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.

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.

Sea Gull

Alas, that ever present bird has made a comeback on Dabfly Arts.  Living by the water, I see them every day.  Some days they look like they are having fun floating on gentle ocean breezes, others they look like they are hating life trying to stay warm in a cold winter wind.  This guy falls into the former category.  He is definitely loving life.   Nice warm climate, a nice dock to stand on.

Birds are fun to paint.  I don't know why I like them so much.  I guess its because each one has its own personality.  Every bird I paint gets its own story.  This one is definitely looking at something on the dock.  Maybe a tasty bit of food has blown onto the wood, he has just seen it, and it about to go over and have a snack.

Whatever his real story, he was a blast to paint.  I hope you enjoy it.  If you want to see how I did it, I have, as has become my custom, made a video of it.  You can see it below.  Thanks for the read, and the view if you have the inclination.

Colorado

Well, here it is, a family portrait.  My mother and step father together in Colorado.  I think I did a fair job with this.  You can see in the picture below there was a lot of dark coloring in my step father's jacket and hat.  I had to compensate by making the collar and brim of his hat a bit lighter.  I did the same thing with my mother's coats.  I suppose there are better painters who could do a better job, while still keeping the collars and hats the same shade.  As for me, I thought it was a really good compromise.  I like the mottling in the pantlegs of the jeans.

Here is the original picture.  As you can plainly see, I didn't follow the proper background.  Well, I didn't know exactly what do do about the snow.  I've never painted snow and I didn't want to start now.  I wanted to give a soft diffused background that would compliment the subject color.  As it is I think I did a good job with it.  When you look at it, you notice the background but you immediately look away from it and are drawn to the subject.  I think I worked great.  Let me know what you think.

Also, don't you think it looks like mother is 20 years younger?

No Fat Chicks

I've been told that all the birds I paint seem to be fat.  I just thought they were all big boned.  Today, I give you two birds that might have an actual chance of flight.  Two Western Scrub Jays.  They are fun to paint  with their blue and browns,  This one has found a perch on a dead branch and is looking back over his shoulder.





This picture is approximately 5x7.
For Sale - $10 - free shipping

This second bird did look a bit more haggard in the original, but I don't think I did him any favors in this picture.  Again he  is looking over his shoulder.  I'm told that his head doesn't look like it fits on his body properly.  I didn't really think about it when I drew it.  Its how the picture was.

Both of these birds were fun to paint, and I will be doing more birds.  I've found a website full of great pictures of just about all species of North American birds, so expect to see more in the future.


This picture is approximately 4x6.
For Sale -$8 - free shipping.

Red (or greed) Again

Watercolor 7 1/2x9.  SOLD

Ok, so I had painted this picture, and actually thought it was not too good.  So, being the good watercolorist, decided to do something about it, and since my medium is watercolor, was able to do something fairly easily.

The first thing I did  was get most of the picture wet.  Then I began scrubbing off the old background.  I was able to get most of it off without too much trouble.  The only parts that didn't come off too well were the parts around the leaves.

Next I wanted to try out a new technique.  I actually tried it at lunch today on a different painting, and it work out really well.  (A little backstory.  We have a   faculty member here who is a professional watercolorist.  One of the things he does it make strong delineations around his subject.  Having a strong color and then blending to a light hue at the edge makes for a very dramatic painting.)  I tried his technique here and It worked out pretty good.  I couldn't make the light are too light because it would show the paint that I couldn't lift off.  but even so, the bird pops out of this painting, and looks 100X better than the previous one did.  I'm glad I took the time to do this.  Hope you all enjoy it.