anika mari

I’ve been wanting to try out an idea that’s been hovering in the back of my mind for a while. Often when I draw I start off using black ink, and then I like to add color after the fact. My coloring tool of choice is usually Prismacolor markers which have the unfortunate tendency of dissolving the crisp black lines and causing unwanted smudging (sometimes just a little, sometimes enough to ruin a drawing for me).

Since I’ve been working with watercolor paints lately, and the ink I use says “waterproof” on the box, it occurred to me that the two materials might be the perfect match.

I quickly drew some simple blobby shapes with my rapidograph pen and let the ink dry for a few minutes.

I mixed up a rich red using my watercolor paints, and then filled in the previously drawn shapes.

I purposefully painted over the lines and even tried to rub up the ink a bit with my brush, just to see if I could get it to bleed at all. But the lines stayed put! No muss, no fuss. I think I’m in love.

It took me much too long to actually try it out, but now that I know that it works so well, I definitely will be putting this technique to use more in the future.

I might revisit this painting and add in some more drawing, and who knows, maybe more color. I can see adding details to turn each red shape into a flower, or giving each blob little eyes so they become some kind of creature.

I had intended to do another watercolor similar to my recent scalloped drawing in order to practice getting a specific painted watercolor effect that I didn’t quite get on the first try. For the new piece, I decided to change the overall composition slightly, so I started out by drawing in the shapes with a watercolor pencil.

When the drawing was complete, I looked at all the tiny shapes and didn’t feel like painstakingly filling in each one.

Not sure about what I did want to do, I switched directions and did a loose sketch of similar shapes on a much larger piece of sketch paper. I continued using a loose stroke when painting in the shapes, and ended up using orange overlapped by blue.

I really liked the end result. This is definitely one of those results that reminds me that I should always work on “good” paper, even when just doing sketchy stuff. Sometimes those are the pieces I love the most, but if it’s on wrinkly, acidy paper, it’s hard to justify framing it.

I was inspired to try out a simlarly loose style with the smaller piece I’d started earlier. The final result was quite different since the technique didn’t transfer precisely to the smaller scale.

I layered 5 different colors, and the result was much more spiky and chaotic than the orange and blue composition. If you are interested in seeing the progression of each layer, I have those photos up on flickr.

I wasn’t too happy with the end result of the 5 layered painting. I think that is because it was so different from what I’d originally intended to create, and also so different from the blue and orange composition that I liked so much. I got some pretty good feedback about the smaller painting that got me to look at it in a different way and appreciate the end result for what it is.

Even if it’s not my favorite thing that I’ve ever created, it’s a good example of what I love best about art–that by experimenting with techniques and following the path of ideas that lead to other ideas, I can come up with stuff that is very different from what I set out to do. By hearing what others thought and liked about my unexpected result, I’m reminded that having a final piece that is great every time isn’t what’s important. It’s the process that I love!

After I finished my latest sea urchin print and the squashed caterpillar byproduct painting, I had the novel idea to do an actual non-experimental painting. Watercolor is a relatively new medium for me though, so I ended up experimenting anyway.

I started out by drawing what seems to be my favorite shape in a scattered pattern across the rough surface of the paper. I used watercolor pencils to create the pointy ended ovoid shapes. When I do watercolor paintings that start off with a drawing, I like to use watercolor pencils. They are forgiving in that you can usually dissolve errant lines and marks with some water and not affect the overall painting when all is said and done.

I began the actual painting by smoothing out the drawn lines with water. I then added some blues and greens and got some really cool textures.

The painting was done, but the bright white background bugged me. I figured that I could painstakingly color in the background by carefully working around each blue shape, but I wanted to figure out an easier way. I reasoned that it didn’t really matter if I messed the whole thing up, so I could try something new.

The idea was to color in the background as quickly as possible. To achieve that end, I used a paper towel. First I dipped the towel in water and swept it across the painting, back and forth until the whole surface was moistened. The blue shapes bled a little as I expected they would, but still maintained their delicate textures. It was working! Then I dipped the paper towel in the light green color I had prepared, and using a similar stroke, I applied the color to the paper.

To get an even coat of the green, I had to work the surface more than I had when just wetting it. Sadly, the blue paint bled even more and blended with the green and dulled down the whole painting.

So my experiment didn’t exactly work, but I attempted to salvage the piece by re-painting the blue shapes. Because the entire surface of the paper was pretty wet, the darker blue paint bled out from the edge of many of the shapes. The watercolor texture isn’t quite as pretty either, and overall the painting looks somewhat dull, so I plan to add some ink drawing to the shapes which I think will help save this particular painting.

Since I had the paper towel out and ready, I used it to create a pretty light green wash on a new piece of watercolor paper. It worked great on the plain white surface. The color is bright and cheerful and not at all muddied. I’m discovering that planning is often my friend when I’m working with watercolor. I’m going to create a similar composition of blue ovoid shapes on the fresh light green background so I can see if the painting will turn out how I planned from the beginning.

