Graying

Chrome’s Portrait #5 is at an interesting step. We need to make all of the colors in his fur transform into grays. How do I make all of those warm yellow, orange, and brown tones become greys? It is only slightly tricky.

I mix up a Cerulean Blue wash to apply all over his fur. I even apply this Cerulean wash to the white areas and then quickly dab those areas with a paper towel. That is how I remove the majority of the blue from where I want my whitest white to remain. The addition of a blue watercolor wash makes the oranges and browns appear grey.

Did you know?

Anytime that you mix all three of the primary colors together, red, blue, and yellow the result is a tone of gray? If we already have two of the primary colors mixed together to make the background oranges, brown washes in Chromes coat when we add a little blue to it this graying shadowing phenomenon occurs. Try it yourself sometime.

Now, the process is to carefully darken details then carefully add light details till I am satisfied. Each step changes his expression along with his shape and eye appearance. I slowly narrow down the reserved white areas as I go.