I thought I'd post a day by day process for this newest painting I did. I really wanted to create a successful piece dominated by green and this time I figured it out. None of the transparent colors in this painting are pure - all of them are mixed with something else to neutralize them. I even toned down the payne's grey because I got sick of adjusting it after scanning it. I mixed payne's grey with some burnt sienna to get a warmer and more neutral grey. Acrylic payne's grey is just too blue and like I said, it is an annoyance to adjust it in photoshop. The greens in the background are a mixture of permanent green light, green gold and alizarin crimson hue. The reds on the bird are a mixture of alizarin crimson hue and permanent green light. Any yellows on the bird have a little bit of dioxazine purple mixed into them. The only pure color is the yellow opaque color in the hawk's eye.
I decided to take a photo after each day of painting just to see my thought process. I generally like to get all the dark, hard edges before putting on thin veils of color. I used two brushes - one small flexible round and a soft neptune brush for any light washes. What you see below is about six days of painting, maybe 3 to 5 hours total for each day.
