The Process of a Painting - From Idea to the Finished Project
Whenever I see a picture I like on the internet I save it so that I can use it for inspiration. My pinterest boards are really full of images that spark the joy of painting in me. I have saved up so many pictures that I will never be able to paint all of them in my lifetime. However, some photos just make you want to paint them now.
I love painting animals. There’s just something about them that’s so intriguing. The picture that inspired this painting had a herd of buffaloes gathered at a dusty sunset. The colors in the photo were in shades of golden and brown.
It reminded me of a tutorial from a wildlife artist whose patreon I had joined. It was a painting of a herd of wildebeest in watercolor but in unconventional colors like green and purple. That inspired me to paint this piece. I use reference pictures only as suggestions for mainly the composition. I don’t like copying a picture as it is, it doesn’t excite me. When I come up with the idea myself, it inspires me to create.
For this one, first I wanted to pick the colors that I would use. I decided to go with three colors - Daniel Smith quinacridone coral; a beautiful cool red, Daniel Smith new gamboge; a vibrant warm yellow and QoR prussian blue. I made a little color wheel to test out the mixes and I was happy with the choices. So I did a little thumbnail painting of one of the buffaloes.
Color swatch and test painting
I really liked how well the colors complemented each other. The thumbnail turned out surprisingly well. I use an inexpensive sketchbook to test out my ideas. Here, I used the Prussian blue and the green and purple mixes for the buffalo and added some of the green on the ground as a continuation of the legs. I also decided to add some Schmincke transparent orange for the background. For the full painting I used my A4 sized sketchbook of 100% cotton paper that I handmade myself.
A Herd of Buffalos in watercolor
I decided to spread it out over both sides of the sketchbook, making it a larger painting (A3 size). I like how the finished piece turned out. It has that atmospheric feel that I’m trying to get in my work. The whole process of planning the painting, thumbnailing, choosing the colors and seeing the end result was so very satisfying and therapeutic. I learned a lot from it. Having a limited palette of four colors really helped this piece. I hope to do more limited palette paintings in the future.