Circus - Watercolour Clownfish
I’m so excited to reveal my latest piece!
This is Circus. Painted on Saunders cold-pressed 300gsm paper using artist grade watercolours.
This painting started life back in late 2021 as a sketch. After doing a test piece and forgetting about the whole thing for a few months I finally started painting it this year.
I mostly paint botanical subjects so when something comes a long that is different it’s opens up some many things. I feel excited & refreshed starting something completely new, but I also feel nervous as it is new ground to cover. I was most nervous to do the background. Backgrounds can be so tricky! It’s finding the balance between detailed but not too detailed. Busy but not too busy. You have to be careful not to draw too much focus from the main subject of the piece.
I had zero idea what I was going to do with the sea in the piece. I was conscious that I didn’t want to go too dark as it would have a huge impact on the mood of the painting. After looking up some clownfish I saw many pictures had a purple like haze in the background.
I equally found the large rock a challenge too. Rocky textures can be tricky to get right. I started off with washes before realising that I could use a stippling technique to achieve the texture much more easily.
In the end I really enjoyed breaking free from my usual subject of botanical. I also like how this turned out. It’s fun and different. Might consider running some limited prints of this one.
I hope you enjoyed coming to see the “Circus”