Watercolor Turtle

For my New Year's gift to myself am ordering a bunch of Daniel Smith watercolors. Last winter I ordered my first professional grade watercolors, 11 tubes of M Graham. And I absolutely love how juicy and rich the M Graham colors are, and how transparent they are! But their one downside, and it's a big one, is that their formula has honey (thus their juicy-ness) and so they make quite the mess in my little Altoid tin. 

Yeah, I could just order a small set of another brand for plein aire, but I'm traveling so much, in hot weather in the summer time and dropping my backpack on the heated Korean floors in the winter time, making those paints flow like honey, so I'd prefer to just order a large set of "firmer" paints so that not only my Altoid tin could be grabbed but any sized palette I have could be dropped in my backpack on a moments notice. After reading about pigments and checking on transparency, decided on Daniel Smith. I'll also get a few Winsor and Newton too because I prefer some of their pigments or coloration.

Anyway, pulled out my M. Grahams tonight and realized that 10 of the 11 colors would fill a small 10-dish ceramic palette, so set it up and had some fun!

First background attempt for the background, using water and colors on seran wrap, didn't work out for me. Great idea though and will attempt it again in the future.

M Graham: hansa yellow, azo orange, scarlet pyrrol, transparent red iron oxide, sepia, Payne's gray, phthalo blue, ultramarine blue, phthalo green, azo green

laying down background colors (phthalo blue and ultramarine blue) on a semi-wet paper 

Misted the damp background with 91% alcohol and got an instantly mottled look.
Laid down some colors on the turtle -- azo green transparent red iron oxide and then touches of sepia

simple watercolor turtle on New Soho series SKETCH paper - 5" x 7"