An experiment with under-painting.I'm not crazy about paintings done in watercolor with an underpainting or toned paper. What I like about watercolor is the sparkle of the white paper showing through here and there - whether it is planned or just by chance as the brush skims over the texture of the paper. BUT, I do think it is fun to watch the objects and shapes emerge from the lightly painted paper. It's a challenge to make it work, and I always think a challenge boosts our creativity a bit. This was a lesson in my class this morning and everyone did a really nice job with it. It was a good warm up after the holidays - everyone is just getting back to real life. We painted the paper in kind of a bull's eye pattern leaving some white in the center, and then painted the objects the colors that we saw, layering to get the values (lights and darks) that were needed to bring the objects out of the background colors. I wouldn't really call this a keeper, but I would really call it a fun way to stretch a little.