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ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #46:

This is an example of paper marbling. I used a thin tool to swirl patterns in the colors before transferring the paint to a prepared piece of bluish gray Canson Mi Tientes. It’s the paper color and the use of white paint that give it such a distinctive look – this is what the paper looked like before I marbled it:

Here’s the same blue and black paint on white paper:

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ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #45: This is a combination of wet-in-wet color mixing and glazing on Unryu paper, which I was delighted to find means “Cloud Dragon Paper.” It contains long, swirling strands of kozo, which caught part of the wet pigment, creating a delicate texture. I began by painting the surface with irregular bands of yellow-orange acrylic ink. After it dried, I add a glaze of diluted red watercolor mixed with granulating medium and sprayed it with water as it started to lose its sheen.

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ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #44: This is the cover for a piece called Family Secrets. I used a Dremel tool to modify the shape of the central hole and to make grooves in  the wood. I then  added additional texture with an X-Acto knife and stained the surface with walnut ink and diluted acrylic.  Next I glued a flat slice of walnut shell, which I cut with jeweler’s saw, to the watercolor painting in the center.