The Geese Are Gaggling Along ...

I left our happy honkers here ...

In this photo, I have started on the shadows of the geese, and  have done an initial glaze of all the feet.

Here, I have added some detail to the feet. I have also gone over the goslings with another wash of aureolin and the dark brown mixture. And I have done a w/w application of a grey mixture on the goose bums.

I'll be working mostly on the adults, darkening and integrating the shadows, and adding some detail to the heads of the two on the right. So far ... so good! The background looks very nebulous, and I am not sure yet what I want to do with it.  I am thinking of just putting in their cast shadows, or that plus a dark diagonal suggestive of grass. Don't know.

As always, your comments are most welcome!

A Happy Easter to You

I wish you all a wonderful Easter. I hope the weather is finally Spring-like.

A new project is in the making. I am doing a painting of geese for a friend for her birthday.  Pat's birthday is April 5, so I HOPE all goes smoothly, or she will end up with an IOU for a gift!

Didn't want to, but I had to use masking. Here all the initial washes are down.  All the washes were graded  and/or irregular in application. First was aureolin, then quin. red, quin. burnt orange, and two separate washes of cobalt blue.

I've done a w/w application on the goslings - aureolin, then dropping in two different brown mixtures to get a soft, downy effect. I will probably have to go in again, and darken some areas, lighten others, and soften the outlines. Now for the geese.

As always, your comments are most welcome

Am I Permitted to Say I Like Them?

This was supposed to go at the bottom of the post, but ...

Life ... painting going well, riding not so much. I finally had a lesson, after a few months without. I thought we were doing well. I could afford to "show off" a bit. But as I've said before, horses always bring you back to ground, to reality. I had been riding him at too fast a rhythm. It's easier to ride, but not desirable. It does not allow nor encourage the horse to push off from the hind legs properly, and use the back well. Riding in a slower tempo, more powerfully, has the horse using its back so much more - if you look closely, you can see Bruno's back slowly vibrating. It is a STINKER to ride. Following Bruno's larger movement, translated to my body, has me moving all over the place. I look like the Energizer Bunny up there, arms and legs wubbling all over the place. What it means is I am going to have to get much stronger in my core. 

At least the painting is going well ...

"I Got Spots"
I have darkened the eye a bit, to bring more focus to the head, and I have added a ground by dry-brushing along the bottom. It looks finished, and I actually like it [and you all know I am hard to please with my paintings].

"Struttin'"
This one I have taken as far as I can take it without mucking up the feathers. I have done some direct glazing with a thin mixture of a dark brown to suggest form shadows - any more, and she will look like a very cross wet hen.


  As always, your comments are most welcome!

Struttin' to the Home Stretch - Swedish Flower Hen

I have masked the perimeter of the hen, and done three graded washes - two of aureolin and one of pink. 

I have done a graded wash of quin. burnt orange which wubbled a bit on the lower left because I didn't get to it quickly enough with the hair dryer. 

I've done another graded wash of the orange, let it dry, then covered the hen and done a splatter with a brown mixture.

I am now in the final FUSS stage. The shapes of the masked out areas are not great, but that's the nature of masking fluid. In the past, I have even tried using a sewing needle, but that doesn't work for me - too easy to scratch the paper.
To finish, I'll continue directly adding thin washes of a dark brown mix to add depth and shadows. And then I'll set her off to strut!

As always, your comments are most welcome.

Struttin' Her Stuff

I applied masking, then wet the entire hen, and stroked in quin. burnt orange and a mixture of the orange with quin. red.

More w/w with the orange, red and quin. violet.

A bit of direct painting with a black mixture.
The first glazes on the head and feet are done.  

I got a little impatient, and HAD to take the masking off. Also, I didn't want too get to dark and intense around all the hard white edges, as I will have to adjust and soften some of them.
I think these are gorgeous chickens, and apparently are good layers, quiet in temperament ... and I STILL wonder how Bruno would like a room-mate!!!

As always, your comments are most welcome!

Make-overs!!!

I've had the urge to go back into some of my older work - pieces that were all right, but  so-so.
This is the original portrait I did of my hay guy.

I stapled it on a board, and went to work. I have done a w/w varied application of quin. burnt orange and quin. red on the right, with indanthrone blue added to the mixture on the left.

I have just gone over it again with a wash of alizarin crimson, stronger on the left. I must say I really like the change.

This is another oldie that looks like it's been in a bit of a fight.
This one I had to tape to a board, as the edges were so uneven.

I have done one dark w/w wash of quin. burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone blue. It looks much more striking, but needs at least one more dark glaze.

As always, your comments are most welcome!

Trying to Turn a Sow's Ear into a Silk Purse

There aren't any steps because I deleted them form  my photo library [in frustration]. I think I am a bit obsessed with trying to interpret the dried hydrangeas. At least, I am learning with each effort. I want to create a looser, almost abstract background, and yet keep the detail and delicacy of the dead flowers. 

This is where I realized it was NOT going to work. So I dragged some dark blue across to see what it would look like - messy and wubbly, but there is an idea coming out of the experiment. Back to the proverbial drawing board for another go!!!

As always, your comments are most welcome!