For a show

I have been delayed in doing more work on the Santa painting because of a deadline for a painting for a show with my local art club. This was supposed to be a quick and easy painting (16 x 24) but turned out to be very hard to get even washes and blending. I called it Breakfast... Assembly Required and it is a varnished watercolour. However, the varnish made it almost impossible to get a good photo because of reflections. The photo shows a lot of blotchy colours that aren't there in real life because of the manipulation in Photoshop to get the image as close as possible. I will be back at the Santa painting shortly.

Step 9

I was right. Getting the masking fluid off was four hours of hard work. I should never have left it on so long. It turned into a gooey, sticky mess. However, I finally got it off and I'm moving on. Today I added another wash of colour over the background to set it farther back, put a first wash of colour on the pants, and added another wash of colour on the face. I still have to cover more of the white areas to get a better photo. I will have a lot of work to do on all the hair and beard but at least the masking is off and I can get to work on that next.