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ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #144:
After masking the main leaf, I painted the background with a wet-in-wet mixture of Daniel Smith’s Green Apatite Genuine, Blue Apatite Genuine, and Hematite Burnt Scarlet Genuine. While the paint was still wet, I dropped in kosher salt to add more texture. Next I let that layer dry completely before brushing off the salt, removing the masking, and painting the main leaf. The textures and patterns left behind by the salt became my inspiration for suggesting pebbles, sticks, and partially decayed leaves in the rest of the painting. I used a 0.5 mm Pentel Arts Hybrid Technica Pen to draw a combination of dots, scribbles, and lines for definition and detail. Next I added some light watercolor washes to create shadows and other finishing touches. Here’s a detail:
And here’s the whole painting:
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