Watercolor on Kilimanjaro

10 06, 12 Filed in: Watercolor

We were invited into one of the houses in Rancha, a small village outside of Bandhavgarh National Park in India. The women of the household were busy doing their daily tasks, and we were allowed to take photos. Of course their colorful sari's, and the quality of light and shadows cast in the early afternoon made me want to capture the moment in watercolor. This time I decided to paint on Kilimanjaro paper.
The photo I selected to paint from also had a second woman in the background drying Mahula fruit on the ground. I substituted a second photo of her, in a more attractive pose. Of course I left out extraneous details from the photo that would just add clutter to a painting. My goal for this painting is to feature the woman in the foreground.
Here is my drawing on the Kilimanjaro painting. I have already started painting the sari.
I kept the bright pink of the sari, added some flower detail to it, but left out most of the small flowers on the material, so that the drape of the fabric would show better. The rest of the colors in the painting are all subdued with some grey undertones. I had originally left off the horizontal piece of wood on the door, but found that they were needed to add a feeling of distance to the background by reinforcing perspective lines.
I thought the painting was finished at this point, but after sleeping on it (not literally), I decided that darker colors were needed in the roof and on the floor. This photo shows the changes made by adding in some darker colors. I think this frames the woman in front a little better, and adds more depth to the painting.