1.Leaf background,First using masking fluid I masked off around the tree his ear's hair,cloak and all the leaves I wanted to high light. let that dry.
Using a dark yellow I brushed in where I thought leaves would be. While wet poured salt over the paint and let that dry. Using a dark drown I bushed in where I thought shadows would fall,and let all that dry. I used watercolor paints dark red, dark yellow, light yellow and orange using the tip of my fine tip brush I dabbed each leaf on. I worked in layers, first the darker of my colors like dark red then let that dry. Each layer I let dry sometimes using my hairdryer. You can see the layers in photo #2.
2. Next after the paints dry and I'm happy with the dept of the layers of the leaves I rubbed off all the masking fluid.There may be a little paint where I didn't want the paint to go but that doesn't bug me it's watercolor.
3.Then I masked off the leaves on the tree, mushrooms and around his hair and cloak. Now to get started to paint the tree.
4. I bushed on a dark brown base coat on the tree trunk and while it's wet I used salt to get a bit more texure into it. After the base coat is dry I started to paint in the lighter brown and some brown grays for bark lines. So now it's starts to look like a tree trunk.
5. You can see the tree looks like a tree now or I'm happy with it and now we can move on.
Ok, all those white looking leaves on #4 photo you see those are the ones I'm going to work on next. I started at the top of each leaf working down using a light yellow leaving the tips white, letting that dry (using a hairdryer). Then I moved to a darker yellow on top of the lighter if I wanted more light I used a white paint if needed it but most you just leave the tips of the leaves with no paint then it looks like you used white paint. I let all that dry (hairdryer) I thought it needed a few lighter looking leaves so I used white paint hear and there.
6. Leaves finished I move to the mushrooms. Using a dark red I brushed just the tops of the mushrooms and leaving the bottoms white.
7. It's gets fast here. Using a leaf green paint I coat the hole cloak. While the paint is still wet using a damp brush I can lift away the paint I don't want like around the folds and creases and let that dry. I did the same thing to the tunic under the cloak, put the base coat down first then lifted the paint off the folds and creases. Now all I had left is the detailing the trim on the second tunic and it's tunic color and also, the detailing of the broach.That was easy and fast.
8. After all that was dry I went back to the mushrooms all I did was put some white dots on top of the red and added shadows.
The face. I started with his tone of his face I used white, light yellow, rusty red,brown and a dusty purple paint. I shaded around his forehead under his chin and around his eyes and nose. I gave him shadows on his ears and painted in his lips I used a light pink with a little yellow and if needed a little white.
Eyes, That was easy and my favorite I gave him a amber look to them and I wanted him to look a little serious.So I put more shadows on his eyelids and under his eyes. Hair, That was fast I used a light dusty purple and white to highlight.Using my fine tip brush I just did swirly or wavy line where I wanted them.
I also fixed his chin and eyebrows made them more male looking.So I widen his chin, darken and widen his eyebrows and nose, oh yeah I fixed his lip and gave him a bit of a five'o clock shadow too. And finished the detail on his cloak.
And here he is finished this painting took 25 hours of work and is on 8 x 11 watercolor paper.
"First Encounter"
