Something's a Little Fishy!

Photographed with a Panasonic DMC-2525 in natural light

Photographed at night with an I-Phone, notice how the flash changes the color.

Have you ever felt like you were stuck in a rut?  Just that sort of feeling led me to check out an online tutorial for painting watercolor Koi, and here is the result.  Pretty fun.  If you would like to try it, here is the link to a tutorial by Lian Zen.

Hopefully, my watercolor group will enjoy this as much as I did, since it is an exercise I am assigning them next Monday.

My friend Wendy liked this process so much, she used this wet into wet technique to paint her most recent elephant.  She owns a bed and breakfast in Tanzania and is doing a series of animal watercolors for sale to support a non-profit she and her husband have established to promote education about autism in Africa.  Their own young son has been diagnosed with Autism and Wendy and her husband Mathias Bali know first hand the lack of programs available for children with autism in Africa.  Click on the underlined links to learn more about travel to Tanzania or to see how to support Autism education.

 

Isn't it colorful?  Perfect for a child's room!  If you would like to purchase this elephant, send me an email at heathergaume@gmail.com and I will forward it to Wendy or contact her through the Umali Bed and Breakfast.

And speaking of colors, I am in LOVE with Prussian Blue!  It was not in my Koi Water Color Pocket Field Sketch Box, so I had to purchase a tube of it separately.  When I worked in oils, it was my absolute favorite blue.  It is such a wonderful color to mix with almost every other color in the box.  I also use Verdana a great deal as you can see in the Koi paintings above. Do you have a favorite color of blue?

Another of my recent paintings with just the barest hints of blue. Photographed with a Panasonic DMC-2525 in natural light.

The same painting photographed with an I-Phone in the evening with artificial light.  Quite a difference!  While I really appreciate the convenience of always having a small portable camera with me in my I-phone, clearly a better camera should be used for images that are important to you.