Key West Rooster Strip #2 8x 15 300 lb cp watercolor paper

If you ever told me I would be nuts about chickens and roosters enough to follow them around drawing and and later painting them I would have said who not me!!

Key West Rooster Strip #1 8x 15 300 lb cp watercolor paper

After several trips to Key West and and even more to the farm an old restored homestead at the Great Smokey Mountains National Park I LOVE chickens. So much fun attitude and not too hard to draw with a little practice.

So why did I paint two??? They are actually on the same piece of paper. I just flipped it over. Right after that I found a pile of 8″ strips.

Ok I painted two because I thought the first one got too dark and wasn’t loose enough. There’s a fine line you slide over in watercolor and it’s hard to come back. So I just flipped it over and started again.

The second one has brighter less muddy colors. The red is red and there are a lot whites which adds sparkle.

Cockscomb on first one. Muddy no least edges aka all the same value. I should lighten the edges by blotting the color off but since I painted him again I won’t.

Splattering the background with a soup of cerulean, mineral violet and sienna adding quin sienna and greens to tail. Cad red light for combs and face w drops of serpentine green. Colors used burnt and quin sienna quin gold cerulean burnt umber serpentine green mineral violet ultramarine blue.

#2

Tip of the Day

Reading back over my notes from Peggy Habits class last spring I ran across this factoid. The reason she uses M Graham which you can revive forever in the palette or on PAPER. Sits made with honey so easy to wet and rework compared to winsor newton or Daniel smith. I think Holbein is more M Graham.

That said I wrote this down and it never occurred to me that she meant it revived anywhere except on the palette til I reread it this morning. So sharing her tip with you all.

Of course Yupo is a different animal. Nothing works the same on Yupo.

Her other tip that’s a fav of mine right now is using a colors compliment will tone it down. Green will tone down red like I did with the first set of cockscombs. The dabs of serpentine green made it brown. Eeek. All that brown is from the addition of serpentine green. Oopsey.

Got to go vacuum and make the beds. Ttyl

Margaret xoxoxox

#keywestwildlifecenter #rooster #loose #watercolor #aquarelle #splash #keywest #charlotte #northcarolina #kimjohnson #nancycouick #splash #splatter #sketching #drawing #birds #chickens