I must really like red heads

This is obviously a very proud bird.  He's sitting on a branch with his chest puffed out.  There must be a female on a brach close by.  He seems to be looking off to the side, so perhaps she'e just off the page to the left.

For those that have followed my paintings for a while now, you can see that I am a lot less "tight" with my paint.  I'm trying hard to let things be, and just allow the paint to fill in the spaces it needs to fill.  I've seen that if I fidget with things and try to get them "right" the only thing I can be certain of is that things won't look "right".  If I let the paint do it paint thing, things look a bit better and less fiddled with.

Well, its a quick painting that I had fun with, hope you all like it.

Some Red Head

Ok, here is a quick sketch of a little red bird.  Not exactly what kind of bird it is.

Working on painting loose, but may have gotten a little too loose around his head and on the branch in the foreground.

All in all it's not a bad little painting.

I've looked at this painting several times over the past day or so, and I keep trying to figure out what this guys story it.  I haven't quite gotten it, but whatever he is doing, it looks like he needs to wear gloves for it.  Maybe they are driving gloves?   Not really sure.  Well, anyway, enjoy.

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.

Owl at night

Ok, so they cant all be winners.  This one got away form me pretty early on, and I couldn't quite tell how to write the ship.  I just kept painting and painting.

After only about 5 minutes of painting I decided I didn't like this.  But having as thick a head as I have, I just kinda kept plugging away at it.  I will admit that the longer I painted, the better I felt about this.  I think one of my big problems is that when you paint owls, you have to put on two eyes.  You never see owl pictures with one eye.  The yes are what make the owl.  So... since the eyes are such a focal point of the owl, you have to have them look correct.  Right from the beginning (I mean even the drawing) I think my eyes were not quite right. Now they are different sizes, and that sets the painting off.  Grrrrrr... Oh well, that's why these are practice and I have an actual day job.

On the bright side, I painted lots of layers on this.  I would bet that there are places that have as many as 8 or 9 layers of paint.  And on the wing closest to you, you can really see that.

I've been trying to paint in more, lighter layers.  Trying to give my paintings a bit of depth.  The down side, is that in the back ground, on the inital layer, I had branches behind the owl.  Adding subsequent  layers has rendered them invisible.  Oh, well, take the good with the bad.

I still had fun painting this one.  I've got  friend who was looking for an owl painting, and this one just might end up in her office.  Thanks for viewing.

Oriole

Here is the latest.  It is, as you can see, an oriole.  Not sure what I liked so much about this picture when I stated painting it, but I think it turned out nice.  A lot of times, it seems when you paint birds, you end up doing them in profile.  Maybe I liked this one because it wasn't in profile.

He's just sitting there checking out his surroundings.

Hope yo enjoy this one.  Thanks for the views.

One Great Tit

Ah Hah!  Gotcha.  I posted a picture of a bird.  I don't think that's what you were expecting.  I love doing that.  Last year I posted a picture of some cantaloupe  melons.  I titled my post something like a great pair of melons.  I got more hits on that than I had on my site total to that point.

Well, as I have said so many times, I love painting birds.  Something about them makes me happy.  I always like to make up stories about them as I am painting.  And they all seem to have individual moods.

Usually when I paint, I paint from black an white pictures.  I did that with this one.  It really helps me see contrast.  But where I am able to see a lot of contrast, I often get my colors a little wrong.  On this guy, I should have had a grey tail.  He originally had a beautiful yellow tail, but once I finally looked at a color picture, I realized I should have given him a grey tail. I quickly tried to make an adjustment, but.....  

Ok, now let's talk about a little of the good for a second.  I basically painted this in about 4 layers.  I tried hard to leave his chest a little lighter and his belly a little darker.  I think I got it on the yellow.  And I was worried that his head wouldn't come out quite right when I started, but i really like how it turned out.

Well, hope you like this one.  Thank you.

European Robin in Winter

Yesterday was a really busy day for me.  Running non stop from the time I got to work, until nearly quitting time.  I did find just enough time to paint this little guy.  I must have been in a bit of a dour mood yesterday, because he seems to be in bit of a huff.  Let's hope I wasn't showing my frustrations.

This on is from a winter time picture.  The bird has obviously gotten his down up a bit to keep warm.  I tried to paint it with all cooler colors.

Well, he was fun for the 5 minutes or so I got to paint him.  Enjoy, and thaks for the view.