Painting of Fringe Freddie

Fringe Freddie was a demo work to show how to some textural elements to help tell the story

Making all the "what I need" decisions before you start painting will ensure you can focus on the magic of water and pigment and not on what next!

Lightly draw only enough marks to be able to paint a likeness.
You will need to have salt handy and cling film ready if you are going to use.
Choose your colours: Don’t be a slave to the reference – experiment with some swatches first.
I used just 4: A cool and a Warm Red, French Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna this ensured I could mix a dark for the pupil.
Process:

1. Starting first with the eye leaving a highlight add a light wash over rest in burnt sienna, the pupil will be painted over the top of this when its dry

2. Wet the entire Wattle area and drop in both warm and cool red and then add salt , this will now have to dry 

3. You can move on to dry areas whilst parts dry. The comb came next and here you can use same colours as wattle and either add or not use salt.

This is a first wash and modelling is done when dry. I had a lot of water and decided to blow it around. 

4. The ear lobe can have some tea wash strength of paint and cling film might work here. The ear on top of this is painted as a separate shape. 

5. Remove the salt when dry and do more work on both Wattle and Comb to get the separate folds etc. use cool colours to set areas back and warm colour to bring areas forward. Build up on the eye including the pupil

6. Paint as much or as little for the body feathers adding mixtures of dark from your chosen colours.