Rainbow Bisque

The virtue of patience - building up values slowly from very light to very dark as necessary. Noticing small changes in neighboring values. Understanding that yellow isn't yellow, black isn't black, and red isn't red. Saving the white of the paper for the highest values. These are techniques and ideas that will take my drawings just a little further. I wanted to paint today. But again, I was frozen by the blank page. This drawing was the result of forcing myself to do something. I'm not sure how this would turn out as a painting - but it might be fun to do some little studies of its feathers and try to put something together. Tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow is another opportunity to try again.

I have no idea why the color looks so janky here. Granted, I didn't match the reference exactly, but I feel like picassa (or whatever the service is called) is being a little more liberal with the yellow than I would like. Regardless, this painting really got away from me. I mixed a pool of green and just seemed to add random shades of green. It's a bit too dark in places, it's a bit uneven in places, and it's sort of wobbly throughout. On the bright side, I really like the effect of the fan brush in the background. I think if I ever attempt this subject again, my first order of business will be to establish a solid palette. Figure out what the purest form of this color is, and dilute it as necessary. I may also try drawing the thing a couple more times before I commit it to the watercolor paper.