An Oriole Visits Me!

Sadly, the oriole is only visiting me on my drawing paper.  I wish one would come by in real life!

Here's the beginning stage of a little experiment I'm trying.  I was thinking of going to a class late this month at the Desert Museum in Tuscon.  The class is called "Dynamic Duo" and it's about pairing graphite drawing with soft bodied acrylic washes.  The effect the instructor achieved in her example is of a beautiful drawing carefully hand colored.

I know I would enjoy the class as well as benefit from it, but when I added up all the costs - tuition, plane, lodging, etc. - I just couldn't justify it right now.  So I'm trying to capture that look on my own.

I began with a graphite drawing of an oriole on a branch.  The Stonehenge drawing paper is stuck to a piece of Crescent Perfect Mount board so that it will stand up to the paint.  My next step was to mask the bird and branch with the same masking fluid I use for watercolors, then I laid in some background washes with thinned Liquitex Soft Body Acrylics.  So here's where I am so far, and so far, I like the look.

The Whole Pack

Here are all nine of the dogs together, hanging in their group at the show.  Mine is one of eighteen collections that our club members are showing, and most reported that they had a very positive experience doing a series.  I've done three now, one series of 25 8"x8" paintings, and two of 9 8"x8" paintings.  It's something I've enjoyed every time.  It really provides an opportunity to immerse one's self in a medium and subject.  So far, each time I have tried something slightly new to me in media, and I seem to gravitate to various mixtures.

These little guys are up for sale, but I almost wish that none would sell.  They all feel like my own dogs!

Nine Dogs

I'm starting 2012 in a particularly pleasant way, with little 8"x8" "paintings" of nine dogs.  They'll hang in a group at our art club's 3D and 3X3 show which starts tomorrow.  This little big-eyed guy is the one I can't part with, so I'll buy it back - in effect giving a donation of 30% of the price to the art club. 

My theme is "a dog's love is steadfast," and each painting is scripted with "a dog's love is steadfast..." - "in the exuberance of youth," "in the twilight years," "even at bath time," "even on a bad hair day," "even when dinner's late," "even when the toys are put away," "even when you bring home a new cat," "through thick and thin," and "always."

My medium is mixed, but based on graphite drawing.  After I protected the drawing with a spray of workable fixatif, I tinted the drawings with thinned soft body acrylic.  I took these photos at that point, but I finished the pieces with colored pencil around the edges.

I'm enjoying working more with drawing, and will be doing lots more, trying many different combinations of media to see what effects I can come up with.

Returning to Fun with Gourds

After so much painting - and also a lot of drawing which I haven't been posting - it was definitely time to go back to 3D work, and I was inspired to create a gourd for the 3D show coming up in January.  Now that I'm done with it I like to too much to part with it.  So it may or may not go into the show after all.  A ridiculously high price with solve the possibility of selling it, but it's probably not worth worrying about at all given how poorly art has been selling lately. 

I always find it exciting to combine painting with 3D.  For the lid handle, I sculpted a little rabbit from polymer clay.  She has a small madiera citrine in her forehead and is resting her paw on a rock crystal sphere.  Thank goodness for two part epoxy glue!

I designed the spaces for the rabbit portraits between intertwining bands which are supposed to reminiscent of celtic knots.  The space at the very top under the sculpted rabbi, as well as the triangles between the bands, are filled with gold leaf.  I painted the rabbit portraits with soft body acrylic then glazed the backgrounds with interference green/orange acrylic.

To finish it, I added a band of script around the bottom.  It's Theban script, and a transliteration of "European brown hare, fear or caution, a personal choice" which reflects some of the symbolism associated with this animal.

Chip Gets an Upgrade

Here's Chip after more work.  Actually, I can't think of anything else to do other than strengthen the whiskers and maybe add more.  The colors in this photo look so different from the previous one.  I haven't made any changes at all in the background yet this looks a lot more blue.  I guess it must be the light when I took the photo.

I'm pretty happy with the way the fur turned out with this technique, so I won't hesitate to use it again for furry animals.

A Portrait of Chip

I'm doing this little portrait of Chip on commission and it will be a Christmas present for Chip's doting mistress.  He is a long-haired Chihuahua, and I love this photo that Chip's Dad took of him.  I think the fluffy hair on Chip's ears make him look a bit like a Viking!

I'm using Carel's technique again - acrylics worked like watercolor on Strathmore Illustration Board.  I wanted to see how I could do portraying fur with this tecnhiqe.  So far I'm pretty pleased, but I've got quite a ways to go.  I've used only three brushes - a 2" was brush, a #0 script liner, and a #12 flat.  Carel likes to use his liner brush on its side for larger areas and it seems to work fine.


As I look at the photo of my painting, I see that the black stripe is not centered on his forehead.  Also, it needs to be wider, and the black areas at the temple need to come further forward.  I'll correct that next time.

Covering the Bad Spot

Now it's time to deal with that ugly blob in the sky.  After much contemplation I decided that there was nothing I could do but cover it up, so I added another owl - one flying away - and then partially covered him with more mistletoe.  Once that was done, I finished the branches and added the little mouse.  The most fun part was painting the moonlight highlights on the branches.  I know that the lighting in this painting is not realistic.  The should be a much stronger shadow on all but the very edges of the owl.  I probably should have pushed that farther than I did but I just couldn't bear to cover all those feathers that I worked so hard on.  This painting really looks different depending on the lighting - I prefer it in somewhat dim light.