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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Kelly - Paintings 73 - 76

...this painting started as a mild-mannered watercolor. It was minding its own business and was behaving itself too, but it was a little boring, so I took pen & ink to it (outlining and stippling)...and then rubbed charcoal over it! As if that wasn't enough, I then scanned the painting and ran the file through a quick PhotoShop filter to come up with this "tough bird." It was the first time I ever ran a painting through a filter, and I kind of like it. (Since then I've used filters on photos and a set of collaged paintings to create some neat looks. I didn't count them as part of the 100 paintings challenge because they contained some collaged photographs.)

...again, I started with a normal watercolor, but this time while the paint was wet, I sprinkled in salt to create the mottled background...then outlined and stippled with ink...added a course rub with charcoal...and topped it off by running it through a PhotoShop filter. (If you want to try putting charcoal over a painting, use a rough watercolor paper that has a lot of tooth and go lightly.)

...an oil pastel over a quick watercolor painting (this is my favorite--I always love grungy oil pastels with lots of pigment). No practice sketch with this one.

...the first in the series. It started as a 2-minute watercolor, then I just scribbled over the top of it with colored pencil. I was just using this practice painting to figure out the colors of the bird and the patterns in the wings.

Last year at this time I was only on painting 42, so I'm doing much better pacing myself this time around!

2 comments:

liz Cutler said...

Wow. I am inspired to try oil pastels over watercolor. What type do you use? I have leftovers from kids but they do not have the vibrant color you have. I love seeing your variations. Thanks to you I look more carefully at birds, and see many more than before.
Nice work.

Kelly said...

...I started using Sennelier Oil Pastels this year. They are like butter compared to the old oil pastels I had from years ago. They are worth the investment!

Yeah!! Once you start watching birds, you'll get hooked. Spring migration is incredible for variation...