Caroline picked a lovely picture of an Owl she wanted to create a loose and expressive picture.
Using water colours and remembering not to keep painting over the same spot, which would mean the luminosity would be lost as the paper surface could be spoiled, two yellow ochre eyes were painted, then a wash of emerald greens raw siennas, the grey plumage was created with dark red and blue with a touch of yellow ochre, softly painting the shapes of the feathers, all wet into wet all very loose, drop the paint in.
The wash is just the support for the pen. Flashes of orange and green sweeping with the water colour brush, dulling down with sienna if too bright, look for and try to keep the different tonal values. Similar colours for the background but more watery.
As the eyes are the vocal point Caroline added green to give depth.
With a bic biro Caroline started to build up details of the feathers, to add texture and more interest hatching or scribbling or circles could be worked, like an etching, slowly building up values, keep going darker, echo the shapes of the markings, remember to keep certain areas lighter.
As water colour dries quite a lot lighter, go over prominent parts again so they show up, keep you eye on the tonal values all the time. Wet the area then drop in the colour again darkening the feathers orange and blue for brown feathers.
The eyes are the important area lots of work with the biro to bring out the owls character, to bring back light white gouache could be applied with a rigger brush or a cocktail stick.
Add shadows to the head
