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>Bird brain!

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Getting bolder now, what with the closer-up view of the bird and all! But I absolutely could not resist doing this one since I knew the feathers would mean lovely, fluid strokes, and the headpiece hinted at just the greatest fun!

It absolutely did not disappoint either! I did this one in class, too, recently, and am very glad I did since I was trying to go right from the photo and had the top (blue), painted in a similar color as the bottom. As usual, Hazel’s voice reminded “Photos can lie!” and I received a lecture on values yet again. The middle area was much busier, and while she didn’t recommend changing it, I decided it needed punching up too.

I wish I had gone with a pure, one color background but what I have ended up with here is far better than what I was working with originally.

Thank you again, Hazel!

Today’s lesson: Keep the background as simple as possible when the subject is so singular and b.g. doesn’t add to it!

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>Today’s lesson: patterns, shadows and highlights

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It was a hectic week getting back into the swing of life, what with work, unpacking, stocking up the fridge and all, but I managed to get to painting class all the same.

Driving in I noticed the fall leaves are still so gorgeous and I think lend themselves to watercolor painting, but unfortunately, I’d brought images of Florida to paint instead. I am tempted to bring my acrylic supplies but just didn’t have my act together enough, so…

The top painting is based on a photo I took while visiting a medieval village in Austria. Hazel tried to help me get the angles and perspective right and showed me how the pattern of the sky against the rooftops was what would draw peoples interest.

I’m afraid I really botched it up when I went home and used a heavier than appropriate black marker to outline things on it. Darn! Mediocre at best.

The image below that also deals with sky and just when it looked like it was a complete failure, Hazel came by, took my paintbrush, and put some great highlight color onto the brick in the foreground to really make it jump out. And used blue to shade in the white beams. The whole painting is, again, mediocre, since I think the colors – excuse me, the VALUES – are way too dark in most of it, but it was a great lesson in applying little changes to bring things to life. And if I did anything good, it was the original brickwork. For the mortar, I basically scrubbed the paint out with a fine brush and water.