I forget how challenging depicting white can be with watercolor and to shade with out loosing vibrance. This was one of my favorite fish. I sat by my pond working on sketching him out from life. Sketching from life produces a very different form than from a photo.

Sketching wildlife can be challenging as you can not hold them captive. I often elicit the use of photos to capture things missed during the initial sketch. Luckily in this instance my lil’ fish was bound by the pond and I could count on him swimming in his usual favorite path over and over again.

Artist Tips:

• Grays can be chromatic or achromatic (so don’t assume the limits of achromatic shading)
• When sketching from life do not look for the outline or color book lines to copy- you are replicating an understanding of the form not the actual form.
• Don’t feel a need to hide sketch lines in a painting they can add character; but do avoid using softer pencils whose  loose graphite can muddle the pigment and it’s transparency.
• Think about the positive and negative ground concept to the use paper.