In our previous splash painting we splashed the paint on to wet paper. For this particular painting the technique is to splash paint on to dry paper.

A minimum amount, if any, of initial drawing should be considered for this approach. This is where realism and abstract become very good partners in a piece of artwork.  

You will have to plan your composition first: a thumbnail sketch or an image on your phone will help you make a composition that is mindful of the Rule of Thirds, and design principles, including Focal Point, Balance, Scale of Shapes and Movement. A sense of movement can be achieved by the direction of your splashes and brushstrokes.

Once you have your composition prepared, then mix your palette. Always take time over this process: make a swatch of your colours, have a range of round headed brush sizes ready for paint application. Have at least two containers of water available. You will need to change the water at certain stages of the painting process. 

I started by painting in the largest shapes first: I wet a large round headed brush and dipped in to a red I had mixed using crimson and brilliant red. I splashed large splashes on to the paper, I then repeated this process but used green, in smaller shape sizes. I let it soak into the paper and then tilted the paper so the paint moved as far as I wanted it to move. For the background use very weak washes of your colours of your flowers, paint over the wet wash for impressions of stems and leaves. For this particular technique I work on really wet paper, if any paint puddles appear you can either use them in the painting or if they are not pleasing to the eye lift them out with a large dry brush, do not rub into the paper, this can cause some colours to go muddy.

 As you work you can start defining the shapes by adding form by using stronger tone paint. This is really like working wet on wet, as the paper is drying it is drying to your advantage as then the paint forms a glaze over the initial wet layer(s). 

You can keep adding splashes, this really depends on what you want as your end product.