Are you curious about how this was done? I’ll explain next month, so be sure to sign up for email updates to find out!

ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #52:

This striking insect is an eyed elater, a kind of click beetle. After I cut the shape out of black Tyvek, I added the details with white acrylic paint. The loose pieces of bark and lichen are also Tyvek; this time I started with the white side of black-and-white Tyvek before using acrylic and a fine-tipped black pen for the details. The log is hot pressed watercolor paper. The pale horizontal streaks are loose strokes of white acrylic showing through thin washes of  grayish brown; I also added a little green in a few spots. I glued on all the Tyvek pieces after finishing the log.

This is part of a new piece called Ground Stories. Are you curious about how it was done? I’ll explain next month, so be sure to sign up for email updates to find out!

ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #51:

I love to swim backstroke in the summer and look at the sky, especially when it’s filled with dramatic cumulus clouds. This Mystery Technique is a small section of a 30-inch wide sky painting.

I began by wetting the entire piece of paper and applying pale washes of yellow and pink. After they dried, I rewet the paper and started suggesting the cloud’s shape by painting around it with washes of blue; I also added multiple layers of bluish grays for the cloud’s shadows. To increase the illusion of depth, I added a mixture of cobalt and cerulean gouache to the top of the sky before transitioning to cerulean watercolor.  Using a spray bottle to partially wet the paper made it easier to mimic the irregular outline of the cloud’s edge.

Are you curious about how this was done? I’ll explain next month, so be sure to sign up for email updates to find out!

ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #50:

This collage began with loosely painted watercolor shapes. After they dried, I tore and crumpled pieces of Unryu paper before placing them on part of the painting’s surface.  By brushing matte acrylic medium on top of the Unryu,  I glued it down while emphasizing its translucency and long fibers. I also added a multi-layered collage fragment near the center. After the matte medium dried,  I used thin washes of acrylic ink in a few places to create a greater sense of unity.