WALKTHROUGH: Using the Lifting Technique to Paint a Tiny Skeleton

Hello!

I wanted to share with you a fun little way to pull features out of your watercolor.  In this case, I pulled a tiny skeleton out of the undergrowth.  This sort of technique works best on watercolor ground prepped surfaces, or papers that easily lift.  Lifting means that you can "scrub" away your watercolor to reveal the original painting surface, or significantly lighten in.  

Surface: MDF panel with 2 coats of Daniel Smith watercolor ground in Titanium White and 1 topcoat of QoR watercolor ground (their regular one)  

Brushes: Sakura Waterbrush size small worn down to a dull scrubby tip, 20/0 Princeton Spotter, synthetic. 

Paint: Most of this is me scrubbing paint away but I used my shadow shade which is a mix of Daniel Smith Burgundy Yellow Ochre, Daniel Smith Carbazole Violet and Daniel Smith Prussian Blue, as well as a bit of Daniel Smith Titanium White for highlights.

I began by using my dull Sakura waterbrush to scrub out the loose shape of the skeleton.  At this point, he is made up of basic "building blocks" just to help me get the pose and proportions I wanted.  This little friend is not based on any real species so I got to be pretty interpretive here.  For heavy scrubbing like I used here, I prefer my dull waterbrush because it stays constantly wet which allows me to lift up dried watercolor.  It also has rough, scrubby bristles.  if you do not have a waterbrush, any old brush that you do not mind beating up will do, just be sure you keep it somewhat wet.  As you scrub away your watercolor, use a paper towel to dab up the wet pigments. 

Once I had a basic shape, I  took my 20/0 Princeton Spotter brush, a brush with a very tiny, short tip, to draw out the loose details of the skeleton using watercolor.  You can also sketch details in using water soluble graphite, a mechanical pencil, or a chalk pencil.   Though keep in mind, if a lot of chalk mixes with your watercolor, it will give it more of a gouache, opaque consistency.   

Once I have my basic skeleton sketched out, I paint dark values in around him, covering the light areas I did not use and giving him some deep shades to stand out against.  

Now I add the highlights using a little bit of white watercolor, which is technically gouache.  One of the reasons I love using white highlights is because I do not have the original, stark white of my surface, being that I scrubbed off old watercolor to bring this guy out and the area is still stained.  The white gives that little bit of pop and dimension!   

Finally, I added more dark values around the skeleton, then painted this web of roots that have grown around his body.  The bumpy surface I create for myself gives me all these tiny craters for the watercolour to sink into, and so I simply deepen those already present textures to create the root pattern.  I LOVE roots under the earth so much.  I like to think about how this animal died, and went on to feed all these little roots so they could grow into something new.  I also love irregular patterns of tiny holes and textures, which are common in nature.   I have coined this love of mine, trypophelia, a slightly questionable-sounding reverse of the common phobia, trypophobia (do not google…)  This love of mine highly disgusts many friends and family members :D

I hope you enjoyed this mini technique post!