I'm FREE

I'm FREE

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Now ... This Is SPRING!

Daffs are almost done ...

Lilac leaves and buds opening ...

Camellia in bloom

Japonica blooming

Narcissus looking lovely by the pond

Bruno, muddy and hairy, but naked on the lower back lawn

I just was looking at a blog I follow, and she had pictures of Spring ... under several inches of snow!!!!! UGH! But this ... THIS IS SPRING!

HAH!!! Another Process ... Rhododendron

My drawing with scribbled notes about how to handle the background [not that I listened!]

After masking the pistils and stamens, I started with very thin washes of aureolin for the leaves and some cool pink for the petals.

Some very thin and loose washes over the background using quin. gold and indanthrone.

Painted the leaves with mixtures of the gold and blue.

Again did the background wet-in-wet, to tone down the look of the leaves - they seemed to be overpowering the painting.

I still didn't like the background, so went over all with a thin wash of indanthrone.

Not liking the blue in the flower shadows, so I will glaze over with some fuschia.

I am here now, and not sure what more I need to do ... something is needed. I will play with the form shadows in the petals with some quin. fuschia, and probably give the leaves a bit more depth.

Thank you for visiting!!

The LAST Cat ... a Work in Progress

My sketch with some values indicated

Masked out two tiny highlights in the eyes, then did a wet/wet wash with aureolin and dropped in some orange. Started the nose and mouth with some black made of orange, violet and dark blue.

Added some pupils.

Some direct painting of the darkest areas on her face, and a thin wash of red-orange in her ears. 

An all-over wet wash of violet, made of quin. rose and indanthrone.

Then a wet wash of the black.

More glazing of the eyes - a thin burnt orange with a dark purply-brown dropped in to indicate shadows and roundness. At this point, I have done about five or six glazes on the eyes.

I had to borrow a photo from the internet, as the one sent to me as reference was almost unreadable. If I didn't know it was a cat beforehand, I wouldn't know what it was.

Another internet photo - this one for the eye color.


This was my first attempt using the photo the owner sent. UH ... NO!

More to come today. I feel I am back in a good place again, especially with painting. I have two others I am working on, and some good ideas for the dog portrait and the seiner fishing boat.

Thank you for dropping by!!!