It was time to enjoy my new toy again. My airbrush. I charged the battery to 100 percent and I was ready to rock and roll.
My subject matter would again be water ripples. There's something about that ephemeral shimmer that hypnotizes me.
This time around I would use a semi-sized Xuan paper and see how that would work with my alum solution.
I began the laborious task of laying down the shimmers with the alum solution. Perfect opportunity to practice my center-tip and side-tip brushstrokes.
I angled my desk lamp to see the tracks better,
The resulting piece was extremely disappointing,
The alum solution did not provide a strong blocking, or "resist" effect. The tracks were mottled and faint. Definitely not the result I was anticipating. I didn't know if that was due to the fact that the paper was already semi-sized.
Perplexing.
I was distraught enough to abandon my project. I was not being complacent but I had always accepted the fact that a lot of my attempts ended up in trash cans.
Couple of days later I decided to re-engage my painting, hopefully to gain a fresh perspective and figure a way out. The tracks did look more succinct now that the paper was thoroughly dried.
I had waited a few days to come this far, no harm in waiting for a few more days to devise a more concrete solution.
