Plaza After Hours

Plaza After Hours
Watercolor batik on rice paper, 6x8.5
purchase here

I don’t get down to the Country Club Plaza nearly enough.  I love everything about the place - the architecture, the multitude of fountains, the shops - and it is a special place to capture in paint.  I have been wanting to explore cityscapes in batik - so that is what I am up to today.  When using this technique, I sketch in my buildings first with an india ink pen - I like the Pitt pens for this, and I have lately been using the sepia ones.   I just got a new set of these pens in the mail yesterday, one of the black one with a chisel tip!  I love getting new supplies to experiment with!  The street scenes are fun to paint in this technique.  I spend a little more time sketching, since the lines are important, but them I still paint them in a loose fashion.  Once that lightest layer is finished, I then paint these areas with hot wax.  Next, I can drop in the night color, indigo with permanent blue and red violet dropped in.  I'm looking forward to finishing some more of these up in painting class tomorrow!  The "stars and moon" are simply a splattering of wax.  Painting number 1028 in 1028 days.