Finally! I've finished a new artwork and did a retouch on the previous artwork I made. 🎨

MY LATEST ARTWORK!
watercolor x acrylic on watercolor paper
title: 1/1000
size: 11" x 11"
year: 2018
Species: Carettiae Caretta
Common name: Loggerhead Turtle
Status: ENDANGERED
2018-10-10 09.55.24 1~2.jpg

This artwork is a before scene of my other turtle artwork. These are baby loggerhead turtles running to the sea.

I'd like to add new things I have learned about these turtles:

We have a turtle sanctuary 15 mins. away from my home! I definitely will visit 🐢
These sea turtles or "pawikan" in my local language return to their birth place to lay eggs🐢
Only 1 in 1000 hatchlings will reach adulthood🐢
Most of them ingest plastics too🐢
They use sunlight and moonlight to guide them to the sea, so artificial lights distract them. Not good! 🐢

The BEFORE AND AFTER SCENE

So, my art tells a story, in my island there are abundant sea turtles that lay eggs, this is their cycle, this is their struggle. I want everyone to know that.

I don't know if you have seen my first turtle art but, here it is!
I made new changes to the last one to match the vibrance of the current piece.

Click here to read the post about how I drew the "Drowning our Oceans" piece

FIRST! LET'S SEE THE STEP BY STEP PROCESS OF DRAWING THE HATCHLINGS! 🎨🐢🙈👌✨

Here are some pictures and videos of the process.

I'll enumerate basic steps I took and you'll see in the pictures what it means.

(1) sketch okay basic lines and shapes, organizing and placing the subject where it needs to be.

(2) Layering paint(base tone, midtone and shadows)

(3) Background:

Layers of blue, green, purple, white

(4) Sand: (I have never done sand in my life successfully, this is as close as I can get)

Applying flat layers - yellow, orange, brown, pink, skin tone
Reapplying the same scheme of colors using pointilism dots of watercolor.

(5) Adding white acrylic - these are for highlights and bubbles/ foam of the wave.

(6) Using a black brush pen this very dark pen is used for the darkest areas for shadow and depth.

THE PROCESS PHOTOS 📸

Enjoy every step of the way! The first will be the collage of screenshots (not my images, that i took ideas from)

I wanted to be more original so I didn't pick a picture and just copy it. Let's recreate!

Sketch! I arranged the turtles and made sure they don't look too close or too far.

Layering base paint and forming shape, color and shadow.

Even if some aren't finished, I do the others too

Here's an example of how I layer

And how to get the final turtle result haha

This is pretty dark pic but yeah you see now right?

The base tone is very colorful but once you add layers they'll usually become darker and more realistic.
Adding dark colors like a mixture of green and violet or blue and brown or with black, I use it to darken parts of the shell and to make it less flat looking and more real.

Like this one! The base tone isnt even properly applied its just a bunch of yellows. But adding lines adds depth and makes the turtle even more formed.
Building layers help build opaque colors so there's more volume. Watercolor tends to be translucent due to the water of course so layers are necessary.

Keep going!

Background!

Base is flat (no texture) yellow and orange.
Some pink too and flesh tone.
I then added some shadows using blue, purple, green but at first it looked too messy. I layered a stronger (better brand of) watercolor, and some white too to cover it.

I just cover it up with shades of sky blue, blue, bluegreen and purple/ violet.
I just create a flow.

dots and textures for sand

After building depth and creating a more sandy feel to it, I add white watercolor paint on the edges of the water, there are supposed to be lots of reflections, so, here's a video and some pics.

Then I use acrylic paint to double the effect, ans add bubbles/ foam and sparkles.

I made a mistake here tbh and the better video I took got corrupt :( so I'm sorry.

Have some close ups!

I got a piece of paper to see how my signature should be placed. I never like signing art, I think it looks bad. My opinion haha, but it is necessary!

Finishes piece:

Ok, what are my thoughts and how should I critique my own work? 🎨

(1) I think I did a good job, at first I thought this piece would fail but thank God it didn't. I pray before and after, even during! Amen!

(2) I conquer SAND! Also, the clear shiny shore effect (although not as good as I imagined but it'll always be like that until I master art).

(3) I thought i was too lazy in the details, it's rough and not as blended and carefully painted, it took me just a week or so, although next time I'd love to make it more real looking.

Anyway, I am happy and proud somehow! Glad to have finished this.
Now I must tell you what I did with the other piece!

Drowning Our Oceans Retouched 🎨

Basically it's retouched to improve details and saturation.
(1) I thought in the pictures it lookes great but in person - TOO PALE.

(2) it didn't pop out much compared to the baby turtles sooooo, I darkened some colors to also match the vibrance seen in pics digitally.

Here's some documentation of it!

(1) colored pencils for the background.

(2) brushpens and white acrylic for highlights and shadows
2018-10-10 11.26.06 1~2.jpg

Now we have a thicker color and more vibrant I hope. The empty water just looks a bit plain but that's exactly what's underwater, just plain water haha.

Let's compare a before and after the retouch and explore the principles of design of each piece.

I feel the turtle seems to have more weight and pops out a bit. What do you think?

Let's analyze the design and structure!

So, every artist must "plan" art. Just like you plan a house's blueprint? Maybe but not as strict.
This goes for abstract and normal art.
You must plan it!

Structure
Design
Shape
Color
Form
Arrangement
And so on. These are called principles of design and elements of art

You can search and see what they are and look which ones I applied!

My analysis!

Emphasis and subordination - I emphasized the movement of the jellyfish. We see the turtle and background seem still.

The Rhythm - your eyes will follow the flow of the waves. Movement and rhythm.

Pattern - we have vertical patterns, turtles going up and waves going down.

Color theory - what's the common denominator between the two? I guess the most common relationship between them (apart from being sea turtles in the ocean) is the color scheme which is mostly orange and blue. Or, warm vs cool colors.

WHAT FRAME DID I ORDER?

Today's a very very busy and productive day!
We have an upcoming exhibit this OCTOBER 15 and it's pretty big! So, these turtles are my bet!

I'll reveal the frame choice and why on Saturday! Stay tuned!

THE EXHIBIT

This is about our 4th Bai Hinang major art exhibit with a quote and quote [international audience], well, I don't really know but I hope many people come.

Ive been preparing for about a month. I have been extremely busy.

what about?

Mindanao culture/ life, before and now.
Mostly my fellow exhibitors will draw people and life situations. I am a wildlife artist (sometimes religious art too but I am not ready for that) anyway, we have a turtle sanctuary here in Davao and I am very proud to know that! I want to go visit and help in a way.

Then - let's just say, many hatchlings go to the ocean but not everyone survives. I want to emphasize how 1/1000 is the survival rate. And we all know all over the Philippines and in Mindanao (island) these turtles lay eggs.

Tourism and artificial lights hinder these turtles from thriving.

Let's try and be sensitive and caring, change that.

Now - One turtle survives but our plastic pollution destroys them. So we are "drowning out oceans" with trash. Let us also be aware and act on our:

Plastic management
Plastic ban
Plastic pollution awareness

I HOPE THEY LIKE IT.

I HOPE YOU DO TOO!

thank you

Any comments, critique, suggestion, tips etc. Pls drop them below.

God bless everyone!!!!!! Keep steeming!
Sorry for the long inactivity.

Let's talk about frames and matting this Saturday haha!

What lesson did I learn? -------- MAKE SURE THAT EXTRA SPECIAL SOMETHING IN YOUR ARTWORK IS THERE

To close:

A quote by my favorite saint and favorite quote of his

BYE BYE 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢

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