An Elegant Bird ... or ... Step by Step Painting of an Ameraucana Hen

My drawing with scribbled notes made as I go along in painting.

First, a this wash of quin. burnt orange ...

... some permanent rose ...

... and finally some cobalt blue.

I painted the bright head and neck feathers with quin. sienna.  Body shadows were done with a mix of quin. burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone blue. The legs were painted with a mixture of the same orange and blue, but with permanent rose in lieu of violet- it seemed to give a colder, harder-looking black, which I wanted for the feet.

More quin. sienna, wet in wet, over the front of her body, and some fluff around her beak painted in a soft black. I think the beard is one of the characteristics of this breed.

I did more work with the feathers of her body, using quin. burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone to make both a soft brown and a black.

More work on the feathers ...

... and I believe she is pretty much done.
I painted almost the entire work in a wet-in-wet technique. I wanted to keep her feathers looking softer and fluffier [and I had no desire to render each individual feather!] 

I was more ambitious [or foolish] with this hen I painted about ten years ago. She was sent off to Washington state to be part of a charity auction for a horse rescue group.

Life has been somewhat rough lately, and I haven't felt like blogging or painting much. Seems to be improving, so I hope to be able to post about once a week.

Thank you so much for dropping by!

No ... I Have Not Disappeared into a Black Hole ... or ... Some Works in Progress

What is on the go ...

The peony is done, trimmed, and ready to be mounted on a cradled frame I have prepared.

The geese are waiting, too.

Reference photo for latest work.

I masked the flowers and stems, and laid in two washes of phthalo blue for the background.

The stems were aureolin, quin. gold and phthalo green, The flowers started with some permanent rose.

I decided to finish the stem on the right first. I used the pink, and mixtures of aureolin, pink and cobalt blue for the various greys of the shadows.

More glazing, and eventually a lot of dry brush work.

I used a bit more of the intense, staining colors for the flowers on the left, as well as the softer greys I had mixed earlier. This is a 9 x 12 inch work, and will be varnished, and mounted on a cradled frame as well.

Miss Pumpkin
She came here about seven years ago. She already had some sort of abdominal hernia. It became much worse over the last two months. Surgery would be horribly expensive, and with low probability of success. So I asked my horse vet if he would euthanize her, and she passed on quietly on Monday out in the garden with me and Mario, and the dogs [at a distance].  

We have had some very weird weather here as well. The temperatures have been in the low to mid-30's C, with not a drop of rain for ages. Of course, there have been forest fires as well with the dryness. The above photo shows the sky on Sunday - that is smoke, not cloud. Thankfully, the smoke is clearing today.

Well, that's life on the farm right now. Thank you for visiting!