Arbor Day

Here's a doodle running in China for Arbor Day, or Tree Planting Day. It's a mix of watercolor and digital. I'm always trying out new things with each doodle, and in this case, I used actual masking film for the first time since my art school days (years and years ago). Yep, real life masking film, which is tedious and time-consuming, versus a one-second Photoshop clip mask... The years have done nothing to improve my efficiency. That said, the result feels a little less sterile to me than using carefully placed textures. There's also something strangely therapeutic about slicing away film and painting with reckless abandon, knowing that it will all make sense when you peel off the rest of the mask.