Orange dragon colors finalized - ready to paint on silk

While I liked the basic color combo of the warm colored dragon, I wanted to tweak the color choices a bit.  And I had two pieces of cotton with dragon outlines screened, one in red and one in black.  I know I already said the dragonflies looked much better with a black silkscreen, so this is a validation of that applied to warm colors.  And yup, it is still true.  Looks much better with the black outline.  I painted these two dragons with the same colors, actually at the same time.  The other conclusion is I really prefer working on the silk.  The paint flows much better and gives the watercolor effect that I like.

orange head rather than red, different red for body

The red outlining just kind of muddies the colors and looks less crisp.  So, give up that idea.  Clearly I was somewhat attached to the idea of using something in the same color family as the silkscreen color but this last experiment has convinced me to just let it go.

Red outline 

And for reference, here's the original color tryout on paper with the black outline.  I mention the color differences under the redo photo above:  body color a different, more orangy red, and I did the head in mostly the upper wing color rather than the body color so the expression is easier to read.  The one below is not bad for the first try but not what I really wanted.

first try with red colors on paper

And I'm now at the end of the month of experiments.  I haven't even made it into dye trials but it was very productive in narrowing my materials and helping me focus my work in a particular style and subject matter.  Winged things on silk, that's what I'll be doing this next month.  As for the dragons, I will be getting the fire-breathing part done next and then the backgrounds.  More trial and error fun!