Butterfly

During a recent trip to my family, my sister bought me a lovely book of butterflies. I thought they might make a nice change from flowers and hoped that they would suit my style of working. This is my first attempt, so I hope that with a bit of practice I will be able to refine the results.
I used Fabriano paper, and my usual palette, deliberately choosing to paint a butterfly with lots of orange and green so that I could make further use of the tube of Translucent Orange from Schminke. The green, I mixed from Teal Blue from Daniel Smith and Indian Yellow from Daler Rowney.
I did a simple drawing, and then painted in the background in the same way that I do with the flower studies, and whilst it was still wet, I sprayed the edges around the butterfly with granulating fluid, so that the colours of the background seeped into the butterfly shape, to give some soft edges.

I then painted the butterfly itself using the two colours mentioned and adding others where necessary. I think there is Quinachridone rust and Transparent Orange Iron amongst others.

I used Indian ink on the reverse end of a thin paint brush to put in the black lines and immediately sprayed with granulating fluid to soften them and to create some texture.

I finally gave the whole painting a good splatter, using all the colours used in the painting but predominantly black and white, being careful to allow each colour to completely dry before adding the next.

I think it has worked sufficiently well to encourage me to have another go. There might even be a series in the making!