In my workshop in Santo Domingo, I had the participants try out some methods to make the white paper less pristine before starting a drawing. We did all sorts of things, spattered paint, scraped the papers against the ground, painted the soles of our shoes and stepped on the paper. Or, as in these sketches, painted watercolours onto the pattern of a man hole cover, and pressed the sketchbook against it. In the left image (a café near Parque Colón) it worked quite well. I think the dot pattern adds a bit of interest to an otherwise quite empty background. In the right image, I got a beautiful print that said “Santo Domingo” (mirrored, of course, since it´s a print), but a lot of it disappeared because as I was drawing, I couldn´t help myself but let the sketch swell out over the whole page. The following watercolour washes dissolved the print.
Printing on a page like this is always a bit risky, it may end up well or it may become messy, but it´s a great memory to take home from a place you visit. And the participants in my workshop did incredibly interesting page layouts, involving the prints into their sketches.