Watercolor Experiment

My friends and I painted flowers tonight using a plastic bag.  First, we wet the watercolor paper and then used our brushes to  drop color around the paper where the flowers and vase should be.  Then, we took a plastic garbage bag, crumpled it up as much as possible, and laid it over the paper, pressing down gently.  We set our paintings aside to dry with the plastic on them.  This was not going to happen, as muggy as it was tonight!  So, about a half hour later, we unveiled our paintings and it was really interesting to see the difference the plastic bags made.  I was really happy with the way the plastic bag gave texture to my vase.  The bag didn't make much of an impression on the flowers, though.  To finish the painting, we used darker colors to highlight and define the flowers, added a shadow to the vase, and did different backgrounds.  I used a sponge to achieve my background.   This will be an interesting technique to try again using different kinds of plastic, or even freezer paper, pressing the glossy side against the painted paper.