ReggieEzell.com Pic of the Week-2025

PICK OF THIS WEEK - Week #08
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This work was done by Karl Walter.

Butterflies

This homework assignment from Reggie’s 26 Seeds year-long class required the creation of a color chart. I had a clear vision of what I wanted to achieve, but I was unsure about the execution. I began by finding the design of a butterfly and then drew 12 rectangles. I traced a butterfly into each rectangle. The work was done on Saunders Waterford paper. I mixed all the colors from the three primary colors and used Windsor Newton gouache as the medium. Each butterfly had a main color and four values, two lighter and two darker. To avoid confusion, I labeled each rectangle with the color.

As we were starting to studying Romans, I decided to incorporate the Roman letters for each color. Next, I painted the body of the butterfly in Schmincke red pearl gouache, a beautiful color. After the body of the butterfly had completely dried, I applied a small strokes and dabs of Instacoll to each butterfly body. This had to be done rather quickly as I was trying to get the drying time as close to each other. I set everything on my desk and had the gold ready. I applied the gold without any interruptions to make the bodies of the butterflies sparkle.
However, there was still something not quite right: there was too much space around each butterfly.

I cut out shapes of frisket and applied them to each corner. I then applied the corresponding pastel dust. Some of the pastel dusts were mixed to achieve the desired colors and a cotton wool pad was used to apply the pastel dust. Once the frisket was removed the pastel dust just gave it the lift I was looking for.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this exercise, even though it took me a while to complete. It’s a reminder that one never knows what they can achieve until they receive a gentle push and a little positive nudge. Thank you.

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