Hummingbird

On the roll with the washes! I created one more and used saran wrap for some texture. My plan was to use the same purple flowers as a start for a second attempt at negative painting. I also wanted to test again the watercolor ground, so I gesso-ed the page, then applied the ground. I have Daniel Smith Transparent Watercolor Ground.

No idea what went wrong, but the watercolor would not stick to the paper. It was as if I primed the page with a resist. I switched to acrylics and decided to use them diluted with water and I wanted to try one day. 

Acrylics  do not lighten when dried but I was not able to obtain the brightness I was looking for. I was still under the impression of the hummingbird Jean showed here. In retrospect, the expectation was not realistic, given the colors I used for the base washes. This is my version of a hummingbird:

It was a worthwhile exercise nevertheless. Turns out the Fluid watercolor paper can take a fair amount of beating and this makes me happy. It can be a good replacement for the printmaking paper used in Vermont - it is not available in Canada.