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!

SAGA OF NEWFOUNDLAND LANDSCAPE - PART 2

Again, I started with the sky, playing it a bit safer by dropping in the pink and blue, not the orange as well.

 ... then added the orange and more blue, all done wet in wet ...

same procedure and colours  for the land masses ...

... started developing some shadows over the snow, using pink and indanthrone ...

... start the buildings ...

This was the stage I was dreading - doing a soggy wet in wet application on a partly finished painting, to simulate the appearance of distant trees in snow on the far right.

Actually, it didn't turn out badly, and looked much better after the second w/w wash. I also worked more on the ground shadows.

I am here now. It's looking not too bad. Em came out from Vancouver a few days  ago, and gave it a big seal of approval, with the proviso that I add more rocks to the foreground. [Newfoundland is a very rough, rocky, and I would say, bleak part of Canada, but then I live on the cushy west coast].

I almost always put a make-shift mat around the painting to see how it's coming along.

So that is the saga, so far, of the Newfoundland landscape.  While Em was visiting, she told me a few stories about the area - it always makes the painting much more meaningful to me. And I will finish the first attempt as well, and Em can take both of them - one for her brother, and one for her.

Thank you for dropping by!

MY SAGA OF THE NEWFOUNDLAND LANDSCAPE - PART 1

This was the photo that inspired the painting. It was taken by Em's niece, I believe, and was a wintery view of Dunville,  Newfoundland [Em's birthplace, and home to her family for over two hundred years]. Em wanted me to do a painting for her brother for his birthday.

I also made use of this photo of an Atlantic sunset - for colour only - as  I found the colours in the original photo just not right.

And I was off ... first a wet in wet wash of phthalo  blue, quin. sienna and permanent  rose for the sky ...

 ... some masking out for snow on local hills, then did several glazes of  the pink with some indanthrone and quin. burnt orange...

...started the inlet with pink and sienna ...

... more colour with phthalo blue and indanthrone in the water, and  pink, quin. burnt  orange and indanthrone for the land masses ...

For some reason, at this point, I did not like what I'd done so far. The above image was of the painting as far as I got,  with an earlier colour study on top. I took this photo to send to Em for critique. She loved my colours in the study, but wanted less sky.  I did so, but didn't like the sky in my first attempt. It was a largish painting, and I wasn't keen to start again, but you know me ...

Thank you for dropping by! Stay tuned for Part 2.

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!

TWO WATERCOLOURS, STEP BY STEP

TUG ON THE FRASER
17 X 26 CM.
$85.00 CDN

FRASER IN WINTER
17 X 26 CM.
$75.00 CDN

These are two smaller works I started as class projects, both based on the same photo. In the top painting, I highlighted the sky, the second the waters. Most of the work was done wet in wet, with some sponging and dry brush detailing at the end. The colours used were almost the same in both - the first had new gamboge and phthalo blue in the initial wash, the second had aureolin and indanthrone in the first wash. All the colours used were aureolin, new gamboge, permanent rose, phthalo blue, indanthrone, quin. sienna, quin. burnt orange, and quin. violet. My goal was to create two different moods with the paintings, and I think I have done just that.

If you have any questions about the techniques or wish to purchase one of the paintings, please contact me at studioatthefarm7@gmail.com 

Thank you so much for dropping by!

Well ... THIS Is Going to Take a While!!! Latest Work in Progress

My Tracing. I really do prefer drawing free hand, but when the subject is this complex, and the details are necessary, I trace from my photo.

The subject

The colors. The pink hollyhocks, from my sister's garden, have beautiful shapes and shadows, but I thought I'd try doing them in yellow. The above photo is from my landlady's garden.

MANY glazes, starting with aureolin, then  gold with phthalo green, and several of  phthalo green and burnt orange for the darks.

Finally finished all the glazing yesterday, and am starting the subject.  I found I didn't get as much streaking from applying water to pre-wet before glazing by instead wetting gently with a spray bottle. So far, I am  using aureolin, and quin. pink with the blue shade of phthalo green for the shadows [weird combination though it seems] And I am staying with gold, burnt orange and phthalo green [yellow shade] for the greenery.
Once again, I leapt in without fully appreciating how difficult this would be. But we'll see what happens. I think I'll need to have a couple of "easier" paintings on the side to work on when I start going cross-eyed with all the detail on the hollyhocks.

Thank you so much for dropping by!