If you go down to the woods today ...

I've been working on another watercolour - still all experimental - using stuff I've not come across before. This time it is using granulation medium. I've also used some acrylic ink in this one too.

I've had some bottles of acrylic ink for some time now (the Daler Rowney FW ones that have a dropper incorporated into the lids). I like the strength of colour together with it's very liquid-ness!

I first drew the outline of where I wanted the trees and bluebell heads, and used masking fluid on the bluebells.

Then I dropped two colours of slightly diluted acrylic ink into the pre-wetted tree trunks and immediately dropped in some granulation medium. This had the effect of mixing the colours and also granulating it - separating out the pigment into clumps.

The advantage of using acrylic inks is that it is waterproof when dry, so applying watercolour washes on top doesn't affect the ink.

When everything was dry, I used some watercolour washes, and quite a bit of splattering! There's some sponging in some areas too. Finally I removed the masking fluid and painted the bluebells, and created some more detail in the foreground.

I was also inspired to write another haiku -

Out of the greening
Shy heads nodding, time fleeting
Only bluebell would

Happy Springtime!