Betty's Ficus

 Had a drawing date with Alice and Betty a week after we met to draw in Alice's garden. I had
a page in my art journal that I had sprayed with acrylic ink spray and stencils.  I had made
acrylic ink spray by adding water and droppers of FW acrylic ink to an empty spray bottle.
The colors are subtler than water soluble spray inks like Dylusions but the real attraction for me
is that they are permanent and won't bleed when you layer over them.  I decided to do a drawing
based on the large Ficus tree that Betty had near her drawing table.  I did the drawing with
Derwent InkTense watersoluble pencils and used a brush to move the color around.  I love
patterned backgrounds, like Matisse uses in his paintings so really like this drawing on top of
a patterned background.  Since the ink spray is permanent I could have also used gesso to
white out the areas inside the sketch so that the background pattern would read like the
fabric drapes in Matisse's work.  I think I like the way the pattern looks on the trunk and
branches in this drawing.   I last added watercolor to the pot to give it dimension and washi
tape to bound the page.  I will later post the adjoining pages that also have this washi tape
border.  I last scanned and printed out a copy of this page to make a thank you card for
Betty for her hospitality.  I added more color and detail to the card. Using Gelly Roll Pens.