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| Somehow I managed to do a fair bit today - must be because I didn't feel the need to have a huge nap after my session with Bruno today. Here, I have darkened the entire background, and given it a rougher look ... |
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| ... and have done some work on the armor. It needs to look more battered, and I may darken the entire knight as well. Boy, do I need something light and fluffy to paint - getting somewhat morbid here. Thank you for dropping by! Your comments are always welcome. |
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| My sketch |
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| First washes - so far, all I have used are variations with quin. burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone. |
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| More glazing - w/w, wet on dry, dry-brush, scrumble - anything that works to give me the look of slightly battered armor. I also did an application of aureolin, orange and alizarin, then let it dry and went over all the background with the black mixture, to give a semblance of a foul and dusty battle-field. At this stage, I might be about 1/3 to 1/2 way done. It's actually turning out better than I had hoped. |
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| Meanwhile, Maggie sits outside. She is a very interesting dog, and I can now understand why she had been difficult to foster out. She is quite the guard dog, possessive of me [already], and has a lot of street dog behaviours. Whether she can be gradually "domesticated" more, we shall see - must be done sensitively and tactfully. |
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| And now there is Scruffy! One of my sisters adopted Scruff, and she has gone to Arizona for a month. She asked if I could take care of Scruffy while she was away. At the time, I had no idea I'd have a dog of my own, so now, there is quite a house full! But Scruff is no problem, other than she is 14 years old, and I think a bit blind. But she is spry, loves her walks, and digs into her food, so I think she'll be fine here. She makes me smile - reminds me of an old gnome, with those big ears and the long tufts of hair coming out of them. And then there is Bruno, who right now at this level of his education, is demanding much from me, in the way of intestinal fortitude, discipline, balance and strength. Yup - he's a handful to ride. I must be calm, strong, believe in myself and what I am doing, and do it all with a good sense of humor. Thank you for dropping by! Your comments are always welcome. |
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| Ol' Kath is BORING ... |
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| I'd rather play with my great new friend - we tussle, we dig holes, we swim, we chase things .... |
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| Kath plays with BIG, scary animals, and they don't like me around too much when they play together. |
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| Kath plays with noisy machines. This is her, after a long weed-whacking session. |
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| But enough of Maggie's perspective, I discovered the beauty of cropping. I think this iris looks so much better tightly cropped. |
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| And I have slowly been moving along with this painting ... |
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| I added a dark shadow - too dark, so toned it down ... |
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| ... and laid in a soft burnt orange wash on the foreground to alleviate some of the starkness of the white. I also masked an outline of the geese, and did some wet-in-wet applications of burnt orange and a dark brown to give the impression of long grass for the background. The next step will be to add some thin glazes of pink, orange and blue on the shadowed areas of the geese. |
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| Started the knight, and I am not sure what to make of it yet. We'll see. It's been rather hectic with the new dog. I find myself running around making sure she is not in trouble, that Bruno has not stepped on her, that the two dogs are not chasing Bruno [though I think they all enjoy the romp], that Maggie has not found a hole in the fence through which to disappear [she's done that twice] Seems we are all going through a little period of adjustment! Thank you for dropping by! Your comments are always welcome! |
