Daily Report: well not really

From "The Little Mermaid," painting by Dulac.

I’m taking a momentary break from my book illustrations for a little R&R, artistically speaking. I’ve just done ten full-page pen & ink book illustrations (two of them are for Book II) and I thought it might be wise to switch my focus for a few days. To that end, I’m painting a copy of an Edmund Dulac painting (see above) from “The Little Mermaid.” It’s a complex painting and perhaps not the best choice to try and get back my watercolor chops after some time away. All the same, it seems to be going all right. Dulac’s colors are so luminous that it may be hard to get them right but I’m trying. I’m pretty convinced he used white gauche to finish his paintings so I feel no compulsion in doing that too, even though I did my best to preserve some of the highlights before I started.

Some time ago I worked out a watercolor palette that I thought might be pretty close to the colors Dulac used in his palette. So far, so good with it. One difference in my painting is solely pilot error. I chose to use warm off-white watercolor paper for my painting while I’m certain Dulac used cool-white paper for his. Oops! I should have thought of that sooner. Oh well, next time. ;-)