Hazel's versions of Day Two!

My versions on Day Two are in the post below this!

These photographs of Hazel's work-in-progress giraffe were taken sitting in front of her demonstration table, which had a mirror angled above it so that we could see exactly what she was doing, brushstroke by brushstroke, as well as her palette and how she mixed her colours - quite sparingly, I was surprised to see.

Step one: Laid down a blue wash for the sky - she used French ultramarine here - pulling it into the shadowed areas on the giraffe's neck and face. Aureolin yellow splattered into the damp wash to indicate trees in the background.

Step Two: A pale yellow ochre wash into the face and down the neck, burnt sienna touched into the ochre to build up the tone and the hue in the face, and sepia touched in on the horns, using the side or the edge of the brush to create the texture of the hairy tips - not painted hairs!

Step Three: Adding the details to the face - shadows from a mix of Burnt sienna and ultramarine in the ears and darks of the eye, with a bit of sepia I think - just one light brushstroke for the eyelash of the far eye! Deepening and softening the shadow down the neck.

Step Four: Adding the pattern onto the neck in burnt sienna, with more ultramarine on the dark shadow side.

She produces her vivid, rich colours knowing exactly how much water and pigment is on her brush. I have always mixed up huge pools of watercolours, sloshing more water in with every brushload and consequently throwing buckets of expensive paint down the plughole - another good lesson learnt!