Today I’m sharing the process of my latest gouache spread. For once I took a few photos as I went along but I only wish I had remembered a bit earlier as I started to blend the body color of the birds.

Oh well… next time.

I started by creating a basic line drawing over a pre-painted matte acrylic background.

Even though I intended to cover my lines with opaque passages of gouache just having them there helped me feel more confident as the painting progressed.

Then there comes a time when you think you’re done but when you step back you realize you’re still not there.

What’s missing?  Now it’s time to critique. In this case I had plenty of medium and dark values but almost no lights. Daley-Rowney Pro White was the perfect addition.

And then there’s color theory. Violet and Orange are both secondary colors… two of the colors in the secondary triad. The other color in the triad?  Green. Eureka! I need leaves and an odd grouping of them across the spread.

A little Payne’s Gray for feather definition and I consider it done.