This week’s challenge for 52Frames ( https://52frames.com/)  is Depth of Field. I feel this is more of a photographic technique than an art one. I decided to do the equivalent of a macro; a real close up of something. I looked around and found two things I liked, one a large cowrie shell and one a leaf of one of my indoor plants.

cowrie

I chose the leaf. It is more colourful and so more of a challenge for me, as I really like working in monochrome. I used masking fluid for the veins and tried a ruling pen, which I found brilliant. You can select the width of the line and there are no bristles to get clogged up! The paper in my book is not ideal for watercolour as it is difficult to move the paint around and the paper is fairly thin. I then overgalzed it with a blue and added some Derwent softcolour crayons.

Bits of it are successful and have a nice depth and texture, but other parts have not worked as well. The glazing brought off some of the paint and it may be I did not leave it to dry for long enough. I still like the way the blue overglaze has pulled it together and softened the veins of the leaf.

depth of field week 6