New Mexico: A Painter's Paradise

Poets, photographers, painters have all been attracted to the light and lanscape of New Mexico and no wonder, with scenes like these!  Creating straight edges as in this painting are always a challenge. For complicated edges, you can stop the paint from spreading beyond the desired edge by keeping adjacent areas dry; the paint will expand only into the wet area.  Another way to stop the paint from spreading over a wet area is to mark the limits in pencil which is what I did in this work.  The graphite and the pressure applied when drawing the line alters the fibers of the watercolor paper, creating a well that stops the paint from spreading across it.  You can also use masking tape to define the edges.   After the paint dries, edges that are too sharply defined can be softened with a brush.  Wet a clean brush with clean water and gently rub the edges to soften the paint and reduce the contrast between the colors.  You can also soften edges by using a cotton swab.