Clownfish Redeux
12 02, 13 Filed in: Watercolor
| I decided to revisit an old painting from 2007 of yellow Clownfish and a purple Anemone. Because it was done on Yupo, it was very easy to modify with techniques I've since learned to better focus the viewer's eye. | |
| First lets start with the final, cropped view of the original. I selected Yupo, as I do for most underwater scenes, because of the fluid way I can work watercolors on its shiny, synthetic surface. The original image was designed to showcase the yellow Clownfish and their relationship with their Anemone against a watery background. When looking at it 6 years later, first impression was that it was a bit too stark. | 
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| I reworked the background adding in a yellow soft coral to balance the yellow of the clownfish. I added a lightly textured reef structure to the lower right and on the left rising above the Anemone. The texture was accomplished in 2 steps with bubble wrap (that was allowed to dry) followed by a fine spray bottle of water to add in the little drops that displace some of the pigment (the same technique used on the ocean-colored background). I added some hints of yellow highlights into the Anemone as well. The last tweak was to remove a dorsal fin from the leftmost clownfish that fell in-between arms of the Anemone and seemed a little distracting. The added details not only focused the viewer's eye, it allowed for a wider crop of the original Yupo paper. | 
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