"Blue"

Blue - 13"w x 10"h - watercolor on 140# Fabriano Watercolor Paper - (c)2017 Pat Dolan

Several people have asked to see how this painting was accomplished. I took a few photos along the way, but I've never video recorded my painting process, so I hope the photos will provide enough of an insight into the process as needed!

I begin by wetting the sheet of stretched watercolor paper thoroughly with a hake brush. Then I allow the water to seep into the paper so that the shine is beginning to diminish, but the paper still glows under the light.

Then, after mixing good quantities of the colors I plan to use, I begin by dropping rich color (ultramarine blue) onto the paper with a fairly good sized watercolor brush - in this case, I was using a 14" round Creative Mark Mimik Kolinsky brush.

With the paper still quite wet, I began adding darker blue tones to add depth to the fur. It's a mixture of cadmium red and ultramarine blue, making a deep purplish brown color...

Above, I added some color to the lower corners to 'ground' the painting - I didn't want the head to simply 'float' on the paper!

Just a close-up shot at this point.

Still adding some depth/darkness to certain areas.

Beginning work on the eyes, nose, mouth...

Adding more details to the facial features...

Here, I'm fairly satisfied with the end result - I've lifted a bit of color in a few places and deepened the color in a few other spots. All that's missing is the whiskers and to brighten up the highlights in the eyes.

I used Winsor Newton Designer's Guache Permanent White to achieve the final results.

While masking fluid is an excellent resource, I haven't used it since back in the 1980's and am a tad reluctant to do so until I've got more watercolor practice back under my belt! In the 1980's, I did very realistic watercolors, using masking fluids at times, and leaving the paper white at other times to achieve the desired effects. I recently purchased Pebeo Drawing Gum and The Original Incredible Nib so that I may begin re-learning that technique. It's certainly useful for saving small details of white paper when choosing to wet the entire sheet of paper and apply loose color in dramatic fashion!

Hope this little "step by step" photo series is helpful!