Saturday, July 8, 2017

NATURE'S BOUNTY & Instant Coffee

NATURE'S BOUNTY
Watercolor - 11x15

I began this painting for my weekly watercolor class for a lesson on painting texture. Because watercolor paint isn't thick like oil and acrylics you can't build up real, tactile texture with the paint. Instead, we have to rely on creating 'visual' texture using different techniques with salt, spattering, sponging, plastic wrap, scraping and in this case, coffee.

Yes, instant coffee was used on wet paint to help create the look of old, rusted metal for the watering can. The coffee crystals dissolve into the wet paint, some more than others, to give the realistic feel of roughness for old metal, wood, pottery and even the centers of sunflowers. If you haven't already, I encourage you to give it a try!

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