Leaf Ghost #44

This was my first attempt at doing a leaf ghost entirely with masked airbrush watercolors. And my first really big fail in awhile. 

Everything was going quite well indeed until I set up to add the drop shadow. The brush clogged and made a minor mess in a small spot on the left edge. But when I tried to clear the clog, the brush blew water all over the place. Unfortunately that included the painting itself, which of course being watercolor meant that it was badly damaged.

I also learned that the masking tape I’ve been using with few incidents on mix media paper was no good at all with illustration board. It took big chunks of the surface off when I removed it. And at that I didn’t use enough, getting some serious overspray on the borders of the board.

My initial inclination was to abandon it unfinished. But after I gave myself a day to cool down, I opted to use plain old bristle brushes to add the red foreground. For the record, that’s Talens Art Creation Watercolors 504 Ultramarine, 535 Cerulean Blue, 326 Alizarin Crimson and 334 Scarlet. And a Badger Renegade Krome airbrush, which at the moment I’m pissed at (but will give a second chance to after I’ve downloaded and gone through its instruction book).