Flamingos Lesson 11

Now it is time to start to tie it all together!

I have used a mixture of Sap Green and Quinicridone Gold to glaze over some areas of the water. Near the foreground left, I used Olive Green and VanDyke Brown and Permanent Alizarin Crimson in the foreground right.

I used some of the Quin Gold on the orange areas of the flamingos, as well as on the branches on the right.
I used a very wet mixture of Olive Green and Quin Gold to glaze over the leaves and the entire background. I want to be sure they aren’t too detailed and compete with my true focal point.

Flamingos Lesson 2

I used Quinicridone Magenta and Alizarine Crimson
in very wet washes to lay down the first bits of pink colors in the flamingos. This helps to establish the focal point and to give you a sense of satisfaction, that, yes, you have started your painting!

Try some different pinks and reds from your palette on a scrap piece of watercolor paper to see which colors on your palette will make the right color for your painting.







This is a detail shot of one of the flamingos. You can see that the application of paint is not fussy, just quickly lay down some bits of wet color. If your pigment is wet enough, you will be able to siphon off areas that may have too much color.

Parrot Study in Watercolor Number 11

Finally, time to work on the details!
I used a physical mix of VanDyke Brown and Indigo to create the very dark values on the bird's beak.
I allowed the pigment to settle a little at the bottom to create a subtle shadow. This was dried before the next step.

I used a very, very wet mixture of Winsor Red and water to create a pinkish tint on the birds light face, around the eye and on the light area of the beak. Again this has to dry.

Dry with a hair dryer if you want to continue to work in the area next to your last application of paint. If you drop wet paint next to a wet area, it will spread very quickly where you don't want it.

If this happens, quickly place a clean, dry paper towel onto the area. Just press, don't rub. This should lift most of the color off. Then, dry thoroughly before applying more color.

Parrot Study in Watercolor Number 6

I have added another wet-in-wet wash at the base of the background at this stage. I used Hooker's Green and Perylene Green. I didn't want to have the feeling that the bird was floating too much. However, the background really is secondary to what is happening with the focal point of the bird.
To accomplish this wash I added a light, wet wash of Hooker's Green. Then I charged in darker, richer values of the colors I wanted. As they float in the edges are soft and muted, so they are down-played and they don't take away from the crisp detail of the bird.
To keep the edge of this wash very soft, I used a little clean water. The clear water is applied away from the wash and pulled into the wash. This keeps the color moving INTO the wash instead of continuing to pull color out and creating a funny line at the end of the water.