The Clown Fish

There was a story in the news about a group of divers who went into a cave and then two of them got stuck near the bottom. It was kind of sad and tragic. When I went to make this doodleism painting that idea was still fresh, and influenced the design here which shows a watery-body full of fish and aquatic creatures, with a low lying ceiling of rocks over it like a cave. A little face appears at the bottom in a window, reminiscent of the original lemon sunset painting.

Creating the eerie glow on the rock overhang involved several layers of wet-in-wet applications. I start with a thin layer of clean water, then drop in some medium-wet peach colour, let it dry. Do the same a few times using increasingly darker tones, making smaller and smaller washes to get the shadow effect. Then put in a few tiny brushstrokes of dark. To finish the effect 'scrape' on some darks to create texture.. this is done with a fairly dry brush of paint, used on a steep angle, almost sideways.

7 x 11 " (17.5 x 28 cm)