Not much painting yet, but a fair bit of sketching ...

It's not a very finished drawing, but I like the pose.

Clifford, a decidedly cheeky pony living at a rescue in Washington state. The woman who runs the refuge is a saint for all the animals. I like to help how I can. I will paint Clifford, and send it to her. Hopefully, [as she has done before] she can raffle the image to get some funds for supplies.

One of the emus here at the environmental farm ... waiting to be painted.

A few cute chicks, waiting for a paint brush, too.

A nearby farm. I've had the drawing for years, and now I feel I am finally able to approach it with a better sense of values, shapes ... composition in general.

Hmmmm ... we shall see. My idea is to paint this in all seasons. Must work on different backgrounds and light source to get the best effect.


This should keep me busy for a while! I'm also going to work on a proposal for the land/animal manager here to have some small classes here, drawing and painting the many subjects available here - animals, old buildings and farm implements, scenery ...  ONWARD!!!

TUCO - A PORTRAIT'S PROGRESS

Tuco - 14 x 11.5 in.
I'd like to try mounting the paper on a cradled frame, and varnishing it. But I'll wait to see what Tuco's owner thinks.

Graphite drawing

I masked some of his face where I anticipated screaming along with some bright red paint.

Mask removed, and I started some wet-in-wet washes.

Some wet on dry was done where the shadows and colours were deepest.

More w/w

Here, I was starting to get some expression on his face, and adding some some of the softer, lighter colours.

I was almost done with the face. I added his collar, and some shadows around it. In the final stage, at the top of the post, I added more soft shadow to suggest his neck and chest. Somehow, he looked like a floating head without it.

The colours I used were scarlet lake for the red slash; for the darker hues, I used mixtures of quin. burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone; for the softer shadows I worked with combinations of quin. pink, aureolin and cobalt blue.

If you have any questions, or would like to enquire about commissioning a portrait, please feel free to write me at studioatthefarm7@gmail.com

Thank you so much for dropping by!

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!