Yesterday Was OOPS Day ... with a Vengeance!

Here I was, humming along, looking cute ...
Disaster struck! For Pat's liking, the geese did not stand out well.
I sent out a plea for ideas, and got three reasonable ideas - none of which I followed [to my chagrin]. Thank you very much Audrey Montoya [great watercolorist - check out her blog], Annie Bennett [lovely and eclectic blog] and of course Crystal Cook, who always answers a call for help and advice on painting and selling paintings. I really appreciate your ideas!!! 

But no, I did it my way ...

I am making the most of a bad painting, and am using it to try out different strategies. I am doing the same initial graded washes, but keeping the painting warm - the geese and grasses will be variations of yellows, golds and browns. Here's hoping it works!!!
As for Bruno and riding, same story - I was just not thinking yesterday.

As always, your comments are most welcome!!! 

Good, but ...

A ground shadow has been added. I have also darkened the geese with washes of a grey mixture. But they just do not stand out enough. The babies are fine, but the adults ... ??? They really need a darker background, and I am not keen to do that - I would loose the glowing effect on the right, and I honestly don't know if I could get a reasonably smooth look.  So ... BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD!!!

As always, your comments are most welcome! 

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!