“The Guardians-Red Riding Hood”

Watercolor on scrap wood with plaster 7 x 18 inches

Once upon a time. . .  In the forest where the great wolf roamed, the trees stood guard over the small creatures who lived in the wood.  The wolf was well aware of these powerful tree spirits and did his hunting beyond this enchanted forest…

I have been experimenting with plaster over wood, and although it requires a different technique of painting than I am familiar with, I am growing more accustomed to the way the plaster soaks up the paint as it dries almost immediately, but with the watercolor it can be re-wet and moved around as necessary.  I do  not like the appearance of acrylic on this substrate, it looks plastic and too shiney, so I chose to use watercolor.  The wolf is done in graphite and charcoal.  The graphite has a silvery sheen on the plaster, and I found I liked it for this part of the painting.  I contemplated putting a layer of beeswax over this painting, but since I have not figured out how to do that properly yet, I will leave it as is.  I can always add that later!