the way, I would only recommend this book from a standpoint of pure experimentation and play or to test the long format. It is unfortunate too, as this book will not become a staple sketchbook in my world because I do like the format very much. I think it would be better to make my own, with paper I prefer than live with the unpredictability of when and where uneven sizing may show up.