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March of the clowns Watercolor tutorial

Well I have been meaning to paint this for a while now, as you can see it is a little intimidting. In this watercolor demo I started with a detailed line drawing and then started bouncing around adding some local color to the clown faces with a wash of yellow ochre and cad red. After that dries i start placing some shadows using a thin wash of cobalt. The darks of the eyes are a mix of cad red, hunter green deep and paynes grey.
Worked a little on the upper portion of the painting today. Really like the oranges against the blue. Just makes that litle portion sing. This painting reminds me of "paint by number" and with all the little variations i almost have to treat it that way.
Day 4 and aprox 15 hours into it.. hmm i may be able to get this done by the end of the year. ;) This time around i worked a little adding my oranges (grumbacher red and gamboge) deeper values were made by adding a little burnt sienna. This will be heightened even more later on in the painting when i get the majority covered and the i will go back in and tweak a little. Also notice that i have to go back in and readjust my one clowns face in the back left. it seems to be a little flat. The hat's highlights were added and will be blended into the main color in subsequent washes.

Had to take a break from all these small shapes for a bit- fractured the wrist in our first winter storm :( So I will move on to some mass blocking in of the oranges/reds. Grumbacher Red + Raw Sienna and Grumbacher Red +gamboge and Grumbacher Red and Burnt Sienna washes. The oranges and the dark hats will eventually calm and unify the painting. Right now it looks very busy and the clowns are very flat.
Little more color and definition added to the left side of the painting. Added some of the brown tones with a mix of burnt umber, Burnt Sienna and Diox Violet. Added the rounded belly clowns main dress suit and more definition to the darks. Think my next stage will be to add the hats.

a little work on the hats today. The main washes to the hats are paynes grey and Phalo blue as you work back in the piece there is a little orange added just to grey it down. The closer the image the more in focus and the brighter colors used - the farther the image is away the blurrier and greyer it is. You can see now that the piece is starting to unify with the additions of the hats. There is so much going on in this painting that the eyes need a rest and that is what the hats and oranges do in this piece.
These hats are the bane of my existance.. :( They are shiny and it is taking many layers of paint and a whole lot of scrubbing back to get it to this point and I still have so much left in order to get the soft transition of color. Notice all the holes in the hats. I am going to be adding them seperatly. The only hat I am almost comfortable with at this time is the large one up front, and even that one could use a little tweaking. Also adding a few more shapes and patterns, getting the pieces all connected.
Not alot of time to work on this lately with Christmas coming up. The only time I get to paint is between 3 and 6 am - i have a baby who is a non-sleeper. So with that being said I added a few brown tones and deepened a few shadows. Hopefully I can get another installment in before Christmas but if I dont Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. :)
The 8th installment of this piece, slowly but surely coming together. Working my way across from left to right, adjusting tones, shades and values as I go. It is starting to pop now - but I still have along way to go. Any questions please feel free to ask.

March of the clowns
6.5" * 8.25"
Watercolor
$220 USD Matted and unframed



Yeah the clouds have parted and the light has shone! It is finally done!!!!!
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