Colour scheme today was French ultramarine, quinacridone magenta, raw sienna, burnt sienna and sepia. The blue, the red and the raw sienna make up my elephant primary triad - I thought I'd try painting in the silhouettes the same way that Hazel Soan paints elephants. Raw sienna down first then the red and then blue, both wet into wet, followed by sepia to bring out some features.
For once I didn't start with replicating the original still like a draftsman using an 8*8 grid. Instead I put 25 little pencil spots on the paper approximating the corners of a 4*4 grid. I'm trying to wean myself slowly off the full grid. So today's drawing might not be right in places but it's more human.
There's a lot that's good about this one. The colours on the dog reflect the heat of the day, so the Hazel Soan mimicry worked there. The guy's face looks good, with some definite evil in the eyes and the beard. The colours on him are not as good as those on the dog but they do have good highlights. And he has a nice scarf. And I'm pleased with the shadows. Shadows are something I often forget or don't think about. Today they were made from raw sienna and French ultramarine because green is the opposite colour to red, which was the predominant colour under the shadows.
The biggest negative about this painting is that the colours on John Wayne haven't worked as well as those on the dog. This is because it was a hot day today and the raw sienna dried too quickly for me to be able to add in the red and blue wet into wet. Next time I go elephant style, it has to be on a colder day. The foliage behind the dog and in the bottom right isn't great but not a disaster. And the main guy looks nothing like John Wayne and a bit too evil for his character Hondo. But the vast majority of people won't know about that film.
Obviously this one's up for sale.
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