'It's Raining, It's Pouring...

I finally completed my RWA entry over the weekend. The final artwork is roughly the size of A4 (29 x 21cm), maybe not the biggest but very detailed. I decided early on to include the rhyme 'It's raining, it's pouring,' in the painting. Below you can see details of where I hid the lyrics.

You might also have noticed that the painting seems very speckled. This was not an effect I wanted so I had to lay over some gouache especially on the old man's face to smooth the colours. I have a few theories as to why the paper speckled so much. Normally this only happens when I'm working very wet layer upon layer but in this case it could have been dust on the paper or more likely the grain was damaged. The piece of watercolour paper was actually an off-cut that had been sliding around in the paper roll packaging for a few months. So note to self be wary of cars, motorbikes, rabid dogs and old bits of watercolour paper.