Linda's Folly

Spontaneity isn't watercolor. You need a lot of stuff to make those anything but light and airy easy looking paintings. Painfully, I gained a new respect for the artists who choose this medium.

Preparation took an hour or so spent finding my drawing board, finding my drafting tape, taping down the paper and propping the board up, finding a still life subject--and a pedestal to raise it up to eye level, and blah, blah, blah.


Then there was preparing the palette. It wasn't easy getting those little tubes open after they'd been in the back of a drawer for three years. But, finally the colors were laid out and I thought I could start. I took a look at the Merino glass clown I chose to paint; it was colorful--should make a fun painting.

After drawing the cartoon, I discovered I needed one more thing--off I went to find the block out liquid I also bought three years ago and never used. When I opened the bottle, It seemed a bit thick, so I diluted it worrying I was destroying its effectiveness. Applied to paper though, it still dried to the appropriate consistency of a rubber mask. That done...

The directions said to clean the masking brush immediately after use with warm soapy water. I did. The brush bristles became really rubbery. I became really hysterical and totally disgusted with my morning in the lost and found. Then I remembered lighter fluid. It worked like a charm. My favorite detail brush was restored and my painting adventure could begin. Finally.

In a length of time that seemed like a week, but was only a few hours, I had the scary,sopping wet painting of the Joker you see here. To remedy my flamboyant over use of water,I ran the two flights of stairs up to get by hair dryer and back down to blow him off, which caused the paint to creep and spray where it didn't belong. The dryer, the toweling wasn't enough. I could have used a plumber. Enough was enough, however. I left the clown air drying. As I left the studio, I heard what I thought was a wicked laugh. I got it; the joke was on me.