u/Inevitable-Jicama-82

I call this first one, “The Lowrider.” He’s a real goer. Can still pull off extreme low-rise jeans from the early aughts. Has maybe skipped leg day one too many times. (1)

The same, but this time looser and with a background. The grass, ugh. Does everyone else do backgrounds first? (2)

What if I just focus on the tail feathers? (3)

If I can paint iridescent tail feathers, I can do anything! (No, you can’t, and in fact, you didn’t.) (4 and 5)

Reference photo of the handsome lad in question. (6)

Plus I’m still a little slow for wet-on-wet. I painted this little brass mister from life, which was good practice since I usually use photos. Maybe I’ll try in brighter daylight next time, because I think it could use more color variation instead of just different shades of burnt sienna. I realized later that the shadow in the lower right was actually the reflection of my palette. :)

Paint colors: DS burnt sienna, French ultramarine, and a smidge of pyrrol scarlet for the top of the plunger.
Paper: Baohung Artist, cold press, 140 lb, from a roll
Brushes: Princeton Neptune round #6 and Rosemary & Co Red Dot mop, size 4 ( I love this one!)

I don’t wanna be right. I knit a lot and it reminds me of the really beautiful neon pink shades of La Bien Aimee yarn. Anyway, lots of frustrating trials to figure how to get the petals colors to flow together nicely (several not pictured 🥴). I think the latest one worked out ok, so it went to Mom for Mother’s Day.

I feel pretty satisfied with this, though the background needs to be finished and adding some white whiskers. Any thoughts on background color/treatment are welcome! Overall, it’s much better than where I started, but the body is a little overworked. Maybe my next version will be a looser style when I feel more confident? I won’t be spamming this subreddit with my cat for a while tho!

Photos start with the latest and go backwards to my first effort. Materials as follows:

Paper: Baohung Master’s Choice, 300 gsm, cold-press 10”x14” watercolor block
Paint: DS Burnt Sienna, French Ultramarine, Indian Yellow, Quinacridone Rose
Brushes: Princeton Heritage and Neptune round brushes, sizes 16, 6, and 2 (mostly 6)