It’s always hot in Saipan, but the past few days have been incredibly so. I think it’s because of all the rain we had last week. It cooled the island off while it was raining, but now the humidity is as thick as lentil soup. It makes it hard to get a lot of work done, but I’ve been making progress, if a lot slower than usual. I was thinking about starting to work more at night, but the bugs come out, and swarm all around when there’s light to attract them. There’s nothing more annoying that working carefully on the details of a painting or drawing when termites start landing on my arms or ankles.

That said, I finished a print of an all-over texture that I created using a large-nubbed sea urchin shell fragment.

I kind of love it, and it kind of creeps me out a bit. I’m not sure why, but I have the strong desire to cut it up into little circles and make a collage. Maybe to make the impact of the pattern a less intense. Somehow that seems like faulty logic, but that’s what I’m feeling about it.

Perhaps I should try the technique again. The reason I find the print a little unsettling could be that it seems a bit unbalanced and a somewhat overwrought. I’m not sure it is strong enough as a standalone piece of art. I’m having a hard time imagining my signature at the bottom and a mat and frame around the edge.

I created another “byproduct” painting when I applied the watercolor to the sea urchin piece as it rested on another sheet of watercolor paper. It wasn’t very interesting, so I got a little experimental with it. I applied a wash of water over the sharp, jagged little brush strokes. The water took up some of the pigment and created a really pretty light turquoise color. There was an excess of liquid pooling on the paper, so I had the idea to let it drip down the empty side of the paper. It made a mess of the floor, but the effect is pretty neat.

The final painting reminds me of a squashed caterpillar. This unsettles me a lot less than the above sea urchin print. Go figure.

The clouds were thick and gray on Tuesday, giving me enough cover that I decided it would be ok to go beach combing in the middle of the day. It was still steamy and hot but bearable without the sun beating down. I made my way to Lau Lau Beach where I’d had good luck finding lots of little white cowrie shells on my previous visits. Oh my, how things have changed in 6 years.

Instead of a beach littered with shells, I found myself picking a path through plain old litter. There was trash in the water, up on the beach, everywhere!

I kept walking down the beach and eventually came to an end of sorts where the beach gives way to coral rock. I glanced in the water and saw what I thought could be a broken sea urchin. Looking around, I saw some bits of broken plastic lying on the beach that looked remarkably similar. I decided I wouldn’t wade into the knee deep water unless I found some actual sea urchin pieces on the beach or in shallow water.

After surveying the area, I did indeed find a few urchin fragments, so I rolled up my shorts and waded in to check out the suspicious collection of shards. They were all pieces from sea urchins! I gathered them up and soon had a nice handful in a variety of shapes and colors and textures.

I had planned to cut up the green print for my next art project, but after I found the sea urchin pieces, my wheels started turning in a different direction, and I decided to create watercolor prints using a similar technique to that used when making palm prints.

I knew I would have to adjust the process slightly when working with the brittle sea urchin fragments.

I painted a little area of the sheet of watercolor paper with clear water. I then applied relatively saturated watercolor paint to the nobby side of the first sea urchin piece. I carefully placed the piece paint side down onto the wet paper. I used my finger to firmly push and roll the curved portion of sea urchin shell against the paper’s surface. The piece snapped right in half. Despite the now further fragmented shard, I continued printing in a horizontal direction across the paper, wetting the surface, painting the two pieces of shell, and pressing them down individually. I cautioned myself to be more careful with the next pieces.

I chose a new sea urchin piece and a new color for each subsequent horizontal band in the print (see below). All but one of the fragments broke into smaller pieces while I was making the print. So much for being more gentle. Truthfully, it would have been hard to get a good enough print from the delicate texture if I hadn’t used firm pressure, so I doubt the breakage could have been avoided. When all was said and done, I ended up with another byproduct painting that’s quite different than the pods piece that I added drawing to.

I took the photo of the splattered final byproduct with the pieces of sea urchin resting on the paper. The sea urchin shards are dry and porous. They sucked up the paint and are essentially dyed blue or green now. When I’m finished printing with them, I’ll have to find some way to showcase the actual pieces of shell.

When I started creating the sea urchin print, I was pretty much winging it in terms of composition and colors. I didn’t have a specific goal in mind at the start, but as the piece progressed, I decided to create a variety of textures as the color changed from blue to green.

I’m most happy with (from the top) the first and fourth bands of color/texture. The bottom row was kind of a disaster that I managed to salvage to some extent. The watercolor that I apply really has to be pretty thick. Then the wet paper can do the job of drawing out the paint to create an interesting texture. Using gouache instead of watercolor might the right consistency. For that last green band there was a lot more water in the paint, so when it met with the wet surface of the paper it bled like crazy. When I tried a drier surface, it still bled a lot, but a totally dry surface wouldn’t pick up much, if any of the paint.

I certainly haven’t perfected this sea urchin print technique, but I want to keep working with it. I really love the pattern and texture achieved in the 4th band. To create that unique result, I used the only shell fragment that had a more pronounced texture with larger nobs than all the other sea urchin pieces. The larger points held a good amount of the watercolor while keeping the flat surface of the shell away from the paper. It was the only piece that didn’t break too!