I started out with hope.

I will figure this out. I told myself So yes, another koi. Doing small fish amongst the lily pads is so not working for me so I decided to try something I have done recently and use a technique I have been playing with – soap bubbles.

Yeah, some fish, some lily pads but instead of laboring over ripples and light on water… foam.

To do this, I have to mask all items not in the background. A pain but doable.

Then, for the background. I have already done some experiments and other paintings this way and found that just a drop or two of regular dishwashing liquid in a bowl of water works best. Fill the bowl with water, put in a drop or two – in my case Dawn- then with a soda straw blow up a good head of bubbles. You need a way to place these on the paper. I have found that something like a plastic trowel works well – and it is what I had on hand. A credit card also works.

I am using painters tape around the paper but still, I have not found a way to keep the bubbles from leaking onto the margins.

Dump a load of foam over the entire surface then start dropping pigment from a regular brush onto the foam. You have to work fast as the bubbles don’t last that long.

And of course, no real way to know how this will turn out except trial and error.

Here it is dry. One of the pigments granulated out black flecks but I don’t really mind.

Detail of how it ends up.

I started out painting a lily pad and hated it. So dull. I remembered how I used to use Hooker’s Green for painting trees and leaves so ordered some off Amazon and took a break.

I did what I should’ve done in the first place and used scrap paper so experiment with green blends.

I think I can make this work.

I painted over the first leaf and started in on the others. Hooker’s green with Jadeite for darker areas and Hansa Yellow light or Transparent Yellow Oxide for the edges. Oh, and Hooker’s green is always too fakey and well, green, for me straight so I always tone it down with an ochre – in this case Burgundy Yellow Ochre.

This is looking a little better.

It does help to take a worn, damp brush to smooth out those ragged leaf edges.

Now for the koi. I wanted to show the fish scales so masked those out.

Then went in with an orange – don’t remember which and did an overall wash.

I went over it and over it, building up some depth with darker and darker oranges.

Then removed the masking.

Pretty hideous but here we are. At some point, I also went over the lily pads with a damp brush and lifted lines like leaf veins. I don’t really have the hang of that yet either.

Next step was to “tone” the masked areas and try to define the fish eyes, nose, etc.

And there we have it. I am not signing it and no one but those reading this will ever see it.

But practice is supposed to make perfect… at least so they say.

Materials

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All watercolors Daniel Smith

Blues – I lost track.

Greens –
Hooker’s Green
Jadeite

Yellows –
Hansa Yellow Light
Transparent Yellow Oxide
Burgundy Yellow Ochre

Oranges –
Let’s not even go there… They are not working for me.

Fineline Masking Fluid


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