Watercolor Study

(C) 2015 Dale DiMauro

All of the watercolor blocks that I have seen or used come with a cover and backing board. I painted this image on a corner of the inside cover of an 18" x 24" Arches watercolor block, which is their largest format. Since twenty sheets of watercolor paper are glued on all four sides of a block, artists generally do not need to worry about stretching the paper as there is minimal buckling. When you finish a painting all you need to do is separate the top sheet from the others with a palette knife.

This cover sheet is a perfect place to try out new or different techniques such as painting with a palette knife or practicing a few brush strokes with a new brush to see which effects you can create. It is also a great space to jot down notes or references or make a quick sketch. Additionally, it is a valuable area to work out details you later need to paint.

I did this watercolor as a warm up as I had not painted for several days. These watercolor sketches are painted very freely and dry quickly as the paper is quite thin. This particular sketch was painted with a very wet brush on wet paper, which causes the obvious color bleed.