Monday, July 1, 2013

Watercolor Study for Parrot Painting

A Little to The Left - Color Study ©LWatry
This is a color study for a larger painting. Color studies are great tools to help a watercolor artist have a "plan of action" before starting a painting. A color study can be any size and done to any level of completion. These studies can help the artist decide where to start, what colors to use, and what possible composition adjustments that may need to be made.

When I began working in watercolor, I used to do very complete color studies like this for most of my paintings. It was a way to get a lot of the planning for the painting figured out before going on to the actual painting.

Now, I usually only do a color study when I haven't worked with a subject before or some aspect of a painting. I did this color study to show the students of a class I was teaching. The size of this study is 6.5 x 4.75 inches. It became a nice little painting in itself and helped me decide my plan of attack for the larger painting.

This painting is for sale on Daily Paint Works.You can follow this link to bid on these brightly colored parrots: "A Little To The Left" by Lorraine Watry.