Backer Exclusive- Painting a Watercolor Catfish Timelapse (Patreon)

A little background art to keep you company!  A while back, I polled you all about sharing some backlog footage as timelapse videos, and it was almost split between voice-over only and timelapse. Still, timelapse won out by just a smidge!  

I wanna remind you all that this is NOT in place of voice-over tutorials but rather a way for me to share videos I might never otherwise get around to editing and uploading. I also want to share some photos and explanations for those interested- a little bonus on top of the bonus!

Materials Used:

Canson Moulin du Roy Coldpress Watercolor Paper

Daily driver watercolor palette

Various Silver Black Velvet rounds and natural quills

Various ceramic mixing palettes & sauce bowls

Winsor and Newton Removable Masking FLuid

Masking fluid pick-up

White Gouache

Watercolor pencils

A Few Favorite Techniques

Underpainting in Turquoise BlueI love underpainting and grisaille/bleuaille/ect!  It really allows me to get those shadow colors and colors influenced by the light in there- rather than trying to glaze them on top.  Although I'm painting a more murky pondwater, I start off with this really pretty greenish turquoise.

and Hints of Sunlight Yellow

I also add in pops of the highlight color- a bismuth yellow with a hint of naples yellow to give us a warm and sunny highlight.

Add Masking Fluid 

Some of the yellow on the water isn't highlight- it's masking fluid.  I'm using a larger synthetic brush to apply the masking fluid, and using confident, chunky strokes.

First layer of watercolor- a lot of floating colors into wet into wet

If you're watching the timelapse, you can see how I do this in real time!  Apply the wash color (that turquoise) and then using a multi brush approach, add in dabs more more saturated turquoise, pthalo blue, and browns.  I allow this layer to dry fully and then

It's all in the masking fluid.

Allow to dry fully, add more masking fluid.  More washes while floating in color.  And just keep building it up like this for awhile.  Don't be afraid to overlap your masking fluid strokes either- it really helps build up color!

Underpainting Kara with the blue water mix.

More bleuaille, more masking fluid, more layers of water.  You can see through the masking fluid how we're building up the water.  At this point, I'm also working in smaller strokes, and trying to mimic ripples in water.  I'm not going for a realistic approach, but something that feels right, but I'm using reference.

I also spritzed this with a spray bottle of water to get some of those colors moving outside of their ripples and break up the white of the paper a bit so it's not so stagnant.

Starting on the catfish.

Adding in darker browns wet into wet to build up diffused color.  I love how some of these colors granulate out on this paper!

Allow to dry.  Add layers of masking fluid over the catfish.  We're going to add layers of water on top of this later, and that masking fluid will give the impression that we can see through the water to a hint of the large catfish below the surface.

Start painting in the local color on Kara and the bobber.

A little bit of red and yellow for contrast, since we have so much blue and green going on.

Add a couple layers of 'water' on top of the catfish so it blends in more.  

Remove masking fluid.  

This takes time and patience, but it's so satisfying!

Add some strokes of color on top of the masked areas to blend them better.  Add more swooshes of color to the environment to kinda break up the larger waveforms and make them a little more delicate.  

This might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I really like this one!  Catfish is a favorite food down here, particularly fried, but I also have fond memories of catching them with my dad and frying them at home!