Waiting for paint to dry Part 2

Never in my wildest dreams did I think there would be a part 2 to waiting for the paint to dry, but alas, here it is!  Once again, I am waiting for paint to dry on my large flamingo painting, but the nice part is I can see the painting coming to life.  I drew on the canvas with a reddish color pencil as my friend and artist Bob Cassell suggested I do.  He's such a gifted artist, I make sure I soak up all information I can get from him!

Find below the drawing of the flamingo and the initial layer of paint which is drying.  I found a fabulous color combination for sand.  Mix together a little ivory black, some raw umber and a lot of white.  What a gorgeous beige color, one color of sand.  It's got just enough of that grayed down version to make it look like sand.  I was hesitant while I was mixing it, thinking it would act better as a palm tree on a sunny day type of color, but, it is perfect.  I can see adding various versions of this combination to make the hills and valleys where the flamingo is standing in the sand.  And yes, I made the legs ultra skinny because it will look like the flamingo is standing on the sand that way, not part of the sand.  Besides, like trees, I can just imagine how fat those legs could get if I didn't start small.

I plan on adding some alizarin to the sand combinations and I'm also going to try adding "alizarin purple" as well and see how that goes for making shadows. (Always experimenting.)  So far, I love what I have finished.  This particular photo may not show how stunning this will turn out, but when I open my door to my art room and see that flamingo on the canvas, I already can visualize it on the walls of the art center!