COLORFUL ZEBRA

There are a few things in this exercise that will help you to paint like a water colorist.
It emphasises the following:
1. Laying in a 3-color graded wash.
2. blending color wet into wet, and watching the new colors created
3. Leaving white without masking it out
4. Not worrying about "local" color in order to create a fun painting
5. Creating beautiful darks and light with just three colors
6. Lifting paint (at the end) to create soft, brushy mane

Draw your favorite picture of a zebra, or other animal with interesting patterns. 

For the background, choose three primary colors. I chose quin magenta, hansa yellow,

and pthalo blue. I wet the paper with a large brush, and applied a graded wash, left to

right, with magenta, yellow, and blue. I left some white patches, especially near the eye,

by painting the wash close to, but not in those areas. That created a soft, disappearing

edge in those areas. I spattered clear water onto some of the drying areas for blossoms.

After the initial wash was dry, I began the stripes. Using the same three colors that I used in the background, I wet a stripe, then applied color, letting them blend into each other. The trick is to never let all three colors blend together at once, trying to keep the colors pure. For example, I might start with magenta, change to yellow about an inch later, then change to blue, then back to yellow, alternating colors. You can see that better in the close-up below. Try not to make your intervals too even or predictable.

You can make stripes with just two colors if you want to.

One trick is to put down one color, then, starting away from the first color, put down the second color and let it run back into the first. That way you have a tip of pure color to add to the next one.

FINISHING THE MANE, EYES, MUZZLE, AND DETAILS NEXT WEEK.