Tortoise vs. Hare

I have been promising myself I would do a tortoise/hare painting, so I just decided to go ahead and do one. This time, I stretched the watercolor paper, in order to try and circumvent the warping of paper, and pooling of water that occurs (although I like that stuff too, as it adds a level of surprise/frustration).

Brush/ink

Ok, so i had a rough idea of a different version of the Tortoise vs. Hare race. I wanted to show Tortoise winning the race, while Hare was in the background...so after a light sketch, I went over it with brush and ink. I am slowing warming up to the brush/ink combo. Maybe after so many years of doing comics with the precision of pen/ink, that I am glad to give up in a little bit of control in exchange for a little spontaneity with my lines...

Masking fluid added

After inking, and doing a little painting on the turtle/airplane, I wanted to try some new stuff out. I had bought masking fluid, which seems to me like a liquid latex (from my ventures in horror mask making as a kid) and after drying will protect the  paper from any watercolor. It can be erased away when dry. Just make sure the paper is dry. I prefer the yellow  (pigmented) version versus the colorless fluid, because I just like to see where it is. So I painted it above to mask any clouds, and I could apply a wash to the sky.

First round of colors

Okay, the first round of colors are done, and like usual with my watercolors, I feel like this needs a lot of work. I will update this when I am finished.