"The Elephant Watches" finished

This 18 x 22 watercolor on 300 lb paper was done in layers using masking and then painting the entire sheet with a watercolor wash and then repeating the process until the very darkest layer is finally done.    When I took of the masking that kept the layers from getting darker, it did pull of some of the color so I did have a lot of painting to do when I thought I would be done.  I also had to lighten the background areas because they were still too dark!  Anyway, I learned a lot and may try this technique again.  Interested parties can see more at my website terry-honstead.artistwebsites.com or email me at
honstead@paulbunyan.net

"The Elephant Watches"

I thought I would post this painting so far.  I am not done yet, but you can see the succession of layers that I did in these.   I only used antwerp blue, permanent rose, quinacridone gold, and cad yellow light to do the whole painting.   I already had several layers done by the first picture.  I drew my picture on and then masked off part of it to stay white.  Then I poured paint on it and let the paint run and mix.  I let this dry and then added another layer of masking.  Then I poured again.  I would say that I had about eight layers before I took all of the masking off.  When I did that, more paint than I had expected came off with it so I had to darken some areas of it again.  The two sides that show the background were too dark so I lightened those area up again.  I still have more to do on this to darken the neck area and possibly try to darken the decorative part under his chin.  I will see.  I hope to finish this soon a it is a lot more work than I thought it would be.  However, I am having a lot of fun with it!