Peek In The Studio – Treed Raccoon

Raccoon, Work in Progress, Watercolor, 6"x8", Rebecca Latham

Just about finished with this treed raccoon piece.  The variety of elements and textures in the composition made it an interesting (and challenging) painting to work on.  Both the sepia under painting and the near-finished color phase are pictured side by side for comparison.

Raccoon, Work in Progress, Sepia Watercolor, 6"x8", Rebecca Latham

 

Raccoon, Work in Progress, Watercolor, 6"x8", Rebecca Latham

Raccoon, Work in Progress, Sepia Watercolor, 6″x8″, Rebecca Latham

5 responses to “Peek In The Studio – Treed Raccoon”

  1. Elijah Wohali Avatar
    Elijah Wohali

    Wowsers! This is awesome! How do you get the opaque watercolor to layer so well,
    and still keep it thin enough to make the fur so soft…? Your work just glows.
    Thanks for the inspiration!

    1. Rebecca Avatar
      Rebecca

      Thanks, Elijah. I takes a lot of delicate strokes layered up – opaque, transparent, and some inbetween. Most of my work has a minimum of seven layers, most often more.. but that’s what give it the dimension and softness. Takes a light touch with the watercolor, though.

      1. Elijah Wohali Avatar

        Thanks for answering, Rebecca. If you don’t mind sharing, can you recommend any sources that would help me learn more? I’m self-taught so far, but serious about learning techniques like your family’s’ and Carl Brenders’.

        1. Rebecca Avatar
          Rebecca

          I recommended some sources here in the comments of this post, particularly the wildlife book that has a feature on Carl Brenders in it: http://lathamstudios.com/rebecca/2007/10/74th-miniature-painters-sculptors-gravers-exhibit-washington-dc/

          Unfortunately there isn’t a lot out there about this specific method. The workshop I took with Carl was his last one, and at least so far I haven’t been teaching anything with everything else keeping me so busy.

          Hope that helps.

          1. Elijah Wohali Avatar

            Awesome, thanks! Sure appreciate your time. Yep, got that book a short time ago and been enjoying it. I’ll check out those other ones. Thanks again for all your help, I really appreciate it.