Continuing Watercolor (January and February 2016)

I worked more on the petals, adding darks, cleaning up some edges.  I also showed the use of white gouache to add some lights.  I added a bit more of a yellow glaze to the background.

I removed the masking.  I then started incorporating the hard edged white areas into the painting by softening edges and/or reducing the width of some of the lines.  I also did a little dry brushing which is an option for making the texture of fur.  To dry brush use a stiff bristled paintbrush and paint that is as dry as you can get it and still have it paint onto the paper. 

First I masked the front of the nose, the highlight on the cheek, dots and curved lines in the beard and mustache, a line on the front of the collar, and a bit on the brim of the hat in the front and one line in the back on the brim.  For the first pass of this painting I wet the background, the trim on the hat, and the head and beard areas.  I used a mixture of blues (ultramarine and prussian) as well as burnt sienna and a burnt sienna and blue mixture.  I painted the blue and guided it around the background, the trim of the hat, and into the back of the head.  I also did a light blue into the beard.  I used sienna and painted it into the face.  After this was dry I made more curved lines and dots in the beard with masking fluid.  After that was dry I wet the head, beard, and the front background and did another pass with light blue and sienna on the beard and face and pulled a little light color into the underside of the hat brim and onto the shirt (very light).