Inspired by :: Lourdes Sanchez | Wet on wet technique

Lourdes Sanchez wet on wet inspiration technique via besotted blog

The thing with me is I fall in love too easy. Not with people but with skills, a certain craft, that sort of thing. I get all weak in the knees when I see a new technique and then my research begins. Some things stick others go the way of the dodo, but I have been known to indulge almost all these interests at some point in my life. As a mom it’s near impossible to do that anymore, being that I am, still 2.5 years later, just really, really tired all the time. Lately though, I have been experimenting with watercolor in 10 minute increments, the clean-up isn’t too bad and most of the supplies are very portable. I will go more indepth into supplies, etc. in another post, but today I wanted to give you a little eye candy and some resources I found to inspire you even more so maybe you could try your hand at this technique.

Artist Lourdes Sanchez is just wildly talented, she is known for her large scale watercolors. I recently have fallen in love (again) with Ms. Sanchez’s ethereal abstract botanicals. With a little research I discovered that she utilizes a wet on wet watercolor technique to achieve the ghostly effects. Wet on wet is when you add your watercolor to a wet surface, it can be just water on your paper or another watercolor, the results as with most watercolor are unpredictable in the best way possible. The thing I am learning most about watercolor is that there is no such thing as control (sort of like life). For an individual like me that really likes to feel like I have a semblance of control, it is definitely a challenge to just let go (and perhaps a good exercise). We have linked to some resources below for you to explore Sanchez’s work further and delve more into the wet-on-wet technique. I’ll try to post some of my results when I get my watercolor paper order in, we hope to see yours too! Tag your images #inspoRx

//RESOURCES//

INSPIRATION

Lourdes Sanchez

Lourdes Sanchez Interview

BOOKS

Just add watercolor

TUTORIALS

Note, I like to keep an open mind when watching an artist technique tutorial. It may not be my exact vision, but I almost always learn something new!

Loose watercolor poppies

Loose roses, wet-on wet

Wet-on-wet technique for beginners

SUPPLIES

Good basic starter watercolor set here and here

Some great tube colors

I love a large round brush No. 14 is a nice size (but bigger can be even more fun)

Coldpress watercolor (for wet on wet you’ll want a paper that won’t easily warp)

4 thoughts on “Inspired by :: Lourdes Sanchez | Wet on wet technique

  1. Hello Tristan! What a lovely blog post about Lourdes Sanchez. I did not know how accomplished she was and I learned of her when I bought a rug from West Elm, and the designer was Lourdes Sanchez. I’ll be following this post ;)
    Ursula

    1. Thank you for the visit Ursula! I didn’t know she was doing anything for West Elm until I started researching further, so amazing!

  2. Thank you for the very kind and generous post- Its really appreciated.
    Just FYI re: the posted comment
    I did do many designs for the fashion and home furnishings industry, including West Elm- however that was some time ago.
    Have squarely left the design field, and happily doing fine art painting full time for several years now.
    Thanks again!!!!

  3. Lourdes is the first artist I have actually fallen in love with! Once I saw these botanicals I had to delve into researching her myself. I get those same body shuttering effects from her work. So visceral!
    Lourdes I see you chimed in here! Hello!
    I am doing my first gallery show in Reno NV next week. Metal work for me but I do watercolor for myself. Really looking forward to doing some ink work too!
    Tristan thanks for this great post!

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