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ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #122:

Glazing, gloss medium, plastic, and pipettes are combined for this Mystery Technique! First I used a brush to spatter the paper with acrylic gloss medium and let it dry. When I painted over the spatters with watercolor, they resisted the wet paint and created the sensation of light circular shapes floating in the color. Next I covered the wet paint with a piece of thin plastic, which stuck in places to form darker shapes. Working quickly, I manipulated the shapes with a palette knife and brush handle. After this layer dried, I removed the plastic, then repeated the process with a darker blue-green at the bottom. I used pipettes for the last layer to create an irregular network of linear shapes, drawing them with water before adding diluted blue-green and tilting the paper to encourage the paint to follow the water.