Not every time we visit Diergaarde Blijdorp we go to the Oceanium, the large aquarium with species from everywhere in the world visible in a very good imitation of their natural habitat.
Last December we did go in to see all the changes that were made over the past few years and I asked my husband to make some reference pictures for me. I really like the little Cownose rays (Rhinoptera bonasus) but it's really hard to make a picture as they are constantly on the move. My husband succeeded to make several nice pictures and in one of them the other fish that live together with the rays were visible very well too. These reference pictures waited for me to get the courage/inspiration needed to paint from them.
For this watercolour painting I started with a dark blue background on cellulose paper and added the Cownose ray and the fish later. I have used white watercolour paint - which is not completely opaque - for the ray and the fish. Where it was needed I added several layers of paint to get the shade of white that I wanted.
For the other colours of the ray and the fish I have made the colour mixtures on the paper, using as little water as possible and a little of the blue of the background is also included in the final mixture. I am happy that I got the colour shades I wanted using this technique.
The fish were almost transparent, that may also be caused by the light conditions in the building, but I thought it best to suggest that transparency by painting (semi-)transparent layers of paint over the dark background and I painted the 'colours' of the scales with my iridescent medium.
The information about the materials I have used, the size of this painting and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.
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