After painting the initial larger format kinda circle grid I wanted to try a few things differently. I decided that the pencil grid could be stronger and moved it to pen. I also wanted to use larger circles and force a circle to break the grid.
For this piece I also decided to use larger circles. After drawing quite a few small circle grids, I wanted to see how larger circles looked different. One of the things I wanted to explore was mixing colors with wet on wet inside the bodies of the circles.
Drawing the grid
The grid started out similarly. I drew lines in pencil and came back over them in pen. The tools shown below makes it easier to draw the circles.
Watercolor Painting the Kinda Circle Grid
With the grid and circles drawn in pen I moved on to painting. The circles were relatively large and that made it easier to experiment with some wet on wet color combinations. In choosing the colors I’m always conscious of granulation. Some people like and use granulation well, but I prefer non-granulating watercolor and choose paint accordingly.
One thing to note about the paintings is that precise line and wash painting takes a lot of concentration. It’s easy to bleed over the line and/or get cauliflower edges around the circle. I try to avoid both issues and wet on wet definitely helps, but learning how much water to use was a process of trial and error.
In the process of painting the circles I decided to name the piece “Almost Orderly.” It has a lot of structure and hard edges, but the wet on wet with a grid breaking the circle makes it slightly less perfect. There are quite a few parallels with life.
Almost Orderly
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Hi, I’m Dan.