I’ve been experimenting a little more in gouache since it can offer both the transparency of watercolor and the opacity of acrylics depending on how you treat it. In this piece, I first covered the paper in very dark browns and greens. Once that pigment was dry, I went on to splatter a very bright magenta all over the page. I did this so that when I painted in my highlights, the shadows would still have these interesting bright spots.
After drying the red splatters, I started giving the shapes volume by adding lighter tones. I then finished it up by painting in some scales and other bright highlights, and also adding blues where the intense shadows should be.
This piece turned out pretty well, but I would have liked to plan the colors out a little more because it seems kind of flat in some areas.
As a side note, I’m very happy to have used my own reference photo for this piece. Every time I go to the zoo or the aquarium I bring my camera and take pictures like crazy, and this is the first time that I’ve actually used one of those photos for a painting.