Thursday, August 15, 2013

Half Way There 15/30

August is half over, which means we have reached the halfway point of the August blog challenge! I must admit, it has sharpened my awareness of day to day living finding something "blogworthy" for a post.
For today's painting progress, the seahorses have dark areas added. In my original watercolor batik painting, the colors were all bright tropical colors - nothing even close to reality. Although I am not going for realistic accuracy in this painting, I do want it a bit less colorful. Hints of color here and there are always helpful since I don't want a blue painting. Just a bit of trivia - as you descend down into the ocean colors are lost with natural light. All those fabulous tropical underwater photos that have loads of color have probably been lit up with a variety of strobes and some very expensive camera equipment!
The dark areas are a wash of Raw Umber. In the outer lighter "ridge" areas a bit of Flesh Tone was added to the Raw Sienne for a slightly lighter value. Random splotchy dots were trailed across the ridge areas. Random washes of transparent color ( I used Hansa Yellow, Indian Yellow, Vermillion, Red Violet & Diox Purple) were then applied over the seahorses and pulled out into the background.

No comments: