Concentration 9

Manipulation of Materials:

For this concentration piece, I decided to use watercolor for my medium because I thought it was the most suitable for the reference photo. This picture is quite different from what I've usually drawn for my other concentration pieces, mostly because there isn't really a single central focus or point of the picture, which are usually a monument or building in my other pieces. It was definitely a fresh shift from my usual rapidograph-on-created-surface pieces, especially because I had to paint the entire paper. With watercolor, I made sure to leave a few whites to show contrast within my artwork, but also to exaggerate the dark and light areas from the reference photo. I also like how the watercolor was perfect for adding the moldy green color on the orange pillars, because the water helped create the same effect like the actual photo. 

Problem Solving:

A problem that I always have when painting with watercolor is laying too much water. Sometimes, I use too much watery paint that it makes the paper start to fall apart. This is partly because I keep on trying to make the piece better by adding more paint, but unlike acrylic, adding more watercolor just kind of ruins the previous work instead of replacing it. Trying not to paint over and over again on the same areas was definitely one of my biggest challenges, mostly because then I had to make sure I didn't paint over it too much that the paper is ruined. Lastly, another problem I had was painting the written characters on the pillars of the temple. I definitely underestimated the level of difficulty for painting the words. I needed to focus a lot more than I thought to write all of them down, especially because it's hard to correct a mistake with watercolor paint, especially when it's black paint.