My origami bonsai experiments have taken another turn when I moved from using pre-colored paper to painting my own. Coleman, in his book, describes the application of watercolor to his origami papers. I, not having watercolor paints in supply, used guache. The main problem I encountered, aside from lack of proper art supplies, is that as the paint dries, the paper becomes too stiff to fold into flowers, even if it were pre-folded. The dry paint on the folds crack and spill.
On the other hand, having painting come into origami, admittedly, excited me like a child. There's an inexplicible joy in playing with paint, mixing them to discover new colors, tones and shades; and even more in watching something you color and shape become a tiny little beauty.
Funnily enough, so far I have completely failed in folding enough blossoms or leaves to make a tiny piece of bonsai. I'm still learning my way around the main folds; my very first blossoms had looked like crumpled pieces of bad quality paper, but the ones I folded last night actually look quite nice (especially if they're not too close in view).The leaves, on the other hand, while so much easier to fold than the flowers, require just as much attention. The folds for the veins are good indicators, but the leaves require some variety of tone and shading on them as well. Otherwise, they end up looking too bland, and therefore, too unrealistic. When matched with good-looking blossoms, they take away from the beauty of the assembly.
However, it looks like it will still be a few weeks before I manage to make any sort of assembly. Next weekend I will hopefully have completed my art supplies, as well as found good enoug twigs for the bonsai, and then I can genuinely start working on a 'project'.
Until then, off to research I go.
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