Time and again I have rebuked myself for not making appropriate notes on the paintings that I make, and yet I continue to go on doing the same. If I need to get back to a painting after many days, it goes without saying that there's going to be some fading off of the memory regarding what colours I used or how I approached a particular spot. However, my laziness gets the better of me and I forget to note down what I did exactly.
Hopefully, the photographs that I have help me rejig my memory and move me smoothly through this final version of the painting that I am going to start after exactly 2 months of completion of the final rough painting.
Since, this is the first time I am actually going to note down steps - I'm putting up a LONG POST warning. But, I need it to be detailed, for, it is going to be for my own future reference as well!
So what have we got here?
Reference Picture is here:
A picture that Manu clicked in our trip to the North East India in the middle of last year.
I've already done:
1. Basic line sketch
2. Value sketch drawn in pencil
3. Watercolour draft
4. Printout of the watercolour draft with notes on what works and what else to change for the final version.
Medium to be used: Watercolours
I've forgotten what all colours I used for the watercolour draft. I made 2 other watercolour paintings - one overloaded with skin tones, for it was an indoor portrait, and the other one heavy on brilliant green for that was an outdoor portrait. This one here, is quite dark.
So I know there's
- a lot of indigo to be used. Going by the palette I had used, there's
- Raw Sienna,
- Yellow Ochre,
- Burnt Sienna, and
- Crimson that I am able to see.
- Cerulean(?) - What's that colour on the girl's sleeve?
I was scared of running out of colours when the lockdown started. So I covered up the final sketch and kept it aside. I painted two other portraits instead.
Now that we are slowly moving out of a lockdown, and e-commerce has been enabled, I got myself the colours that I was running low on.