Tango for Tobi the Sparrow

Oil on linen on panel, 6" x 6"

The Pantane Company chose "Tangerine Tango" as THE color of 2012. This week's Challenge given by Daily Paintworks is to do a painting based around this color. I painted our pet house sparrow, Tobi, in this color theme. First, I pre-mixed my "tangerine tango" with Shiva Red and Cadmium Yellow Pale. After I did underpainting with Terra Rosa and this mixture, I reserved the beak and foot with the pure tangerine tango, which I blended with more colors later to create gradation. Then I painted the local colors which all shares a hint of this orange. I made sure that brush strokes are clean enough to show through the base color here and there, by wiping the brush and reloading color from the palette after each stroke.