Making a Living part 3

Nothing I can do to the new boardwalk proofs I have until they dry, but I can start thinking about colors.  The next step is to color the proofs so they match the original piece.  I have a couple of copies of the original colored print, as well as photos of that colored print, so finding a source is not a problem.  Finding watercolor paints could be more of a problem.  I had taken them all home a while ago, sometime after the Studio break-in, but in time to color something else.  But then I had to leave my apartment, and all that stuff got put into storage.  A few weeks ago I got to visit that storage place for the first time, and one thing I came home with was a plastic bag with all the plastic palettes of mixed colors I had made over the years. Watercolors dry and can be reconstituted as created just my adding water back, so these colors are as good as they ever were.  However, what I don't have so far is the wooden case that held all my whole tubes of paints, my main supply.  The question was did I have enough to color these two proofs.

The only way to figure it out was to make a detailed chart of all the colors used, and then compare them to the paint I had.  If I'm missing anything significant, I'll have to buy more of those colors. (since one of these proofs is a commissioned piece, from someone who has already purchased and paid for one,  I can buy paint if I need it)  I had an unframed copy of the print in question down in the basement.  It still has the tape on the corners from being framed, and it's a little wrinkled as a result, but the image area is just fine and it could be framed again and look good.  For the purposes of determining colors, no problem.  In the end I found 91 different patches of color in the diptych, but some of those are duplicated, so it's maybe half that actual number of different colors.  After checking that against what I had, I think I may have what I need already.  So for now I make no paint purchases.  I start coloring next week, and that will tell me for sure what I actually have.  And then I will know.

When I start it will probably look like the image above, which is a file photo of the first time I colored this particular print, a long time ago.