"Prickly Pear Cactus"

”Prickly Pear Cactus” 11”x15” (#3361) watercolor and Chinese white on Arches paper
by Lee Gordon Seebach

Chinese White

"What the heck is that?" you may well ask. Good question!

Here's the answer: It is a semi-opaque watercolor white (actually Zinc white). It can be mixed with transparent watercolor to achieve various colors and degrees of opacity. I used it here to illustrate the spines on the cactus with a brush called a "rigger." The hair of this brush is long, thin, and does not taper to a fine point. Therefore, it holds a fair amount of pigment and is capable of creating nice, long lines. It's also a very fun brush to use and it's very, very easy to get carried away with it. Painting in the lines on this picture, I was dangerously close to doing just that!

Lifting

There's another technique I used here. It's called "lifting." This is accomplished by using a "flat" brush, which has a squared end (like a housepainter's brush only much smaller). Using a flat that is damp, it is applied edge-on to the paper on a painted, dried area and then run along the paper sideways. This re-wets the pigment and soaks it up into the brush, like a sponge, creating a lighter, long, soft-edged line. Hmmm...I hope that makes sense...maybe it requires a video demonstration. But I think you get the idea.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this watercolor and learning a bit about how us mysterious artist-types create our nice pictures.

Have a stupendous day, wherever you are on our beautiful planet! 😀 ☮️ ❤️

Here I am creating another nice picture in my studio.

My website: Seebach Fine Art