Watercolor Sundays


Thursdays are good days. That is the day that our library puts all of its unwanted donations and oldie, moldy stuff out on carts to be taken away to be recycled. The carts are piled high with books, flattened cardboard boxes, old magazines and other detritus which accumulates in even the most organized libraries. Oftentimes, I see something that strikes my fancy. Since it's going to recycling anyway, I pluck it for my own...

I found this interesting looking book on the pile a few weeks ago. It's an old poetry book and was down in the basement until it was allowed to die. I was surprised that it had last checked out in 1952 (according to the slip inside) and that fines used to be two cents a day. Now fines are a quarter per day.

I was looking for something new to do with my watercolors when I picked up this book and took a look at the paper inside. It was soft and toothy - perfect for watercolors. I drew a quick and easy sketch on the paper and tried a few splashes of color. I am no good at creating fine art on the fly and show my unnaturalness for painting when I do so...


It feels a lot like hot press watercolor paper - the paint goes on kind of slippery. It holds color very well and I rather like the way the text adds (wait for it) TEXTure to the painting. (pause to catch your breath)

I also messed around with a set of really cheap watercolors I picked up at Michael's for $4.99. It's their container which interests me most. After I use the colors in the pans, I can put my own tube colors in there for portability. Aren't the colors yummy, too? I don't have any candy colors like are in the box. I made up a sampler of all the colors to see how they were. Surprisingly, most of them have good saturation. Several are opaque/gouache style paints and I don't mind. I'm hoping to treat myself to all new tube paints this year. Maybe I'll try some new colors, too.

Comments

Ann Martin said…
Those colors look so inspiring - beautiful and fun. Good find on the textured paper and I like your little trial pic. Believe it or not, I think I remember when library fines were only two cents; is that even possible? I'm not THAT old!

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