ACEO - Koi 2 and 5

The temperatures are climbing again with a lot of humidity the high being 73F (23C) and feeling more like 86F (30C) with rain falling for most of the day.

I thought with it being a wet day I may as well do more work on some of the Koi paintings that I had started earlier this year (see posts on 06, 18 and 30 July 2014 and 12 August 2014).

For the first one I used a wash of new gamboge over the body of the koi as a base and then while it was still wet added in a darker mix with the addition of alizarin crimson to give the fish a little shape.

Using various mixtures of new gamboge, alizarin crimson, raw sienna, burnt sienna and cadmium red I painted in the orange markings.

Koi 2

I used French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson to create a warm black and used that to paint in the dark scales on the koi's body, the markings on the fins and the pupil of the eye.

For the second koi I used new gamboge as the base colour for the orange areas of the body and while it was still wet I added mixtures of alizarin crimson and burnt sienna to give the body shape.

For the white areas I used a mix of raw sienna, with a touch of the black mix used for the pupil of the eye and painted in the shadows and the details on the fins and tail.

Koi 5

Using cadmium yellow I added a little more definition to the tail and the dorsal fin.

If you would like more information about ACEO please go to my post on 11 March 2010.

The ACEO shown here are all original watercolour paintings using Artist quality Winsor & Newton paint on 140lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. They are priced at $20.00 each and sold unframed.