Monday, June 27, 2011

Oops! Got Distracted!

I needed something different, I guess, before I started on another cat portrait.  I found myself looking through old Birder's World magazines and came across a photo of such a beautiful duck - a Fulvous Whistling Duck.

After searchng the internet for other images of these sweet looking ducks, I put together a composition of a pair.

Of course I should have planned out the entire composition, but I was just going on doing something quick and simple.  After a false start with pastel on sanded paper I got out my watercolor pencils and started doing something more comfortable - drawing. 

This is on an off-white Stonehenge paper, and I'm putting in glaze after glaze.  This is what I like about the Polychromos watercolor pencils.  After they're wet then dry, the colors are set (except for the black, which likes to move again if it's re-wet).  So this is a great medium for glazing, and one can be quite subtle about it with a very light application of the pencil.  I also used ink - permanent waterproof Sakura micon pens.

At first, I just put in the ducks with absolutely no idea what would go around them.  Then this composition suggested itself.  And, of course, it has severe problems.  Mostly about stuff being in the middle.  (This doesn't really bother me all that much, but I try to abide by "the rules" when I can as I know that show judges can be quite sticklers about them!)  I'll be able to solve that with cropping, or maybe not.  I've left the water for last, and I'm really not sure how to proceed with it.  I guess I'll just plunge in and hope for the best!

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