(5x6)I always love paintings of koi ponds (and koi ponds themselves, for that matter) but think of the subject as one I could never tackle: too complicated, so much going on--the surface of the water, beneath the water....
I thought about what I said in an earlier post about using the 20-minute challenge to plunge into an intimidating subject and remembered a couple of photos I took on Tortola on an overcast day--which I thought at the time was not ideal but maybe turned out to be a good thing: fewer complicating reflections.
Coming upon a set of Lukas pan colors with the most luscious and inviting oranges and orange-yellows further helped me overcome my fear: I couldn't resist those colors.
So I started this with the fish shapes, no drawing, and painted the water around them; I was trying to keep the shapes separate, but the bleeding worked out well, softening some of the shapes and toning down the color so those fish look deeper in the water.
I've been pulling out old palettes and pan sets and tubes ... making abig mess, in other words. On the sheet below, I made swatches of all the quinacridones I have, and then tried a few random mixes, and came up with a couple I really liked: rose madder genuine + viridian; Q pink + green gold; cobalt + hooker's + gamboge; viridian + alizarin; and an old standby, raw sienna + manganese blue.
6 comments:
This is a lot for a 20 min challenge painting! And you're right - the bleeding helped put the fish in the water :) I like seeing your color combos, too, but remember Rose Madder Genuine is fugitive = it will fade, turn brown over time. I've seen this with my own eyes so I know the DS Rose Madder does change - you might want to use Quin Pink or Quin Rose or Rhodonite Genuine instead.
love the koi pond. i recognized the fish instantly and feel the piece is better for having bled a bit too.
this has been something on my list of paintings. this is very nice. love the colours
Hi Laura,
Love the 20 minute Koi painting and the test sheet. You are amazing.
Take care,
Barbara
20 minutes!? It would take me 20 minutes to figure out which end of the brush to use, and then I would end up finger painting.
Nicely done!
Interesting color mixes. Vibrant and some favorites of mine Gamboge and RMG are just two. Your koi pond is just right. I have one also that I did about 20 years ago, I see that my colors are just not strong enough (one of my pitfalls) even though the fish are painted nicely. Isn't it always something?
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