Hardly post on here anymore, but let's see if I change that with my more newfound interest (art).
I think it's safe to say this "wet on wet" method has been my primary for many, many paintings, even when I was doing acrylic before watercolour - it was not until this year that I finally looked up the difference, in fact, and had to try watercolour for myself. Anywho. More recently, I've begun to allow things to dry because of the "bloom" mentioned under Techniques: "In the medium of watercolors, wet-on-wet painting requires a certain finesse in embracing unpredictability. Highly translucent and prone to accidents, watercolor paint will bloom in unpredictable ways that, depending on the artist's frame of mind, can be a boon or a burden." You're telling me! I tend to work betwixt the two when I'm trying to do something specific. For example, sky... I'm not particular about it usually, because skies are skies to me. They're hard to mess up. So unless I want the sky a very specific way, the colours can mix in there however they want and I'll blend them out once everything is on there. Detailed objects such as trees or critters, on the other hand, require more paint from me and I tend to paint them more directly. So I may allow some drying as I mix the paint thick and then slop it on there. It really depends on what I'm looking for, I suppose... but to be fair, simply experimenting and knowing what materials react in which ways and whether you can use it to your advantage or not is just another tool in the toolbox. Unpredictable or not.
Kirsty Partridge's youtube channel (Kirsty Partridge Art, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSl51TSNCxLQJqLTQp0B6Cg) explained how to keep washi tape from ripping the paper when you pull it off. Well, I never thought of using it for painting before, so suddenly I got clued in... instead of covering the entire canvas (paper), or having uneven paint lines, washi to the rescue!! Then one day I was painting inside the washi lines and Dale goes, "Oh, nice frame." I stepped back and looked. Washi tape DOES make a very nice frame, especially when it was selected with the resulting painting in mind. I always used it in my planner as a border... why did I never think to use it as a frame for a painting? Now I use it for multiple scenarios. Also, that's a reminder of how beauty is in the eye of the beholder... and how subjective art can be. He didn't know the technique and he didn't care nor did he need to. He was appreciating it the way he saw and understood it. What seemed to him on purpose was advanced planning on my part to do something entirely different. In the end, I kept the tape on the paper and wiped off the excess paint with a wet rag. Now it looks intentional (except it's hanging off the edge of the page, but whtaever).
The thing that is so inspiring about art is the same thing that is so inspiring about computers, languages, history, maps, music, legos, and pretty much any other specialty: It has its own set of terms, tools, and a countless array of ideas. It's versatile. It's interpretive. It's creative. And it offers an excellent learning curve that can be utilized by young and old, novice and expert alike. It does not discriminate. Most people love some kind of art whether they create it or not. It's one of our most human qualities, this need to express, create, and appreciate. Yet despite how basic it can be, you can get so deeply into it that one day you're sitting there going, "If only I had a piece of compressed brown chalk, or white charcoal, this would be so easy to accomplish without leaving xyz and working around it." Or: "They should make charcoal with pigment /in/ it so I don't have to keep adding coloured pencil to the-- HEY! They DO make that! That sucker's going on my wish list!" Or: "Ohhhh...THAT's why they have such a selection of papers!!" lol
Art. Gotta love it. This one is from yesterday. Note the washi "frame" as a border. :) Also note the "bloom" that's so notable in the ground and mountains near the bottom (there is some in the sky also, but this worked to the effect I desired - I wanted it to look rough and stormy, and that's exactly how it bloomed for me). The only thing in this painting I had not anticipated was in the sky. Sometimes, I'm finding that this 140lb paper, applied with watercolour paint of just the right consistency, will result in an odd textured crackleature once dried. If the paint is heavier, it dries smooth; if wetter, it looks watercolourish. Have yet to recognise the precise moment when the paint is of such a consistency that it will dry that way. Is that bloom? I may ask an artist friend of mine that is studying this stuff. She may know...
