Watercolor bat - color question

Debra Garcia

The colors and composition on the final are wonderful. Look back at your original, and then this one again; the improvement is astounding. Your hard work has definitely paid off. Love it!

Sas

@demotlj What a very clever idea!

demotlj

@debra-garcia Thanks for your compliments. I am still frustrated that I wasn't able to get the blues as dark as I wanted in watercolor (I was using mostly ultramarine) without making them too gray. I had to resort to Procreate to darken them while retaining some vibrancy. Color mixing is definitely a challenge for me as a newcomer to watercolors.

kaitlinmakes

Oh! You nailed it!
Evelyn reads so well against her background - those blues of the ground and sky are so rich! And her warm colors really make her pop.
A disgression - I think sometimes with watercolor we try and make the paint do something that it just can't do - it's not acrylic or oil, and it just can't accomplish the same vibrancy that those mediums can produce. It's got a mind of its own - but we do get a softer story with it, and that beautiful gradation of color when we do wet in wet. What kind of watercolor do you use?
I agree with what was said - the improvement is night and day and I'm so glad you decided to retackle this subject - the choice to change up the composition was perfect.
How does the piece look if you flip it horizontally? I feel like I heard that an image is stronger if it reads left to right for western markets. What if Evelyn flew right and everyone else flew left?

demotlj

@kaitlinmakes I’m using Windsor Newton pan and Daniel Smith tube paints, mostly Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna, and Burnt Umber.

I agree with you about the left to right thing but the problem is that it is actually a fact that bats all turn left going out of a cave. I read it on a “strange animal facts” site (that I hope is trustworthy) and that sparked the idea for me. I actually tried to figure out how to flip it so Evelyn would be heading to the right both physically from the cave and on the page as well but then I couldn’t show her face or the cave opening without some really clever compositional camera angles that my brain couldn’t manage.

kaitlinmakes

@demotlj
Oooo - I just got some Daniel smith too - they're pretty yummy.
Thank you for sharing that little bit of natural behavior with us It's frustrating when animal behavior doesn't comform to visual storytelling dinosaur illustrators have it easy(ish)

Nyrryl Cadiz

Looking great! Your bat definitely stands out from the background.

This looks great, I actually love the subtle blues in the background, it makes your character pop out more because the colours aren't too vibrant in the background. Maybe you could add a little tongue in the bats mouth?

NizhoniWolf

If you are getting tired of it, why not take a small break from it? I think the colours that you have used are wonderfully simple and the bat just flies of the page ( ) i think it would be a shame to ditch the watercolours because you are getting a bit stir-crazy over it

Julia

agree, the end result is so much stronger and the colors are lovely. Good job Demotlj! You inspire me to get back to my crocodiles