Old Trick, New to me: Drawing with Clear Water
We were in the Toronto area on a business trip the other week, had a half day free, and thus: The Soldier’s Tower at the University of Toronto Queens Park campus.
There is a tremendous amount of drawing a person could do here in Queen’s Park. I’m hoping I’ll be able to make it back summer. If there’s anyone planning a sketching event in Toronto, let me know!
The watercolor continues to reveal new properties to me. I had a small breakthrough on this one, finally seeing some of the advantages of masking edges with clear water. My first step this time was to cut around the silhouette of the tower and attached buildings with plain water. The damp areas of paper allow the first wash to bloom and spread organically, but it stops like magic at the dry edge. Glad I finally experimented with that. It’s a useful addition to the arsenal.
Want to see some progress steps? Here you go:
Citizen Sketcher 
Wonderful work, Marc – it just glows! Will have to experiment with that technique.
That is a neat trick. One that I have used but passed over without thinking about it. I do some urban sketching and this will work on those edges!