Birdbath - Number 4 of ?

 

Day 5 of oil painting

Today I worked mostly on the foreground. I began painting the grass, I filled in more of the flowers, and look! - the happy tree leaves are showing up on the right hand side. 

Day 6 of oil painting

Once again, I was thinking about the painting in the evening, and a basic rule that I wasn't implementing came to me - atmosphere. In the top image the background grass in the upper right was just as bright as the grass in the foreground. Today, I worked on pushing it back by applying a thin film of light blue-gray. That will also, ultimately, help to pop out and bring forward the happy Japanese Maple Tree branches on the right.

Next time I work on this piece, I'm hoping to finish. I'll add more leaves and detail to the branches on the right, and yes. . . add the splashes of water!  

Birdbath - Number 3 of ?

 Day 3 of my 8x10 oil painting

It's coming along, and I have to say - I'm having fun! I have reference photos but a lot of it is just make-believe with my brushes and palette knife. Feeling a bit like Bob Ross, I have an idea for some happy little branches that may eventually show up on the right hand side.

Day 4 of my 8x10 oil painting

Today I spent another hour. I gave more definition and depth to the background. I added some flowers on the upper left hand bush and began adding flowers around the birdbath itself. I also defined the bird a bit better. I'm excited to eventually paint the water as it splashes up around him but . . . patience.

Thanks for stopping by!

Birdbath - Number 2 of ?

 Day One of my 8 x 10 oil painting. 

I recently watched an oil painting tutorial that inspired me to work in a different way. 

I toned the entire canvas in a raw-umber wash. Then, using a rag, and brushes dipped in Turpenoid (a somewhat odorless turpentine), I erased out the image and highlights. I also went back in with a bit more of the raw umber to darken the shadows. This wasn't a long process, and it's a small painting. I probably spent less than an hour. 

Day Two of my 8x10 oil painting

Today I spent a bit of time adding color. As this painting is more of an experiment, I even painted with my palette knife a bit which I don't normally do. I liked the dark area in the upper right, but it was supposed to be a tree in the background and the size of the "leaves" made it look like foreground. I actually realized this as I was lying in bed that night thinking about it! I wiped it off with a rag immediately the next morning, before it had a chance to dry. The thing with working with a palette knife is that it lays the paint on heavy and creates texture where you may not want it.

We're not done yet! I'll post another step or two later this week. - Thanks for stopping by!

Birdbath - Number 1 of ?

     First, a little story about the birdbath itself. My husband bought it a couple of years ago. He placed it too far out in the yard to reach easily with a hose, and didn't even set it on level ground. It was never filled. A sad confusing time for the birds in our neighborhood. 

     

     This spring I decided to make it mine, move it closer to the house, and plant beautiful flowers around it that would attract pollinators. I imagined those flowers growing and blooming, and ending up being a great subject for a painting. I had visions. 

     

    I came home one Thursday afternoon to find that my husband had moved it closer to the house (for me) and had purchased some nice stones to create the circle around it. My vision hadn't included stones. The space surrounding the bath seemed a bit tight, but I kept my mouth shut, (I really did). He had done that for me, and I expressed my gratitude and told him how nice it looked. (I really did think it looked nice). I thought I'd figure it all out over the weekend and do some flower shopping. 

     The next day I came home, and he had planted flowers! Apparently I had not made my vision clear. The breakdown in communication had to be my fault. (I'm saying that because my husband, like all men, are such good payers of attention. Right?). Anyway, I had to balance my gratitude - "what a sweet gesture. You did this for little ol' me?," with "thanks a lot, Buddy. You've now ruined my whole summer."

Here's what it looked like. I even got a shot with a visitor! 

And here's the birdbath in its full summer glory.

     It's very pretty, and the important thing is that the birds have loved it and we have loved watching them enjoy it!

     Now, to the artsy part. As this is not what I had envisioned, I've had to wing it a bit with the painting idea. I dropped a few of these summer photos into my iPad, including this one of my Rose of Sharon bushes that bloomed beautifully this year.

I came up with this fast cut and paste (and dabble) in Procreate:

    The next day I started over and came up with the image you see at the top of the page. Still just a sketch of a potential painting. What I'm going to do now is share with you the process as I go along. Since I don't have a good photo to work from, it's going to be a grand experiment for me. I've pulled out an inexpensive 8 x 10 canvas board and I'm setting to work. I'll try to post every few days as I have time to work on it.

Bye for now!

Thanks for stopping by!

Angel Water

Here's a recent drawing a did of my cat Josie, having her morning Angel Water. This small statue sits out on my patio, and I have always filled her basin as I water the flowers - a kind of offering to the flower fairies. Don't laugh. You just never know.

I think Josie accepted this as her "princess" bowl of water that gets filled every morning in the spring and summer. Flower fairies aside, I now fill it every morning for Josie.
 

Here are a couple steps along the way.

I did her whiskers by drawing them (pressing in) with one of my inkless pens before applying the colored pencil. The colored pencil won't go down into the furrows created unless you press really hard. Just be delicate about it, and you can create fine hairs, whiskers, grasses, etc - all those tiny lines that are difficult to draw in later.

Below is my inkless pen collection. You can have your own by buying Bic pens 

and using them up until the ink is gone! Haha! 

Someday I hope to come up with a brilliant idea on how they can be used in an art piece,

Thanks for stopping by.

Tux

This is my grandson Tux. What a kid! I had the pleasure of spending a whole week with him recently when he flew home with his mom. He is four years old and can name dinosaurs and reptiles with an accuracy I would have to study up on for weeks, possibly months. Yeah. Probably months. I know easy ones like T-Rex and rattlesnakes, but this kid was schooling me on saw-scaled vipers and titanaboas.

Titanaboa - an extinct (thank goodness) constrictor. 

I pulled this image from simple google search to share, because I thought you might like to add the knowledge to your brain bank in case you run into Tux somewhere. This is his favorite snake.

I was reading to him a page from a reptile book about Gila Monsters, incorrectly pronouncing it with a hard "G" sound. He politely corrected me, and I now know that it is pronounced Hee-la monster.

Speaking of being polite, he came downstairs one morning and said "Good morning, Grandma. How did you sleep?" Four years old! But . . . he is a boy. He was also found here with his cousin Tilly:

And he wasn't very polite about having to bathe. Haha!

I think this is the only photo I have of the three boys together, 

mostly because the little one on the right (Novan) never sits still.

The image at the top of the page is done in oils. While his mom was here visiting, I couldn't NOT show her and give it to her in person. It is an image that will go in the family calendar. The one in the calendar won't look exactly the same, so it will still be somewhat of a surprise. I dropped it into Procreate and did magical things with it that I'll share here in January.

The process:

I didn't even draw this one out. I just started painting (on gessoboard).

 I have to say, I was getting very excited about the way it was turning out at this point.

Putting in a background, after the image is painted seems backward. I don't recommend it. Like I said, I just jumped in and started painting, from a photo his mom Ashley had sent. As I tried to figure out what I was doing back there, I had to keep touching up the edges of his image. Just backward. 

But until his image was done, I didn't know what background I wanted so . . . ? hmmmm.

I tried a couple ideas. The one I ended up with at the top of the page, made him look,

in my humble opinion, the most animated and three-dimensional. 

Plus, I was tired of touching up edges!

I have to say, I get a lot of amazing photos from his mom and he is such a character that I could most likely make a career of creating images of him. Just look at this guy! Haha!

Love you so much Tux!