Watercolor Painting of a Cyclist in Motion, Finish!

Shifting Gears ©LWatry 2016

I have finished my bicycle painting, Shifting Gears.

I still had parts of the bike to paint and some values to adjust at the end of the last post.

I again mixed, Pthalo blue and Permanent Alizeran Crimson to make a black for the bike. I painted the black in around the lettering without masking it because I knew I would eventually soften and blur the lettering edges to add to the feeling of motion.

I darkened the values on his left leg, the water bottle, and a few places on the bike. I decided to paint a little more orange along the stripe in the background to help pull the viewers eye toward the left. I softened a few edges here and there and cleaned up a few edges by painting around them.

I am happy with the painting over all. If I do another painting with bikes in motion, I might change the background process and instead of painting it in wet-on-wet, I might try letting the paint drip. I might also take the time to mask some of the lettering and parts of the bicycle to make the painting of the bike posts easier and quicker.

Thanks for following along.

Watercolor Painting of a Cyclist in Motion, Part 4

Shifting Gears ©LWatry2016

This is part 4 of my cyclist in motion painting. I added more value to the skin tones and I also increased the shadow on his jersey.

The helmet now has some shadows and I added some of the colored markings on the helmet and the jersey. I started painting in the wording on the jersey. I tried to keep it simple and slightly blurry so that it wouldn't be too distracting and would add to the feeling of movement.

Shifting Gears ©LWatry 2016

Next, I started painting in some of the blacks. I don't use a tube black. I generally mix Pthalo Blue and Permanent Alizeran Crimson to make a black. I use more pigment and less water in this mix and some times I let the mix be cooler (more Pthalo) or warmer (more Alizeran). Tube blacks tend to not have as much life as a mixed black.

I painted around the lettering on the shorts and then went back and blurred some of the lettering by softening edges and lifting some of the color back off, leaving a ghost of the black still there.

I also added a little orange on the yellowish stripe in the background to help add some warm to the cool background. The warm color in the background mirrors his warm skin tone and helps move the viewers eye around the painting.