After all these failures and learning lessons that it could only get better from here. You might think so. I might hope so. But no. Little steps after little steps.

So I am getting better at figuring out how to paint a koi. Let’s go all in now for a pond with koi AND ripples AND lily pads, shall we? What could go wrong?

I did the usual layout in pencil then went over it in Fineline Masking Fluid.

Again, I did a light wash of Quinacridone Gold – sometimes it adds a bit of glow to a painting.

After the background wash dried, I painted in the background with Mayan Blue, Terre Verte and Cerulean – pretty much my “go to” water colors.

In retrospect, I should’ve left the background like this. Mayan blue is one of those Daniel Smith “Primatek” pigments made from ground up minerals and it tends to clump. This can be a feature, not a flaw. I tried to get it to clump as much as I could so I could then lighten a few areas for “ripples” or reflections on the water.

Here’s a detail.

My idea was to go in and lift some of the lighter areas with a Q-tip or brush. I went too far. I used a Q-tip, a brush and even some white paint. Would that I have stepped back and said….. NO! But no… I kept going.

It is all a learning experience, I keep telling myself.

I removed the mask and started painting the lily pads, getting them very wet then floating in Jadeite, Hooker’s Green, some yellows and Aussie Red gold for those decaying edges the leaves get.

Again, I used a #1 flat oil painting brush to left the lines in the leaves. I also used this brush later to paint in the leaf stems. Some artists can just – with a swish- paint a perfect straight line with a soft brush but… I cheat. It works.

And we have our lines.

To paint the koi, again I put down a base wash – here Quinacridone Gold and Goethite. Goethite is a lovely brown ochre that granulates all over.

Not much to say here except painting koi is still a learning experience – layering on color, shadowing to show volume and then lifting to give form to the features.

I did find on the red koi what worked for me for the shading was an odd Daniel Smith paint called Hematite Violet Genuine. It is a brown/violet that granulates and is great for shadows. I tried different reds – all of them scary – and I think I ended up with mostly Deep Scarlet. It was awkward as I should’ve done the reds last as each time I even went near the red spots they would start to bleed and spread.

And hear it is. A learning experience. I guess one thing you can say it that it is not your usual pale, pastel watercolor. And maybe I am getting better at this.