New Watercolor WIP - Baby Giraffe

I have begun a new 22" x 30" watercolor on 140 lb Arches paper, which I have discovered I really like for this "African" series I am doing. African Elephant was on 300 lb. Arches - which is beautiful paper, but which has become quite expensive. I painted Rhino on 140 lb. and liked how well it stood up to all the texturizing I did, so I am going to see how it works for this painting as well.

This is the third and perhaps the final in this series of creatures. They are all based on photos which I took while at the San Diego Zoo a couple of years ago. On that day, the baby giraffe was outside with its mommy, and I got this gorgeous shot of it against the mother's hide. The baby was quite active in spite of the heat - lots of energy to burn off.

I am beginning the painting once again with masking off the areas I want to remain white when I do the first pouring of color over the entire surface of the painting. I will be pouring 3 primary colors - red, blue and yellow - to create light and shadow in the painting. After 3 different pours of color, and removing different areas of masking at different times in the pouring process, I will be ready to begin actually putting brush to paper. And that is when the real fun of creating begins ... seeing my vision come alive as I work the paint on the background of poured colors. I will be posting Baby G. as the stages progress. 

As I work on this large painting, I will also be doing some more small watercolors in series (like I did with Pears and Apples), and hopefully some acrylics or oils on panel in the style of Catch.