We made some wax resist drawings based on work by Swiss artist Paul Klee. Klee used  geometric shapes to simplify and abstract from nature making cityscapes and portraits in vivid colours where the shapes blend one into another.

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We used oil pastels on rough surfaced watercolour paper to block out shapes which we then washed over with watercolour paint. It’s amazing how the paint unifies the drawing and brings it all together professionally. We also tried drawing with a wax candle to create white lines that emerge when watercolour paint washes are applied over the wax.

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The wax acts as a resist to the watercolour and it’s a lovely way of drawing without too much control over what you are doing because the final picture is something of a surprise.
Simon Ripley