Peacock

Two things came together recently and left me with a lovely peacock drawing.

First, Ben Kwok, on his Ornation Creation Facebook page, posted a line drawing of a peacock.
Second, clearing out some art drawers I discovered this very old watercolor and thought I should do something else with it (upcycle!)

I used the right side and traced the peacock template placing the eye in the white area. First I added some more color wash to zing it up. Here's the whole piece - and a detail - in the early stages.

Tangles thus far: Black Pearlz, Flying Geese, Opus with Aura, Tipple

I finished the tangling, added shading and some tiny gems for sparkle. It was pretty much finished when it caught my eye from across the room. There were things I didn't like. Mainly, it was too mid-tone, not enough good darks. I felt that either the tail or the oval shouldn't be there - but impossible to remove one of them! - so I needed to try to make them work together better.

Here's the final version, and a detail shot showing some of the bling in the blue background. I'm still not really satisfied with it. I don't seem to be able to get it as dark as I'd like in some places, and the oval and the tail are there to stay. You can tell from the detail shots that the color in the scans is inexact.

Tangles: Black Pearlz, Finery, Flying Geese, Jonqal, Khirkee, Opus, Sunflower (AM), Tipple,
and one I invented because I needed a pattern for the tail!