Dripping Paint and Sprinkling Salt in Watercolour

Painting a Crimson Rosella in Watercolour

I have been adding salt to some of my paintings lately to create some texture. This Crimson Rosella didn't have anything interesting happening on it's breast and tummy area so I layed in a decent wash of colour and then I waited for the paper to become shiny. Usually I sprinkle in ordinary table salt but for this painting I used salt flakes. Each individual flake of salt repels the pigment in the paint around it. There is no way of knowing how it will turn out but that's half the fun. I went and had some breakfast and left it to do its thing.

I usually leave a clean white background on my paintings but unfortunately, I dropped some Phthalo Blue and because it is a staining colour I couldn't remove it......dang and blast! Actually I may have said something beginning with 'S' or 'F' when I did it. So I washed over the area where I made the mistake and dropped in more Phthalo Blue, and then some more salt and 'tada' no one need ever know it wasn't meant to be.

Thank you to Sonia McKinlay from Wildlife Reference Photos for the reference photo.

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