I had a little ah hah moment and that is, if you get stressed out mixing the PERFECT colors, STOP THE MADNESS!!! The more important thing is to get your values correct. For example, I've also been doing a study of this little guy...
He is a friend of Parker's and this is from my photo reference - but I used the same tubes of paint to mix his skin tones as I did Parker's. As long as I get the values right, getting the exact COLOR isn't nearly as important as getting the values fairly (not perfectly) right. Believe it or not, I used the same colors to mix the underpainting you see in this next photo of my Parker painting...
I've also been working on my chipmunk, another example of the importance of getting values right - I painted the first wash in too much of a hurry and got a lot of his fur too dark so I've been having to do a lot of scrubbing and fixing, which I uploaded a video about how I fixed too dark areas. And if you'd like to see that video, I have VERY good news..
Patreon now allows you to try a week free, so join my Patreon at the $8 level to try it out for a week free at www.patreon.com/rachelsstudio to watch 5 years worth of painting (100s of ad free hours of watercolor tutorials). You'll also have free access to line drawings, reference photos, and supply lists and see my latest painting adventures, including 2ish hours of the above painting of Parker, the first hour of painting of this chipmunk, and a short video about how I fixed all the 'too dark' areas.
It's Parker's last week of school this week so things are about to get CRAZY. I've got a lot of things in the works though so stay tuned : ) I'll add chipmunk references by Skyler Ewing and line drawings to www.rachelsstudio.com/linedrawing if you'd like to try your hand at painting a chipmunk!
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and line drawings and tips, Rachel! The chipmunk looks absolutely lovely and l love the loose background very much. Good luck with the last week of school with Parker!