Watercolor Painting WIP Bird on a Wire

Well, Thought I'd do another WIP, as I find these to be so much fun,and a learning experience

for myself as well.

Here is the beginning sketches of a quilt hanging from a clothesline with a bird, not sure yet, but I'll probably add another bird, as I hate to see one so cozy all alone, but for now there's one. :)

I first drew all of my pathes out, then came in with mixture of alizarin, blue and ochre for my first was for the lightest of shadows in the quilt, let that dry and then where the shadows are deeper I added another layer, a little bit darker. More to come tomorrow. Wel, since this is for my mother and she loves her cardinals, I decided to make the birds cardinals also because of their lovely red. and eliminated the other bird on the right. I masked in the white of the bandana patches, and started with all the different designs, adding hints of more shadow where I felt it wasn't dark enough. To tone down the blues so theyre not so vibrant, I added hints of alizarian and french ultramarine. I think next week I'll begin my birds before I go any further on the quilt, If I screw up the birds, I'll have done all that patchwork for nothing.. Whew, thank goodness I'm not sewing this. :) LOL

Sunday - November 19th, well I did a little more painting of the patches today, still researching the type of birds and what they look like before I paint them in, I found out you normally will only see a cardinal by itself, as they look out for their mates, as one eats. More next week. :)

Watercolor WIP Work In Progress

Well, I finished an ACEO size of this painting, now I'm going to start a new one, sixe 12x14 with different colors but same still life objects. The title to this painting "Time Flies" I wanted to express how quickly our children grow up, how quickly our lives become a passing in the night, and how important every minute of every day spent with your children is so important. I can remember when my boys were just babies and now they're toddlers, It seems like yesterday I was putting these little booties on their tiny feet, and swaddling them in my arms with this blanket and feeding them their 3:00 a.m. bottle of milk. This is a tribute to them and to remind others "Don't miss a minute of your childrens life, and take that extra second to tell the people in your life that you love them".

Okay, for the painting, First I start out with my basic sketch and outline my areas with frisket that I want to stay as a PURE white, let that dry, and then I lay in pigments where my shadows are with dioxine violet, alizarian, and new gamboge.

Then I start to lay in some basic colors of each square quilt with peonypink, and a touch of burnt sienna, and cobalt on the quares. Then I begin to build up color in the bottle with light washes of cobalt, paynes grey, and peonypink.

As I tend to have an ADD problem, and my patience for the "outcome" to be done quickly, I go ahead of myself sometimes, and start to fill in details, too soon, so I can get excited about the painting before my boredom sets in with all the steps it takes in watercolor. So here as you can see I started some of the detail before I probably should have. Nonetheless, the next correct steps would be to fill in the lines on the patches, using the cobalt blue and peonypinks again. I also put another layer of gamboge hue on the booties, to create an antiqued fade, also as we know, nothing is pure white, a layer on the top of the clock glass as well, and adding another layer of paynes grey to the left side of the clock as it is being shadowed by the lip. Also adding some reflective colors onto the metal of the clock near the pink patch. and then coming in with darker hues of paynes grey for outline of the metals, making sure to leave some whats for the reflections of light on the metal.

For the bottle I thoroughly wet the underside with clear water, then coming in wet on dry at the top where the shadow is with indigo and alizarin, and pulled it down for gradation of color. The nipple on the bottle is fun to do, as I love the old yellow look of that rubber, plus its a little difficult to keep it "soft". I used a mixture of yellow ochre, and burnt sienna. Also, used this mixture for a golden metal on the screw of the clock, then finishing the clock with paynes grey and indigo. For the letters and indicators I used lamp black, which may have been a mistake, a little too dark. More commenting later. Thanks for Visiting.