WDE 11/10 Flamingo (with demo)

[Joan T]

This is a read-only demonstration thread: the original thread may be found here. (http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=457073)


I don't know what possessed me to photograph this in it's stages, but I thought it might be interesting to show how my watercolor flamingo progressed. I did it as a 7 inch square.

First I sketched the flamingo and outlined it with liquid mask so I could work on the background easier. I also did my name with the mask.
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2007/95061-1-outline_w-mask.jpg

I did a mostly wet-into-wet background for the trees, scraping out a few trees here and there. The water was done fairly wet-into-wet.
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2007/95061-2-wet-wet_background_trees_scrape_water.jpg

Here is a closer look at the background trees.
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2007/95061-3-det_of_backgr_trees.jpg

I removed the liquid mask, except for the eye area.
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2007/95061-4-remove_masking.jpg

This was the 2 hour mark.
I softened some of the edges around the flamingo and started adding washes for the feather colors.
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2007/95061-5-2_hrs_begin_washes_on_flamingo.jpg

I continued adding washes and texture to the feathers.
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2007/95061-6-work_on_feathers.jpg

[Joan T]

The finished painting after about 2 3/4 hours.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2007/95061-7_-_final_at_2_1-2_hrs.jpg

[Joan T]

They sell a rubber "masking" eraser. You rub it over the masking and it sticks to it so that you can pull it off.