How To Paint Scales With Acrylic | #5 Iguana 31 Paintings in 31 Days

Scales are intense - repetitive patterns are hard to keep track of your place and challenging to paint, especially with quick-drying acrylic paint. Want to learn how I avoid mixing the same colours and repainting the scales a thousand times?

Transparent paint is fantastic for this - it is a difficult medium to learn, but wow, does this Iguana provide the perfect opportunity to demonstrate why I am obsessed with it!

This technique boils down to pattern first, then colour. 'One' thing at a time to save a TON of time.

00:00 Iguana
00:45 Benefits of Art Challenges
01:40 Contrasting the Main Subject
03:08 Marking Features
04:00 Scale Size & Direction
07:53 Arm Scales Using Chalk Markers
10:03 Painting the Dewlap (Throat Folds)
11:12 Adding Colour
12:40 Reptile Eyes
13:24 Head Scales
16:10 Crown
17:12 Spines
18:39 Wrap Up

This Iguana took me 17.5 hours! That is crazy. I should have never attempted to include this animal in this detail for this challenge as it put me another day behind *facepalm.

BUT we will persevere! Although fox has won the vote for next, I am thinking more and more I will selectively choose a few animals I am really familiar with to crack out and get caught up. Whales are my zone from last year ;) 

Reference photography by Ramlee Ibrahim.

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