This is a closeup of Unseen Omens II, one of the wall-hung watercolor sculptures from my Reshaping the Shadows exhibition. Wonder how I layered the space to create depth? You can find out next month if you’ve signed up for email updates; I’ll reveal the details in April!

ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #66:

I began by painting a layer of branching shapes with a diluted mixture of Winsor & Newton Permanent Masking Fluid, acrylic matte medium, and acrylic white ink on 300 lb. Arches watercolor paper. After it dried, I wet the entire surface and used pipettes to drop diluted Hydrus watercolors mixed with Winsor & Newton Granulation Medium. The branching shapes of the first layer acted as resist, creating varied textural effects. After the paper dried, I used a craft knife to cut out tree shapes, then added shadows and magenta edges:

Now it’s the first layer of Keeping Secrets, a new watercolor sculpture.

Curious to know how this was done? You can find out about the special techniques I used if you’ve signed up for email updates; I’ll reveal the details next month!

ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #65:

Last month’s Mystery Technique demonstrates the varied strokes you can make with Liner brushes. Here’s my collection, with the Universal Liners on the right:

First I partially wet the paper with a spray bottle and applied yellow with a Universal Liner; next I repeated the process with yellow-orange and red-orange. The final layer is a wet-in-wet mix of several different browns and red.

It’s hard to believe that these 2 Isabey brushes started out the same shape. The one on the right is a replacement for the other one; 20 years of use can really wear down the tip!

Want to know what special tools I used to paint this? You can find out next month if you’ve signed up for email updates!

ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #64:

Here’s my Japanese paperweight in action!

Although these are typically used to keep lightweight papers from shifting during delicate brushwork, mine help me manipulate how the paper buckles. I like to work with lots of water on unstretched paper, which makes the paper form hills and valleys that evaporate at different rates. The patterns preserved in the paint remind me of the traces water leaves behind in the landscape.