Hi everyone. I have started on this painting with a sky wash to see how the colors would move around in my new Arches HP paper. I used PB+UB for the topmost area and PB a little downwards. The area behind the mountains has a touch of ruby red along with the blues as do the slight wisp of clouds in the mg. Well, the paper doesn’t dry as quickly as my previous one but more importantly it doesnt leave ugly marks and streaks and hard edges so I don’t have to watch out for every stroke I put on the paper. I can paint quicker and more easily. Plus, it doesnt have bumps so the smaller details go only where I want them to go. I’m happy!
I started with the stream by laying in a very light graduated wash of PB+UB+ a little dark red (to tone it down) starting from the horizon paling it completely towards the bottom. This is to make the stream look like it is receding, going away from the viewer. I let this dry completely. The stream has the following elements to it: the rocks which are completely above ground (dark brown; very dark where they are wet); the rocks which have water flowing over them (light brown); the rocky ground is also visible in some places; the white foam of the water and the pale bluish green shadows in the water. I made a brown with translucent orange, dark red and both the blues. More of the orange and diluting it gives light brown. Omiting the red gives a greyish green. I used burnt umber mixed with blue for the shadows and crevices of the rocks. Both the browns might look the same but the BU being opaque dries darker than the other brown. I started at the top wet on dry then later changed to wet on wet being careful to leave the whites for the water.
I used ruby red, aureolin yellow for the skin tones. For the hair, I started with the blackest sections first. When this was dry I used a mid valued brown for the rest of the hair and then lifted out some highlights and toned them with a bit of blue.
For rocks which are more rounded, I wet the area slightly, dropped in a light brown and added a darker brown before it dried to form the shape. After this was dry I added darker shadows and some hard edged crevices.
Here, I added greyish blue shadows in the water. I have to see what is left to be done on this after I do the vegetation surrounding this. For the mountains, I used the same colors. But first I layed in a wash of bluish grey for the ones at the back and a wash of diluted indian yellow for the mountain in front. I didnt blur the edges. They are looking as though they were quite near because, well, she is living in the Himalayas.
The dress is a mix of ruby red, magenta and translucent orange. A little pthalo blue to this mixture for the bit of fabric showing behind at the bottom. I put in a mid tone first rather than a light wash because it is easy to lift color for the highlights on this paper. I have yet to sketch in what goes in the area surrounding her. I waited till I knew what color I wanted for her dress to choose the flowers.
Watercolor Journal 