More Geese ... and ... Indulging My Passions ...

First, a word from the muse - Maggie loves to snuggle on the bed when I am painting, until she thinks I have done enough, and then demands some TLC.

A return to an old idea - re-drawn, and hopefully better prepared as far as color and composition.

And this is the indulgence. I LOVE armor!!!  When I was very young, the family would occasionally visit one of my father's friends. Their home was like a museum - cases full of fascinating things ... Native Indian artifacts, sabres, muskets, weird stuffed animals, Indian masks and fetishes, even a shrunken head. For a child, it was heaven!!! And one of Dr. Bell's relatives even had a complete suit of armor in his home!!!! ZOWIE! It was love at first sight; I can still see it in my mind's eye. So here I am working on a drawing of a knight and horse in armor. We shall see what I can do with this ...

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My Second Venture with the Rose ... and Bruno ...

I am still bound and determined to capture the essence of this rose ...

... but have decided to go yellow rather than peach in color.
Both of these photos are taken in my friend's back yard. She does love her garden! And I do, too!!!

This is after at least 10 w/w washes of aureolin, phthalo green,  burnt orange and alizarin to get the dark background. Thankfully, the masking cooperated this time - YAY!!!
The shadowed areas of the rose I have painted with a thin glaze of aureolin. The leaves are done w/w with aureolin, phthalo green, quin. gold and burnt orange. I think there's a touch of alizarin and indanthrone here and there, too.

More color on the rose shadows - thin quin. gold.

I have done the shadows again with a brown mixture of quin. gold, alizarin and phthalo green.

I think I am done with the brown. My plan is to go into the shadows again with warm, bright colors - yellows, pinks, oranges ...

As for Bruno, he had 5 days off [he pulled a shoe, I had to go into Vancouver, it was pouring rain ...]
When we finally got together yesterday, he wanted to play a rip-snorting game of "Who's the Boss"! Horses, being herd animals, constantly jockey for higher positions in the wild. The acts can be subtle - a look, a posture - or extreme - an all-out fight-to the-death. One must be vigilant and observant, noticing slight changes of posture and position, shifting of hooves. It's a quite the job, maintaining one's leadership. I really find it so hard to be masterful and disciplined all the time with a horse. I see all of them through the eyes of  Anna Sewell and "Black Beauty". Yesterday, His Nibs tested me the entire time, and I was exhausted, but I saw the exercise through to a good conclusion. Here's hoping today will not be so trying!!!

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Gaggling Along with the Geese ... Feathers, Beaks and Orange Feet

I started with some feathering and shadows on the geese, using a mixture of quin. burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone. The feet I painted with quin. sienna. 

More work on the feathers, using a warmer version of the orange/violet/blue mix.

They are starting to look somewhat like geese. I have done more shadowing and feathering, and placed a thin wash of indanthrone on the bills. I wanted to get color on the birds/muses before I returned to the background. My thought is to have the geese appear to be emerging from darkened mists. We shall see ...
Meanwhile, I just heard a loud neigh from the paddock - His Highness wants to play!

Thank you for dropping by! Your comments are always welcome!

A Fishy Tale in the Making ... or ... Koi in Progress

I started with a fairly detailed drawing, then wet all the background and dropped in phthalo blue.  I find I am not using cobalt blue as much, to start with, as it dulls or greys the later glazes a bit.

I added more phthalo blue to the tail, and applied a wet-in-wet wash of indanthrone blue. Then I painted some wubbly lines for ripples.

I spent some time darkening the background, with indanthrone, or a mixture primarily made with that blue.  I also lifted some highlights in the tail fin, both when damp and when dry.

Here, I started glazing the fancy pectoral fins, both w/w and directly. There is a touch of quin. rose at the top of the pectorals. I also shaded the head and body [those parts under water] with a thin glaze of the violet mixture.

Finally, I removed the masking that I had applied to some of the "dangly bits" - what are those things called??
Right now, I am working on the head and body, using quin. sienna and quin. rose. The inside of the mouth is the same rose/sienna mixture, with some of the violet from the background color in the depths of the mouth. This is quite small, only 10.5 x 9 inches, and I hope to finish it today or tomorrow, but knowing me ... it might be a week.
I needed something fluid and yet complicated to take my mind off other things - my aunt, Bruno and the bumps, the whopper traffic tickets I racked up last Friday ...  no, not for speeding.

Anyway, I am very glad you dropped by - thank you! Your comments are always a pleasure.

Hmmmmm ... This Is Going to Take Longer than I Thought ...

I have mapped out the shadows and colors for the blue parrot ...

... and have started the black parrot, to get an idea of how dark I must go ...

Ack!!! I don't know why this image has come out so light!
However, seeing the darks of the black parrot, I know I will have to get more intense with colors on the lighter, blue tulip.
I am painting both tulips using w/w washes, dropping in colors to the water. For the blue parrot tulip, I am painting with mixtures of aureolin [very little], quin. pink and cobalt blue. On the bottom shaded petal, I have glazed with alizarin crimson, then indanthrone blue. For the black tulip, I am using alizarin crimson, quin. violet, and a mixture of quin. burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone for the black. The stamen in the middle is aureolin, quin. burnt orange and indanthrone. My plan is to use the violet for the petals in direct light [cooler] and crimson in the richer, darker areas. The black parrot will need a lot of glazing, and I find I am having to use an extremely delicate touch when adding the pigments.
That's it for life in tulip land. I am still working on the tug boat painting, and will post the final result. Now it's off to the land of horse ...

