Leaf Ghost #30

This one went all kinds of crazy. As a result, I learned a lot from it.

My original intent was to pay tribute to all the bright red leafs on the trees right now. So I decided to start with a solid watercolor leaf and then use ink to create the standard ghost effect. So basically like Leaf Ghost #21, only instead of airbrushing the watercolor I decided to wet-on-wet paint it with Art Creation Scarlet.

So the first lesson of the day was a reminder to work top to bottom. I ended up smearing a mess of still wet paint at the base of the stem, with the smudge going all the way past the bottom of the sketch. At an earlier stage in the project, I would have written this off as a loss. But this afternoon I found it kinda awesome. The result looked like a cross between a crime scene and a Rorschach blot.

I almost just left it the way it was. But then I decided to try some more subtle tricks with the ink. I used Winsor & Newton Sunshine Yellow for the background, starting with a tight cross-hatch at the top and then adding more space between the lines for each row going down. The result varies depending on how you look at it (literally rather than figuratively). If you see a smaller version of the image – or if I take my glasses off – the yellow fades from top to bottom. In a larger, more detailed view, the lines with more negative space around them actually stand out more prominently than the tighter patterns higher in the composition.

The ink on the leaf itself (Winsor & Newton Deep Red) follows the same cross-hatch patterns. Toward the top it disappears into the paint almost entirely, while at the bottom it’s much more visible. I did the shadow in the same color, and there it looks like dried blood (playing along with the crime scene theme).

I will definitely try this watercolor technique again, though I’ll try to be more careful about smearing next time. Though the fading effect is interesting, I’ll likely go back to inks that stand out against the paint rather than blending in.