ENTRY #1

 Hello, welcome to my blog. I didn't know Woogy but sadly he recently passed over the rainbow bridge and his family has asked for a portrait of him to be done in water colour. This blog  outlines the process I use. 

WOOGY

Brad and Jan supplied several photos and this is the one I decided on. I will be using Arches cold press paper with a weight of 300 lbs. It is a heavy paper but nonetheless I will stretch it to be on the safe side. While it dries over night, I will start to prepare my sketch of Woogy. I use tracing paper to transfer my sketch to the water colour paper once it has dried.

A vital decision at this stage is to decide on a colour palette. The colours for Woogy are pretty basic--black and white. However, a black from the tube looks flat so for this painting I am going to mix two colours--Daniel Smith's Lunar Blue with Sepia. Potter's pink for his ears.

Before applying any brush to paper though, I have to think about background. Do I do one and if I do is it just a splash or do I go into a more elaborate type of background. This must be decided first because depending on my choice, it may have to be painted before the subject.

Okay, so I have thought about background options. I like the turquoise as a contrast to Woogy and have decided too that I like the linear look. So, basically, I am going to stick to the photo for this one. This means that the background will go down first. It also means that it is a good thing that I stretched my paper because the background will require several wet washes. 

So, I am anxious to get going. Catch you over on Entry #2.

~C