OK ... I'M BACK - A ROOSTER'S PROGRESS ...

Maggie, sorely in need of entertainment and exercise, has resorted to  caving in the hay shed.

She finds a slot between the bales, and dives down, looking for rodents.

Sometimes she completely disappears, and I wonder if I am going to have to excavate her from the hay!

Second start on the BIG rooster. The finished size was about 25 x 30 inches.

Looking quite handsome and rooster-ish.

Now the background ...

Finished ... finally! Picked up, and ready to fly off to Hong Kong to his new home.

I disappeared off the radar, as I was having a lot of trouble with pain, arthritis, muscle spasm - I was not a happy puppy. I barely felt like doing anything, just forced myself to take care of the animals as best I could, and teach my weekly watercolour class.  I was even on synthetic opioids for six weeks. That is a nasty drug. I have weaned myself off, and am now being much more proactive  in taking care of myself. I still visit with my yoga therapist weekly - she is a god-send! And I regularly see a physiotherapist to help with eliminating muscle spasm, and getting some proper strengthening exercises done at his clinic. So I am feeling much better physically and emotionally. I am sketching and painting again, and riding Bruno every other day, and getting out with the dogs again, too. Lordy, I missed being outside in Nature!!!

The rooster was commissioned by a woman, in August,  for her husband's birthday [and I am sure I missed the date]. But she picked her painting up on Friday, and was so happy with him - I was thrilled. So Señor Rooster is off to Hong Kong in December to settle in his new home.

UNO'S COUSIN, PRIMO - a watercolour step by step process

Primo, in his natural colouring ...

Another of my neighbour's roosters. She had about 6 at one point. I like the pose in the 1st photo, but LOVE the colours of the second, so I combined the two ...

My drawing ...

First wet in wet washes. There are a lot of smaller areas of different colours. I am doing what I can w/w in the larger areas.  Here I am using alizarin crimson, quin. sienna, quin. burnt orange, phthalo blue and browns and blacks [quin. burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone].

The next few steps are a matter of intensifying the colours, usually with more of the same, and sometimes with a complement added to darken.

Colours are established overall ...

A bit of chicken-scratch spatter on the ground ...

I am adding a soft background with permanent rose [any cool quin. pink will do],  quin. burnt orange and indanthrone. I am applying it quite thinly.

These last two photos are taken at the same stage, with different lighting. I find it difficult to get a true  assessment of the colour using just the computer editing. I have posted both images so you may get a better idea of the colours and values.

PRIMO
available for purchase
framable size 13 x 14.5 in./ 33.5 x 38 cm.
$375.00 Cdn

Thank you so much for dropping by!

UNO ... A ROOSTER'S PROGRESS

Once upon a time, there was a rooster named Uno, who lived at my vet's small hobby farm. He was a very handsome and proud bird ...

Drawing , with a few scribbled notes

First washes - aureolin, quin. sienna and quin. burnt orange

More of the oranges, with some new gamboge to brighten the yellow. His comb is a mix of burnt orange and alizarin crimson.

Still more gamboge. The tail feathers, both brown and blue, are mixtures of burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone.

Starting to give the body feathers some texture with more of the same colour, or mixtures made with complementary colours.

UNO

Well, winter weather is here, and for this area it means soggy, grey, dark days. Yup ... the winter megrims have set in! So I am motivating myself to paint by working on BRIGHT. Chickens and roosters suit my needs perfectly, so expect to see more colourful birds!!!

Thank you for dropping by!