Angel Statue

I've painted a few statues in the past and really loved doing them.  This one is no different.   I started with just a bit of paint to put on a base color of this statue.  Then I just painted all the shadows.  I allowed those to give form and shape to the statue.  After several layers of shadows and a little rounding of the edges, this statue looks like it is 3 dimensional.

I also put on a very dramatic background.  Mixing reds and blues around this statue that has lots of yellow and green in it make the image jump off the page.  Contrasting colors will always make images pop from your paper.

Like I said I had a great time with this.  If you want to see how I did it, take a look at the following video.  It's sped up because the whole painting took me about an hour to do, and I didn't want anyone to have to sit through an hour of me talking.   Check it out, its pretty good.

Mermaid

So, I got on a little bit of a mermaid kick lately.  It started a couple of weeks ago, and has just about run its course.  This might be about my last one.  I really think her tail fin turned out great on this on.  Also, I'm really happy that the shading of her skin turned out pretty good.

Under her hair is darker than her face and chest.  Her left arm is darker than her right.  She even has a little shadow on one butt cheek.  Not too back on a little painting.

The hair didn't quite turn out like I thought, but it isn't too bad either.  I'm totally happy with this little painting.

If you want to watch me paint this, you can view the video below.

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.

Grandparents Wedding

Well, for what it is, here it is.  The people don't look quite like they are supposed to, but I think I did a lot of things right on this .  You can tell where the suit coats come together, it isn't just one big blob of color.  You can just imaging grandpa standing there in his dress whites.  I'm glad i left some highlight in his hair.

The hair was a real problem for me.   I tried to leave a little highlight and allow you to see the hair texture.  Shading on the faces was really hard.  I knew it would be going into this, but wanted to try anyway.

Well, I'm chalking this one up to experience.  Its a piece I really wanted to do, and I still like it, but I think I fell a bit short of my expectations.  I'll have to use that as motivation to do better on my next one.

Enjoy

A hint of things to come

The purpose of this post is two fold.  First so you can see what is coming up from Dabfly Arts, and second so you can see what the process of painting looks like.


So I have this fantastic photo of my grandparents on their wedding day.  The picture was taken 70 years ago.  I projected the picture onto watercolor paper and traced out basic shapes.

From there, as you can see, its all about adding layers of paint onto the paper.  The first layer is just a basic layer, just trying to get colors all in the right vicinity.  This picture has two layers of paint on it.  You can see that I have put on some extra paint to try to begin defining shapes a bit more.

 IN this picture I have darkened things a bit more and really begun to give shape to the clothing.


















Here I gave Emma-Jean, the woman on the far right a brightly colored suit.  And Bob, the gentleman on the far left a distinctive collar.  The next step will be to finisht Bob's suit, then hair, hats and deepening the skin tones.  Oh, and shoes.  I saved Grandpa for the last because his Navy dress Whites are so white that they are only gonna get some shadowing on them.

I am really hoping this is gonna turn out well.  I think it is, but the proof will be when I start painting the faces.  Faces will make or break this painting.



Hope you have enjoyed this little sneak peek into how I paint.