M____ came over on a Monday evening impatient to make some works with the wet brush. I had in the morning rolled out and stretched a large piece of Stratmore watercolor, and also tinted it a light yellow and pink.The drawing made from the first piece from the roll - that's why it's rounded at the top - anyway I was ready, and M____ was crazy to do some big wet powerful works.
Using the big elk hair brush I put out the red lines, then the same brush to apply a brownish black. Then I opened up the tumeric that Ami had made up for me and I asked M____ where she thought I should put it. I told her that tumeric helps the body remove poisons and blockages, and helps it generate internal heat. She started saying things like, I feel cold here, and pointing to her neck, so I would then apply some tumeric to the neck area. Then she said she felt cold in the belly, so I put some there. The whole center of the body ended up smeared with tumeric. Then I opened up the coffee and made coffee stains around the whole body. M____ drinks a lot of coffee at school.
After M____ left I did some 'repair' work. This is when I reconstruct lines that got smeared or blotted out in order to make the work go faster. We're not always able to give it enough time to dry. I do this by standing next to the drawing as if I'm actually standing over M____ herself at that moment, and feeling the natural arcs that my arm can make, redoing the lines. It's almost as easy as tracing her body again as if she were there. But as this act does depart from the unbiased unconcious discipline of making a tracing, and turns the look and the feel of the work over to a painterly energy which is somewhat subjective, I'm careful not to overdo.
Next time it will be back to lines, back to overlapping brown or sienna lines with the small brush.
