Ptarmigan Colour Study using Colourful Whites

The first colour study that I started, after an hour I abandoned it. Right away I could see that the Light values were too dark, and all the colours were far too chromatic.   

Before I began the second version of the colour study, I changed 3 Light modeling values: Light Light values to 9.5, Middle Light to value 9, and the Dark Light value at 8.5.  The Half Tone which transitions to the shade side is a value 8.
 
As I mix the colours, I add in just enough of the same value of neutralized grey which lowers the chroma creating colours that are more natural.
 
I used 4 colours for the Light part of the Ptarmigan and snow:  Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red Medium and Quinacridone Magenta.  I create the 4 values with each of the 4 colours.
 
For the Dark modeling values I chose: Light Dark is Value 7, Middle Dark is Value 6, Dark Dark is Value 5.  I did add in a Value 8 as well to give myself some mixing flexibility. 
 
I chose 2 different blues for the Dark parts: Cerulean Blue and Phthalo Blue (Green).  I used mostly the Cerulean Blue. ​

​A white object is going to have a small range of values that tend towards the lightest part of the value range.  It would be totally weird to use a value 2 in this painting.  This value range is called High Key.  So, in staying up in the higher range of values from 9.5 to value five that should give us enough value range to create the forms. 

When a camera takes a photo, it automatically makes the shadows darker.  Then add in printing and the shadows get even darker.   We must remember that and need to compensate for that bias.  I work to reconcile this understanding by lightning up the shadows.  Always remembering that what my eyes see and what the camera see are two different things.
 
As we are modeling a white object there is a very delicate shift of value as the planes begin to turn away from the light, that is until that terminus line.  Then it is a solid cut-off line. 

Watching the video on painting a sphere will help in rendering these Ptarmigans. I did a full blog post about the sphere, click HERE.  These birds are rounded objects and the light moves across them in a similar fashion.

When I work on a colour study, I don't really worry about it being perfect.  My goal is to get value/colour information, which will inform all the decisions that I will make prior to launching into the actual painting.
 
This is not a very big painting is 28 by 20 centimeters (8x10 inches).
 
In this study I started at the birds first.  I think when I go to do the final painting that I will do the background first before moving to the birds.  One thing that is be interesting will be that there are going to be a lot of lost edges. That is what happens when one paints a white bird on white snow.

Below is the final painting that I critique at the 18 minute point of the video.  

Below are the three adjustment options:
1. lighten the snow in the background
2. darken the snow in the background
3. blur the snow in the background which creates a lot of little bokeh. 

Which one would you choose?  Leave a comment below.