Great Blue Heron

Back again with another bird painting.  This one is a great blue heron.  These prehistoric birds are all over the place where I live, and I hope you have them where you live too.  Here they stalk the tide pools and seashore looking for small fish to eat.  I've even seen them in the fields and on the golf course looking for mice or moles.  A big one can stand in excess of 4 feet tall.  I don't know what its wingspan is, but its big.  They will stand motionless for quite a while waiting for a tasty morsel to come into range.  As soon as it does,... Whammo!  Thats is.  Feeding time.

I've got a nice heron her for you to view.  He is in a classic standing stance.  Just surveying his surroundings, waiting, biding his time.   I've used a healthy dose of cerulean blue in this painting.  Used it both in the bird and on the background.  The bird itself is tempered with a little mix of my own grey too.

For those of you interested in seeing how I painted it, you can view the action below.  Even if you don't give a view to the video, thanks for taking the time to read a bit about this bird.  Enjoy the video.

Quick weekend sketches

Some quick weekend sketching fun.  Ill be honest ins saying most of what I did was pick through garage sales, and watch the kids, but I did find a little time to  paint.  Not much mind you, but a little.  This first picture is of a stone statue that sits on my front porch.  I'm trying to paint more quickly and more intuitively, rather than trying to exactly replicate what I see.  So here it the cat in all its glory, just sitting there staring at traffic as it goes past.

This picture is one I'd previously drawn. It was just sitting there in my sketch pad begging for me to do something with ti.  So here it is.

Finally, the thing everyone wants.  A picture of an old cat tree.  LOL.  Well, I know one member of the family that couldn't get by without it.  (mostly because the dog can't climb.)

A light hearted posting today.  Enjoy, and thank you.

final Heron and Egret

So that I could get outside and paint, I bought a little Van Gogh travel paint set. So that I wouldn't have to carry so much water with me I bought a water brush. I painted this picture with that combo. No drawing of the figures beforehand, just got the paints wet and started. I was really pleasantly surprised by the result.  Hope ou all enjoy it too.

Better one, or two, two or three

Three more attempts at the Heron and Egret theme.  I like bits and pieces of each.  Hope you all enjoy them.

Have we done this before?

Here we go again.  Trying to get a good Heron and Egret picture.  The hardes thing in this one is the HUGE amount of water.  It doesn't seem like it would be that tough but on a 9 1/2 x 12 1/2 inch piece of paper, it just seems like an eternity of water.  I am hoping to do only one more of these and I am hoping that the water on my next one will be just a bit better.  I do like the stump that the egret is on, and I like the reeds in front of the Heron.  Perhaps on the next one, I'll push both of them back just a bit further into the picture.  BTW, you cant see the bottom inch of this picture because the paper size is larger than my scanner.