Rob Bonslett to Watercolour Techniques and Tips
My attempt at painting a friend’s cat...
After drawing the desired contours on an 11x14 inch sheet of 140 Fabiano Artistico cp paper. (I laid down a combo wet/wet wet/dry. Starting at the head wet on dry, the larger areas along the body I laid down some clear water. –just enough to add shine to paper.)
I laid down first wash of Holbein Ultramarine and the Violet made from ultrmarine &perm rose. Just before shine left the paper, I lifted out the highlights with a damp #12 white sable brush.
Second wash, I used raw sienna, burnt sienna and ultramarine blue over entire cat, then lifted out highlights and details with a damp white sable brush. Then worked on details of fur and eyes with a #14 round squirrel hair brush. I then used a dryer to make sure paper was completely flat. Painted ledge with the two siennas. Dropped in background colors from the limited palette adding permanent lemon and perm rose. Worked in more details to cat and ledge. Detailed whiskers and ear hairs -then called him done. Note: by using this limited 5 color palette for Cat/ledge/background, it made for a more unified composition.
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