GEESE - A PROCESS, OR WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE GOOSE IS GOOD FO THE GANDER

Goose and Gander
39 x 24 cm.
15 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.
A gift for a serious goose-lover

My drawing, with all my scribbled notes, most of which have nothing to do with the drawing.

I masked the geese, and did at least 8 gradated washes of permanent rose, phthalo. blue  and indanthrone. Then started on their bodies with wet-in-wet washes of pink and quin. sienna. The feet and bills were painted with quin. sienna, and shadowed with sienna, quin. violet and indanthrone.

Gradually built up the shadows with phthalo. blue and quin. sienna ...

... a few touches of orange and blue, and done.

I painted this as a birthday gift for a friend. She loves geese - says they remind her of her first husband! [One of my brothers-in-law always reminded me of a duck, but that's another story.] When I showed her the finished work, she burst out laughing - she loved them, and found them so silly-looking. As long as I can bring some joy to someone with my art, I am happy.
I'd like to mention that I tried a new [to me] paper - Stonehenge rough 140 lb. I quite like it. It stands up to masking and multiple washes well, and all the other rough treatment I give.

Thank you for dropping by to visit the geese!

SO FAR ... Works-in-Progress ...

Voodoo is getting some background - permanent rose and quin. burnt orange.

Right now, I am in the process of darkening it. I'm sure I'll have to intensify the shadows on his head as well.

I used this as a reference photo for the class yesterday.

Again, I masked what I wanted white, in this case the few balsam standing at the edge of the pond. I wet  the paper thoroughly, and applied aureolin, alizarin crimson and cobalt blue, then sprayed and let the colors blend on their own. I did a second similar wash, using quin. gold instead of aureolin. Then I covered the sky and water with scrap watercolor paper, and spattered gold, quin. burnt orange, alizarin crimson and cobalt blue, and then sprayed to let them flow together.

Here, I have removed the masking, and am working on the trees, and getting some strategic dark shadows around the focal area.

That's it for now. The sun is shining warmly and invitingly, and Bruno awaits! He is in serious shedding mode - hair flying everywhere.

Thank you so much for dropping by!

A Walk in the Woods ... Step by Step Painting of a Landscape

My reference photo - one of the spots I often pass during walks in the woods.

I had a request from the class I teach to do something very loose and different.  I started this part in class as a demonstration.  I masked out the stream, and did two very wet, sprayed washes with aureolin, alizarin crimson, quin. burnt orange and cobalt blue. I was following Nita Engle's techniques for creating a natural-looking landscape. Her book is called "How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself", and it is full of great techniques that she uses to create very beautiful and natural paintings.

Later, at home, I did this practice run before attempting the splattering technique. 

Ready to go - masked off with old pieces of watercolor paper, mixed colors off to the side.  I used a mix of alizarin and quin. gold, another of gold, alizarin and cobalt to get a subdued green, and a third of the same pigments to make a brown.

This was the effect of the splattering. I then judiciously sprayed with water to encourage the colors to bleed together a bit.

My work space - I had to protect the walls from all the flying paint.

I removed the masking, and this is what it looked like after all the splattering and spraying.

I mixed up a black to paint the trees. Then did a thin wash over the stream with indanthrone mixed with some of the black. Last, I painted the reflections of the trees in the water. I very much like using these techniques - they are not difficult, and really give an extremely natural air to the painting.

Here's Maggie this morning, stopping off for a drink from the pool cover. Somehow, water  always tastes better here than from a bowl.

OK, you Easterners - sorry for this!!! We are having an early Spring. Birds are in full song, along with the tree frogs, and trees and bushes are opening their blossoms. The nights are still cold ... -3C, but the afternoons are glorious and warm. Yes, I have been out there in a t-shirt, and Bruno is not wearing blankets! He is shedding a lot, hair everywhere ... in food, in toothpaste tube???, on my paintings ... can't see a spot where there is no horse hair!!!

Thank you so much for dropping by! 

Almost Finished ... a Pony's Progress

For a reference, I used an older drawing I had done of my neighbor's pony. [Kim preferred  the other, more dramatic  drawing I did to have as a painting.] Here, I am doing several w/w washes with a warm grey made of permanent rose, quin. burnt orange and indanthrone.

... continuing with the w/w applications ...

I moved to a darker [more blue/black] mixture for the nostril and muzzle. I also shifted to a cooler grey, made of the same three pigments. 

Thought it was time to get some background down. I used the permanent rose in a splotchy [purposely splotchy] application, followed by quin. burnt orange, and then several dark mixtures made of the same pink, orange and blue.

Amazing what a difference the background made!

I continued to darken the shadows, using both w/w and dry brush techniques.

The large areas of dark were finally dark enough, so I removed the masking. Now I just have to fine tune the mane and forelock, and see how it looks overall.

I wanted to create a sense of a sweet older pony. We've all seen them in the horse world - been everywhere, done all of that, won all the t-shirts - toting kids around all over the place without batting an eye at anything that would normally spook a horse. I love them! So I chose a softer, more gentle background, and hopefully gave him a quiet and gentle look, while giving him the dignified expression he deserves.

Thank you so much for dropping by!

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.