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ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #114:
Acrylic gloss medium is the secret to this technique! While working wet-in-wet, I experimented with dropping diluted acrylic gloss medium into the wet paint. Because of the difference in viscosity, the medium pushed the more fluid paint away and left a series of irregular shapes that are lighter in value.
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ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #113:
Amazing things can happen if you use lots of water on unstretched paper! Instead of drawing the edges of shapes with pencil, I defined them with plain water, blotting with a dry paper towel to make corrections. Next I added a lot more water to make the paper buckle into hills and valleys before dropping in diluted acrylic ink. As the water slowly evaporated, it left behind a record of its interaction with pigment and paper, echoing the traces water leaves behind in the landscape. After this layer dried, I added more dark to increase depth and painted the background. Can you spot the places I used watercolor pencils to mimic the linear patterns that naturally occurred?
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ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #112:
The secret ingredient in this painting is acrylic gloss medium. I painted branching shapes on the paper with water, then added diluted medium. After it started to dry, I added more water to the branching shapes, which pushed the remaining medium to their edges. When this layer dried completely, it acted as a partial resist to the watercolor I painted on top, creating ghostly shapes that fade in and out of the paper and add different degrees of depth. Here’s another closeup:
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