Lab Book # 5, Making Connections

This was the second painting done in the lab-book series, derived from doodles made in the 5th lab book I had completed during the Ph.D. in U of Western. You can see the numbers in various parts of the painting, which are the actual page numbers that the doodle came from. After the first lab book painting (Lab Book #4, Finding Space), I wanted to unify the doodles into an overall structure that tied them together. So I started with an under-painting of these ribbon-like bridges crisscrossing the picture, and followed by placing the doodles in and on and across the structures. In the next painting (Lab Book # 6; Spanky's Fantastic Cathedral), I would being the unifying-doodle concept to a new level b having a recognizable object (the cathedral), an idea that came as a development of the concepts in this painting. In Lab Book # 5 there is a harmonius colour scheme of mainly peach and salmon tones. To make a colour scheme that appears unified, I started by laying down a pink wash on the whole painting-to do so, I mix a lot of the colour in a basin on my palette, and then apply the wash to the top edge of the painting, then tilt the entire paper (which is stretched on a wood rack) to let the wash flow down as I use my brush to guide it. The technique takes some practice. After that, all of the drawing elements are put on using greyish watercolour paint mixtures. Finally, coloured washes are applied. I used a colour triad: peach, blue-green, and yellow-orange accents all through the painting. I also applied a darker wash to some of the ribbons to make them look like they were in the background. 

 Lab Book #5, Making Connections, watercolour 22 x 30" cold press, 2004 (No. 1993)