Project 5 — Daisies in a Jar
What Will I Learn?
Since watercolor is a transparent medium, we need strategies for reserving the white of the paper to be the white areas in our paintings. In this project, you’ll learn different ways to reserve whites:
- intentional blooms
- lifting wet or dry paint
- negative painting (or painting around the whites)
- using resists (applying something water-resistant to the paper)
Then you’ll use these techniques to reserve different kinds of white and light areas as you paint some white daisies in a mason jar.
Prerequisites:
- all lessons in the Getting Started module
- How to Transfer a Drawing lesson from Project 1 (Spring Chickadee)
- How to Make and Apply Vibrant, Juicy Color from Project 1 (Spring Chickadee)
- Mechanics of Mixing lesson from Project 1 (Spring Chickadee)
- Blending Color within a Shape lesson from Project 3 (Rainbow Rose Window)
- Laying Flat and Graduated Washes lesson from Project 4 (Dawn & Dusk at the Lake)
- 5 Techniques for Suggesting Trees lesson from Project 4 (Dawn & Dusk at the Lake)
Supplies You Will Need:
- supplies listed in the Required Materials list for Watercolor Jumpstart set up and ready to paint
- pencil and kneaded eraser
- woodless pencil or graphite stick (optional, but handy) or a regular pencil
- three 1/16th (one-sixteenth, 5 1/2 x 7 1/2″) sheets and one 1/8th (one-eighth, 7 1/2 x 11″) sheet of watercolor paper for the project lessons
- one 8 x 11″ sheet of watercolor paper for the project. This is slightly wider than a 1/8th sheet. The easiest way to tear a sheet this size is to start from a quarter sheet (11×15″), but fold it so that you have just a bit more than half on one side. (see diagram below)
- several scrap pieces of watercolor paper for testing and practicing colors and brushstrokes
- masking fluid (liquid frisket), bar of soap, masking fluid pickup, inexpensive brush for applying masking fluid
