MASA PAPER

This week I'll be painting with a new friend on location, and we'll be using masa paper part of the time. Painting on this kind of rice paper is really easy and fun to do with watercolor.

First, we'll scrunch up the paper in a ball in order to create cracks in the surface of the paper where it'll then absorb the paint darker, kind of ike a batik look. Then we'll soak the ball of paper in water for a half a minute. After carefully spreading the wet paper flat, we'll float on some soft, light colors to create a gentle, subtle background effect.

Some areas may be left white or nearly white, and we may add some salt or spritz the almost dry paper to enhance the textures more. After the paper dries, we'll sketch our subject lightly on the paper.

The next part is the most fun because it's like magic. We'll lightly paint around the subject we've drawn, using existing colors, and pulling the colors out away from the edges of the subject so it doesn't look outlined or haloed at all. The subject will magically appear, and just need to small darks to finish it.

Some people call this "negative" painting because the subject - the positive shape - is avoided, and only the shapes around it are painted. But NEGATIVE painting sounds kind of bad, so one of my art students renamed it - SHADOW PAINTING! What a good description! We are painting the shadows and darker parts of the picture, leaving the existing light colors just as they are.

Some of the stems in this painting were painted negatively and some positively, but most the rest of the painting has been done by negative painting. I'll post a masa paper iris later this week that's created in a similar way. See you soon, Dawn!

"BLUSH OF PINK" Transparent Watercolor on Masa Paper & adhered to 140#CP Arches 9 x 12" COLLECTED