anika mari

A few days ago I finished up a watercolor painting that I wasn’t satisfied with. I decided that I’d add some drawing to the pod shapes in the hopes of salvaging the piece.

I started by doing some sketches to figure out what patterns to use on the final painting. I worked with variations on a scalloped pattern, some simple, and some a little more complex.

Because I am planning to redo the same composition for another watercolor painting to try to get the original effect that I was after, I used a pencil and some tracing paper to copy the shapes.

When the outlines were traced, I thought it would be a good idea to try out some more variations of the scalloped pattern.

The above photo didn’t turn out great because it was back lit and the paper is translucent. It was windy so I have to use a lot of clothes pins to get it to hang straight, but I thought it looked kind of neat.

I put off drawing on the watercolor for several days because I got distracted by a few other drawing projects, plus I hadn’t decided exactly what patterns to draw. Finally I just went ahead and started. As I filled in the pods, I decided to vary the size and shallowness of the scallops.

The result is definitely what I was after. In a way it amuses me that I spent as much time as I did working on preliminary sketches, but I suppose it helped me rule out the more elaborate variations, and probably did influence the final result. In any case, I like it, and I consider the painting salvaged!