Newest River Inspired Painting

I started this painting with a concept. I wanted to combine natural rocks with petroglyphs (rock carvings) with an Asian look. Here's a quick sketch of my idea.

I began the painting by getting my paper wet and putting on a loose acrylic underpainting. It doesn't look like much, does it?

I knew I was going to add a lot of texture for the water and the rock bank at the top of the painting, so I cut out rock shapes from contact paper and placed them on the right side of the painting to reserve those colors.

Next I added rice paper and gesso to the top, and applied gesso to the rest of the paper, using a handmade tool (notched credit card) to create a flowing water effect. Some of the underpainting is revealed in this process.

After all this dried, I started applying paint again. Watercolor paints will work on this surface, as will acrylics. Many things went into creating the water. I watered down my pigments and poured them, then rocked my paper around to move the paint the way I wanted it to flow. I used inks, watercolor pencils and pastels. Then I made more colors using white ink and acrylic pigment. This part was really fun.

At this point I have peeled the contact paper off, and painted more structure to the rocks and just cutout construction paper squares to get a better idea of how it would all work out.

I added some warmer colors--violet and burnt sienna. I added collage pieces to some of the rocks and created more defined rocks at the top of the painting. I created my own petroglyph symbols for animals I see on the river, as well as a water symbol. And here is the finished piece: Sing me the Legends.

Sing me the Legends, 18 x 22 inches