Dry Brushing - Watercolor

This week we learned a new technique of dry brushing -- basically, you use very little water on the brush and "scrub" the paint onto the paper to create a rougher effect. Watercolor paper is very rough/bumpy and basically what happens is the dryer paint sticks to the tops of the bumps in the paper and doesn't sink into the valleys, so you still see the color underneath.

This was my first layer -- typical wet-into-wet watercolor:

For my second layer I did a lot of drybrushing on the tree itself:

I received positive feedback from my teacher and classmates - we all agreed that my style on this painting is very illustrative, it would go well in a children's book. I am probably being influenced by all the children's books I'm reading with my daughter - I never realized this before I started this new medium, but the majority of children's books are done with watercolor illustrations.