A Summer Joy (EDM#229)

5-1/2" x 7-1/2" watercolor on 140 lb. cold press paper.

What is better in the summertime than a long bath? My 13-year old son, Matthew, sometimes stays in the bath so long that he'll finally just slip his legs out over the side of the tub and lean back and relax.

So one day my wife snapped a photo and told me that this would be something good to paint. Since I am relatively new to watercolors, I really liked this challenge. There was masking, the perspective of floor and tile, the texture of the rug, and the molding of the curtains and legs. As an added bonus, the painting meets Everyday Matters Challenge no. 229, "a Summer Joy". [And by the way, the fluffy blue and green things in the upper right hand corner are pouf's (I think) for bathing. Upon questioning, turns out nobody in the family uses them. I was frankly relieved to learn this.]

As an aside, the color of the scanned version is a bit off. The scan tended to make the flesh tones more purplish, and exaggerates some yellow highlights I had placed on the legs.

One question that I have for any watercolorists out there. The color of the rug, when it dried, came out much richer than I expected. When this happens, do you have any suggestions on how to tone the color down? I had been considering a light glaze of a complementary color, but lost my nerve.

Any other suggestions/comments are also, of course, welcome.

Finally, and most importantly, you still have until midnight tonight to win some beautiful free gouache and ink paintings by Diahn Ott at Art by Diahn! Enter now! (Er, how are you at writing Haiku?)