SEA TURTLE REVISITED
Here is the photo reference I took from Unsplash taken by Randall Ruiz.
I loved the effect of the turtle skimming over the bottom of a reef, and wanted to get that in my painting.
I also loved the glow of light in the bottom.
I had several objectives when teaching this:
1. Get the feeling of water over rocks without using salt or plastic wrap.
2. Show how to preserve shapes with contact paper
3. Try out some of my "fun" colors, like cobalt teal and Sleeping Beauty
4. Demonstrate how to do a large wash without getting hard edges.
First step was to sketch the turtle on 100% cotton paper. Hot or cold press.
(Besides preferring it, you need cotton for the contact paper to be removable without ripping your paper.)
Step 2: Cover your paper with contact paper. (Or you can cut out the outer turtle shape on the contact paper with scissors.) Using an exacto, gently cut around the outer turtle shape. Leave the contact paper on the turtle and remove the rest. Press the edges down around it to seal.
The purpose of the contact paper is to protect the turtle shape and allow me to be as free and loose as I like on the water.
Colors: Choose three blues in the green bias range. You should have one that does not get dark, like cobalt teal, Sleeping Beauty, or fuschite. Choose another that gets medium, but not very dark, like cyan, cerulean, peacock, or manganese. For the dark, we used Prussian, a color I rarely use, but is popular with a lot of artists. You can add a little green to make it more tropical if you only have cobalt blue.
Make a puddle of each color, so that the color is ready and completely dissolved. Puddle should not be real watery, or the paint will be too light.
Have clean water ready. It can be in a spray bottle or just in a cup.
Using a larger brush, such as a 3/4 inch flat, wet the paper in the area you want to work. Don't try to do all the background at once. The secret is to keep one edge wet, and only paint up to about an inch from that edge.
Begin by adding your light color. Apply it in short strokes, not dots or dabs. Try to keep your strokes in the same direction. You don't need to cover all the paint or blend it with the brush, the water will blend it for you. Drop in some of the medium paint color until you are happy with the effect. The dark color is added while wet to indicate the cracks in the rocks, in broken lines. I used the edge of the flat brush for the darks.
Move to the next area while you wait for the first area to dry.
NOW WATCH YOUR PAINT DRY.
When the painted part has lost its shine, but is not dry dry, spatter droplets of clean water onto the paint. It should make tiny spots, similar to a salt effect but softer. You can also spatter some more paint into it.
Don't mist or oversaturate the area.
What water drops look like
Here are some examples of student water result. Note they are not all the same, but they all look like water.
Completely dry the background with the contact paper in place. DRY ON COOL, or stick on the back of a fan and let the air pull through. It only needs to be completely dry around the turtle so you can pull off the contact paper without tearing the paper or disturbing the paint.
THE TURTLE
Remove the contact paper.
The first thing I did was take some of the pale blue from my palette dirt, and lightly glaze over the neck and parts of the flippers and legs. I want them to appear to be in the water. I still left some white. It effectively separates the appendages from the shell.
Pale blue over legs where they touch the shell
Basically, I used 2 colors for the shell: Quin burnt orange and ultramarine blue. If you don't have quin burnt orange, just use burnt sienna with a bit of warm red in it. The blue and orange will create a nice dark brown.
Note the segments of the shell have a slight fan shaped pattern on each one. I did them one by one so I could recreate this effect. I wet the segment (no puddles); used a #6 brush and quin burnt orange to make radiating lines (the wet paper will soften them), then added the blue at the bottom, dark edge of the pattern. I tried to leave a soft white spot at the center of the radiant.
Leave white space in between the segments. I want this hard line, but will calm it at the end.
Don't worry, you can use water and a small brush at the end if you don't get the pattern you like. Also, they don't ALL have to look perfect...just a few with the radial pattern will give the effect to all of it
Appendages and head.
Had to use a small brush to get the tiny spots on head and flippers. Same colors as the shell, but added a little green tone here and there. Also, vary the lightness and darkness of the spots.
Making the entire shell rounded.
First I took clean water on my brush and washed over SOME of the hard white lines outlining the shell segments. This loosens some of the paint and pulls it into the crevices. You still have a hard edge, but it isn't so stark white. I still want SOME of the pure white to stay.
I wanted the shell to look more rounded. I darkened the outer right and bottom sides of the shell (still using ultramarine blue and quin burnt orange, just darker) and had to lift some hi-lights in the center of the shell.
(On this one, I made the mistake of trying to make one of the shell patterns have dark lines, and I
really don't like it as well as the soft ones. )
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