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Back to Painting What I LOVE

FUN in the snow

All the family dogs had a good Christmas, too

Sketch I am getting ready for one of my sister's birthday - Denise, the Boxer lover
Her birthday is Dec. 30.

First washes of a new painting I have started - tug boats on the foggy B.C. coast.
Started with some cobalt blue, and w/w washes of grey. 

After several more washes, I finally have the mask off, and have started the tugs.

Well, it's been a month of changes - all good. My winter/pre-Christmas gloom lifted around mid-December. I swear I notice the days getting longer already, and I am noticing buds opening!!! I decided to leave the cooperative gallery. I had initially thought to give the enterprise six months, till Christmas. Time came up, and I was not happy there [for several reasons]. It must be the right decision for me because I feel great! I entered three paintings in one of the Federation of Canadian Artists juried shows, and all three were accepted. And I had a wonderful Christmas Day with my family.
It is teeming rain today - back to normal Vancouver winter weather, and even that is welcome. I'll pack up Twilight [the dog I am sitting for a friend] and head into Vancouver to pick up my things from the gallery, and do some family visiting.

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Another Run at a Landscape ... or ... If at First You Don't Succeed ...

Boy, this painting looks so stark on this page! I did several washes of thin aureolin, quin. coral and pink,  and cobalt blue to get the background sunrise. Then I started doing some thin washes of the coral and blue, with quin. siena to paint the distant tree-line.

I then did more w/w along the bottom of the trees at the horizon to suggest fog. Again I used coral, siena and blue.

At this stage, I extended the line of water all along the bottom, and dropped in some of the coral/siena/blue mixture, with a lot more blue. Before I did that, I lifted some lines to suggest sunlight coming through the trees and fog.
NOW to tackle the foreground!

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Progress on My Make-Work Project ... or ... Let's Break Some Rules ...

I really could not get the shadowed petals dark enough for my liking, so ...

... I decided to glaze them with the same black I had used for the background.  Unfortunately, I took the photo at night, under studio lighting, and the colors are way off.

Thank you for dropping by, and your comments are always welcome.

A Quick Update ...

So far, still glazing and glazing to get the dark red shadows - it's a bit scary painting on the intense reds, but when I step away from the painting it looks all right from a distance. So I'll continue with the dahlia. The background is NOT dark yellow, but when I adjusted the warmth to show off the petals, the black came out this color. 

Miss Betty

These are two free-hand drawings I did, last night and this morning, for my niece. Last week, their little pug crossed over the rainbow bridge, and Paulina wanted a momento of Betty. She was a funny little bug, and I know the family will miss her. 

Thank you for dropping by, and your comments are always welcome!

Am I Out-Horsed with This Painting???

I started off with some glazes of a cool orange and aureolin on the petals.

Then I decided I needed to mask to get an even background. BOY!!! Did I ever need the masking!
This is after two washes - aureolin and burnt orange, then thin burnt orange and  quin. violet.

Ultimately, I had to do about five washes of black. As the brush was leaving faint streaks, regardless of how gentle I was, the last wash I applied on sprayed- wet paper, and did it much like a pouring. That technique gave me a smooth black background. Now I am going over some of the petals with a thin violet glaze for shadows. It's about ready for some intense yellows and oranges now.
The size is 13 x 19 inches.

Reference photo
I was coming home from the library one summer evening, and these glorious dahlias caught my eye. I had to stop, ask the home-owner's permission,  and take some photos.

Thank you so much for dropping by! Your comments are most welcome.

Another "Seasonal" Work in Progress ... Snowberries

I've masked the foreground image. I use quin. siena, aureolin and phthalo green in a w/w wash, dropping on the pigment.  Then I put on some saran wrap to get a pattern.  You can vaguely see some of the pattern under the later green washes of phthalo blue, quin. gold and quin. siena.
The painting is on Arches 300 lb. CP, and the size is 9 x 9 inches.

I've done a lot of darkening washes with quin. siena mixed with phthalo blue.

Now  starting the leaves ...

The snowberry is a bush that grows wild here in wooded areas. In September, it puts out small white puffball-type berries the size of the end of your thumb. They are very striking against the rich, dark green foliage.

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Background ... Here I Go!

Miss K. before I started ...

This was a variegated w/w wash of aureolin and quin. burnt orange. It seems to have softened her look quite nicely.

Another varied w/w wash, using quin. burnt orange and quin. violet. 

More of the same technique, with quin. violet and alizarin crimson.

Now, I am subduing the colors a bit. I lifted in a few spots, with wet sponge and paper towel, and then did a thin wash of quin. burnt orange. The next glaze will be a very thin one of indanthrone blue.
I read an article about Rogger Oncoy in the last issue of The Art of Watercolour.  He tends to paint his backgrounds last, and said that it was at this stage that many paintings were ruined. I couldn't agree more!

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I got the blue done faster than I thought. Here she is ...

Cackleberry-maker

I started this with a w/w wash of quin. gold, let it dry, and then did another variegated wash with quin. burnt orange and quin. violet. 

The shadows of the comb and wattles I did in a violet and orange mixture.

Then went over all with cadmium red.

I added all the details, and here she is.
I had never heard the word "cackleberry" till a few years ago, and it still makes me laugh!
The painting is nether framed nor mounted.
The framable size is 7.5 x 4.5 inches.
$75.00

This is the other hen I have started - still a WIP. I found I needed something bright to work on, to alternate with all the darks of the cocker spaniel.

As always, thank you for dropping by. Your comments are most welcome!