Tutorial: Painting "Sacrifice" (ink and gouache)

This painting "Sacrifice" was part of my series "Erode" that was on display at the WWA Gallery February 18th – March 10th, 2012 as part of their "Critters and People and Things of That Sort" show.

I hit a road-block when I initially put in the background in pale blue... ugh... what was I thinking? It took me a while to come up with a solution as the white india ink had sealed the paper so I couldn't paint over it in gouache. I laid in the black branches in black india ink today and am much happier with the contrast and the way it pops the colors. Crisis averted!

Here is a shot of my standard painting process- using india ink washes to lay in the tone and then colored washes of gouache on top. I broke this painting down by color- painting all the blue, then all the yellow, and moving up to orange and red, then I went back and touched up any other color that needed it.



Photos of the finished painting... I just need to sign it:





This painting is *SOLD*.