Prime paper

Raining today. I can expect more of that with the rainy season on the way. Still, rode my borrowed bike to class holding an umbrella in one hand just like the Japanese do. Most bikes here are single speed, so it's not like riding around at home where I would never try the same zooming around in a high gear.

Class today was all preparation, I needed to prime my paper so I could then mount it on a panel and paint. As a priming solution, it's just glue, the same glue as is used for the paints, diluted in water. It needs to be layered on thick, one side, wait an hour, then the other. Sometimes it requires three coats, but I didn't have time for that today as with the humidity, everything was slow to dry.

During my waiting, and there is often waiting with nihonga for your paints to dry, I continued on my shell painting from Tuesday. The shells themselves are small and occupy only one corner of the image, so I am most concerned about the background. I see so many layering possibilities with this medium, ways of making fog, and obscuring, and mixed images, but I lack the technical ability to execute my ideas. I focus on my craft, and this painting is about background and layer color.