Salt and Watercolour

Here, I am experimenting with salt effects in watercolour. I discovered the key was thoroughly spraying the paper with water and then going over with a wide brush so that the paper is totally wet.

I will keep the blog updated

You want to use large unground salt crystals for this

You need to get the paper very wet first!

Here, I have thrown salt onto a dark, wash of Ultramarine mixed with ochre

You can see the salt working and drawing the pigment

In this 'Irises' Composition Salt was scattered all around the composition

The lilies were carefully 'masked out' with masking fluid so that they could be done separately

Thick washes of purle and yellow were dropped in and just left to disperse and do their own thing

In some areas, the effect didn't work so well, so using a pipette, I squeezed a few drops of water onto the salt crystal to make it work better there

And here it is, the final image.

Using sandpaper, I also sanded some pastels, letting the dust fall on the still wet parts in the back ground.

Finally, I painted the lillies in some detail, carefully observing the the forms and building up layers of washes

Salt throwing is a really fun technique to try, give it a go yourself

I hope you enjoyed my blog. Please leave comments in the comments box below on your experiences with this technique . I am always writing new blogs so keep checking