Continuing Watercolor (November & December 2014)

I worked on this a bit at home.  I added value and color to the top and started to add another strand of lights.  It's close to finished, a bit more needed on the background.

I worked on this at home adding some darks to the face and bottom of the body and lightening in-between the spots (I did this with white gouache and scrubbing).

In class I added a glaze of green gold.  Without green gold I would have mixed a yellow green as my glaze.  I seem to have missed a few spots, so I will need to glaze those.

First I wet the paper (very wet), dropped in color, and when the paper was slightly shiny, no puddles, I added sea salt.  Then I let it dry.  I transferred the drawing.  I mixed a brown for the skin (brown madder or burnt sienna and indigo works well).  The then started painting his face, paying attention to the values on his skin.  I then painted the hat with a dark, keeping a highlight in front.  I used cobalt blue to paint the shirt paying attention the the values (I usually put in the dark and then pull the color out with a clean, damp brush). 

Plastic wrap texture.  I wet the paper, added color, put plastic wrap on top and scrunched it, let it dry. 

I did a orange red glaze over the radish (except the white spot which needs to be softened...).  I added a purple red shadow on the radish.  I added a little dark right under the radish.  I added texture to the leaves and glazed the top leaf with green gold.

Continuing Watercolor (November/December 2014)

I added gouache to the bulbs and in a small area for highlights.

I scrubbed out some white lines on the giraffes body with a scrubber brush I made by cutting a cheap stiff bristle brush shorter and at an angle.

First I drew the radish, after putting it under a strong single light source.  I left out some of the leaves.  Then I transferred it to my paper.  Then I wet it and started painting using alizarin, cobalt, and primary yellow.  I mixed the shadow color from the colors I used in the painting  and dropped red and green into the shadow while it was wet.  I also added an additional dark right below the radish (the dark was made with indigo and brown).  It needs a bit of texture and a bit more shadow work.

Continuing Watercolor (November/December 2014)

I worked more on the ornament adding values (remember, the lights and darks, the values, are most important).  There are a few areas I need to finish and details to add on the ornament.  I added a strand of lights.  I wet the stand and added cobalt in dots along the strand.  I wanted it to have the variation that it does.  I will add color to the bulbs.  I also plan to add 2 more stands (remember odd numbers work the best for the composition).

I worked on the face.  I did a first pass that was soft and then added the eyes, worked on the nose and the one ear, and worked on the horns - adding more values (especially darks).  I also worked a bit on the body (which needs more help...).  I wet the background (I really wet it so the paint will move).  I added a mixture of cobalt and yellow and touches of cobalt.  I left some areas white.