The Brief was Colourful!! And Day 2/3

This sheep painting was a commission which has come from an xmas card which was sent this year. I had cards printed and one or two reprinted from last year and I sent it to a friend who wanted me to do it much larger in another colour way. This was the original xmas card

painted 11x7 so too small but not the colours she wanted either. I had an idea of what she might like so had a go and showed her at New Year to see if I was on the right track.. this was only a practice, 15x11 and not finished but I just wanted to get a feel for what she might like. It wasn't far off but she wanted it to be more colourful and so I did some colour planets for her and we agreed on some colours for me to work with. This was the practice piece using indigo, perylene maroon and quin gold

and we decided it needed lifting a bit and so instead of the indigo I used turquoise as the perylene maroon is dark enough to give me deep tones.

I did a quick sketch then used a toothbrush to spray the whole piece with masking fluid. That needed to dry and I then started on the bg adding the 3 colours randomly letting them mix and mingle on the paper. This painting is 22x15 (1/2 imperial) so you need to be watching the whole area for hard edges developing.. that is if you don't want them!! You need to work quickly and confidently adding water to keep the leading edge wet and as I approached the sides I washed away the colour with almost clean water to keep the painting brighter at the bottom.

While this part was drying I painted the sheep doing them all slightly differently and just suggesting eyes/ nose/ mouth etc. I then went back to the bg once dry and built up another layer of colour just as for the first layer. I finally glazed the area with quin gold and splashed a few more colours around the piece and this is the result....thankfully she loved it!!

This is day 2 and 3 of the challenge on Leslie Saeta's blog