Tip Number 2: How to avoid ‘Blooms’ or ‘Cauliflowers’
To avoid these you need to realise how they are caused, I will do my best to explain it all!
When you put wet paint onto paper it settles in and makes a nice smooth wash.
As it is drying, if you then add a bit more wet paint, the new paint with go underneath the original, gather some of it up and push it to a dry edge.
Now you can see the effect, it leaves a hard edge and also that dreaded ‘cauliflower’ mark.
The rule is not to add wetter paint to an area of paint that is drying, leave it to dry thoroughly and adjust things afterwards.
In these two examples, the first one shows a cauliflower that actually helped to produce the middle mud bank in this painting, a ‘happy accident!’
The second one shows that you can go on adding paint to a very wet painting by ensuring that your new paint is thicker than the painting.
These pictures show how you can build up branches over a plain sky to give a 3D effect.
In the first one the branches were added when it was all too wet, so they have rather vanished!
Next I waited till the sky was a little dryer and added the branches using stronger, thicker paint, but they have lovely soft edges, (distant)
Thirdly I waited again, not till totally dry, but nearly, and added even thicker paint, this produces the closer branches.
I hope this helps, give it a try, it takes a little practice to see how wet your painting is and when to add more paint.
Please get in touch if you would like any help. Have fun!
Anne Barnham, Artist 