Think about it, yeah, I picked my favorite reds and went Willie Nellie, no planning no thinking about what colors to use what kind of mood do I want to establish. This is as far as I got, of yeah and I got excited and introduced yellow acrylic to the brows of the mask.

Last night, last night I was looking at her, last as what to do next. So, I sat with her, just looking, and then I knew. I would do her eyes and that would be how to decide how to go forward.

Once again, I am reminded of thinking it through and color is something I want decided before even beginning a painting.

And then I thought while color mixing for the flesh tones and feathers that I would do a color test between my two favorite brands, Schmincke and Daniel Smith. I really enjoy the Schmincke pigment, I bought this palette because of a watercolor class I took in San Antonio, TX. The last I looked into updating my Schmincke palette they were still only offering the pans and ½ pans no tubes in the bulk of their color choices.

Looking at my little journal are two rows of painted boxes. These are my skin tones and feather color choices as well. The top row is Schmincke, the second row is Daniel Smith. If you look closely the Daniel Smith Colors are so much more exciting.

In the end I’m not sure how fare it was because I’ve been pretty much using the Daniel Smith only. So, the wells were pretty moist and using pretty fresh paints. The Schmincke hasn’t been used for quite some time. Although I wet them about an hour before using them, they were still pretty hard.

I used my little watercolor travel journal for this comparison and in selecting the basic Trio.

The Basic Trio is Red (permanent alizarin crimson), Yellow (yellow ochre), Blue (FUM). Art the basic color combination that what will be used from for the skin tones as well as the masks feathers.

She’s strong.