Tangle Up a Rainbow Floater

You have seen a few floaters lately, don't you think it is time to tangle up one of them? Not long ago, Tracy Weinzapfel did a live demo in Tangle All Around. This is the drawing I did in response to her session. Today I would like to walk you through how I made this rainbow floater. 

I began by taping the edges of the page. This gives a crisp, clean finish to your painting when you are done. I watercolored the background before I drew the floater which started with a small grouping of tipple. Concentrating on edge to edge coverage, I drew my loops in various sizes and carried them over onto the tape. Next, I painted the petals and dried them completely before adding that second looping line to each one. Then I was ready to add the tangling. 

I started with printemps - no surprise there, hahahaha! Then some rock n' roll diva dance. I realized those spaces at the bottom would make a great place for some leaves, so I added those, painted them and gave them some detail line work. My favorite petal is the on the right - the large maroon one with all the water splotches. Awesome! To do that, after I painted the petal I touched the tip of a wet paintbrush down into the color and just left drops of water behind. When it dried it looked like this. 

You know, I am not sure if that next tangle has a name. Surely it must. The scallop-y one. It looks great with the other tangles! 

Curlz came next, then Surf's Up finished up the tangling. I used a white Posca Paint Pen to add the white highlights and details. And this rainbow floater was almost done. 

A black Archival ink pad and stencil brush made working around the outer edges easy. It adds a little color to define the edge of your painting. All that was left was to remove the painters tape and see how this rainbow floater turned out! 

And I love it! That yellow in the background was perfectly placed. Not planned, just a really cool happenstance. How's that for a word? Hahaha! Five tangles total. By tangling inside the petals I didn't need to detail them as much. That double line - outline and backline - worked great! I am keeping this one but you can find a digital download of this rainbow floater available in my Etsy store. Now, it's time to get back to work. World Watercolor Month is coming and I have to get ready!

This piece of art was painted on Hahnemühle's new Agave Watercolor paper from their Natural Line. 

My Etsy store is right here. 

Digital prints of Rainbow Floater are right here. 

Agave Watercolor Paper from Hahnemühle can be purchased here.