Mixing Turquoise

Phthalos tend to be potent, staining colors. Almost violent. The addition of the Indian Yellow toned them down and brought out softer, green tones. Very aquatic.

Many Moons ago I painted a sea turtle from a photo ref on Wetcanvas. It was the first successful watercolor I ever painted and no one was more surprised than me that it turned out well. At the time I had only 10 paint colors, a small set of Robert Simmons synthetic sable brushes and no idea what I was doing. I managed to mix my own sea color, a lovely shade of turquoise, from D/R Phthalo blue,  Phthalo green and Indian yellow. I've got a request to recreate that same painting for a friend. The first sold a few years ago. Fortunately I have the same paints in the same brand (very important because colors can vary from mfg. to mfg.). Today I played with various mixtures to find the right shade and I think I've managed to do just that. I wish I could show a side-by-side comparison with the sample swatch but the image of the original painting appears too blue on screen for some reason. I'm just glad I remembered the 'recipe'.   

Raven ~ complete?

I finally got this one done...I think. I hope she reads as a black cat because there is very little black in this painting. It's mostly Carbazole violet, Quin. violet, Cobalt blue deep and Moonglow. I only used the neutral tint to tone down the other colors. I cut it 1/2 & 1/2 with Carbazole violet to make my 'black'. Even Moonglow will go quite dark if used with enough strength. I did wind up playing with my color study and gave it a overall wash of yellow ochre. The results were pleasantly surprising and seemed to unify the entire painting without taking anything away or causing a distraction. I'm not sure yet if I want to go this route with the current painting.

Raven ~ color study

I've tried two different palettes and I think this one is the best. I did a couple of hasty drawings. The first I went kinda crazy. I used turquoise, green and a black I mixed from Burnt sienna and FUB. Not good. For this trial I did an under painting with various purples including DS Moonglow, one violet and cobalt blue deep. For the black I used straight neutral tint. I really love neutral tint. It produces a nice rich black and lifts easily. I went over my under painting with the tint after it was dry and lifted out my highlights/whiskers/etc. back to the under painting colors. Purple suits Raven. She was great at walking across my paintings, tracking whatever color she'd stepped in first. One particular painting that got the Raven treatment involved purple cat tracks. I still have that painting. I just can't seem to part with it. Also it happened to be a painting of another cat and that's when I decided purple and cats go together. A minor epiphany at the time. 

Raven ~ drawing

I was looking through some old picture folders a few days ago and stumbled onto a photo of Raven I had completely forgotten I'd taken. I still don't remember taking that particular shot but it's clear enough to use for a portrait. Even though she's been gone since 2007 I haven't painted her portrait because I didn't think I had any decent photos of her. Not that I didn't try but black cats are difficult to photograph. I've always felt bad that I've never honored her memory in this way. She was the most beautiful black cat I've ever seen. Fur like silk and her eyes were the most incredible shade of green/gold with a bit of turquoise around the irises. Her ears were big and round. When she ran she would fold them back against her head and she looked like she was flying. For that reason my youngest son named her Raven. I hope I'm able to capture her beauty and spirit in a portrait.

Merganser ~ complete

SOLD

I finished this up last night. Today it's gloomy so not the best photo. My Canon has a noise reduction feature that seems to have brought out the blue tones in the paint which aren't that noticeable IRL. Also my monitor shows all the greens as various shades of lime. Not sure how they appear to others. Maybe someone will stop by and let me know. Oh well. Here it is, warts and all.

Note: I've discovered I've been misspelling the name of the duck. It's 'merganser with an 'S', not a 'Z'. 

Merganser ~ WIP 2

I'm posting an update on my merganser. I will admit, I was dragging my feet on this. All those feathers! Somehow it's coming together even though I lost a lot of my drawing when I removed the masking and (as usual) I didn't take the time to redraw what was lost before beginning to paint. Patience was never one of my virtues and it's bit me in the rear end more than once. I'm calling this duck done. Now all that is left is the reflections in the water.

My palette is limited. I used W/N FUB and DS Quin. Sienna for my greys, browns and blacks. The water is W/N Sap green and D/R Indian yellow. I toned down the chroma of the Sap green with a little Quin Sienna in some areas.