Finnished Tiger

Today I let my painting just sit as I did some house work- - - each time I walked by, I thought of ways to finnish it.   How to put in the whiskers, and how many?  How detailed did I want the background?   Which pastles wouid work?  I used my red plastic to look thru and judge the values, tricky as most of this cat in in the orange- - -red family of colors, but it did help.  I also have a blue one, so going back and forth seemed to help.     I do think the values are OK- - - but maybe will try other things next time I do a face up close.  This is where I stopped.

My Tiger exercise!

If you remember, in December, about the 7th I guess, I posted a drawing of a tiger that I wanted to try.  I got the reference photo from WC, thanks, and I know I will never actually see a tiger.  I do see Mountain lions and bobcats, so I will have to learn to get their pictures !   I bet that's hard!   First I did an enlarged drawing in pencil to get it the size I needed, and also to understand the values- - -  and value pattern.  This tiger is lying quietly on the forest floor, sorta dreaming- - - that's what drew me to it.  I love to sit in sunlite and dream!   Anyhow, I used a grey-green suede mat board, and one thing I want to say about that surface is there is definitely less to no dust!   Great, as I was indoors.

This is the first shot I took with my camera.  First, I traced my drawing onto tracing paper----then using the white saral paper, I traced the tracing onto the suede mat board.   Then I re-drew most of it with black pastel and also charcoal pencil.  When it seemed really close to the drawing, I began laying in the first color, trying to get most of that blocked in darker than it would be for the finish.

Now, this is where I am trying to get the base value's down, not the detail.  You see a lot of the green-grey color of the support here as I am still trying to get it all covered with something!This is where I stopped for that day.  After about 3 hours, and I felt I was'n't making good choices.  I was using my new set of Richeson's half sticks I bought for plein-air.  Boy, they are so soft, and very nice.  Also some Nupastel, and Sennelier.   Nupastel is priceless on this suede, it goes on as soft as anything.  Great for the finish, I think.  We'll see.

This is today's work.  Still have to think about how to bring in the background forest floor and leaves, with the sunlite going thru at an angle across his eyes.  There is no detail, or whiskers or eye hairs , and still working on his ears, too.  and nose.  Its interesting seeing it on the laptop screen- - - -  I can see sorta where its going.   Well, when I do more I will be back!!! I am also painting my son's house!!  I am as far as the bedroom and kitchen now, already have done the bath.    He is away for 2 months at the Pacific Coast Horseshoeing school in Plymouth, Ca.   And is loving every day of it!!  I am so glad - - - -getting a good shoer anymore is so hard.   I will have plenty for him to do when he gets home!   Still, I am glad his house is small!    Later folks!

Great way to start a New Year!

How else, but with a plein-air day!!   Carole from Dayton, Nevada drove out on one of her off fridays, and we had a ball.  The sun was shinning, and warm making taking photos great also.  We did both, and in our photo session it was neat to see how digital photography really picks up the colors in the snow--especially the colors in the shadows!     In the pm  we did our plein-air stuff, trying to recall all the infor about compostion we possibley could!  We stood on wood over the snow so cold feet woudln't be on our minds, and with the sun in the southern sky, moving rapidly it seemed, we had about 1 1/2 hours to catch the shadows on the mountain here behind the ranch.  To bad a big buck didn't step out at the right time!  We both used Uart paper,  9 x 12---Here is Carole working hard.

She is also standing on a bit of bathmat on her plywood.  It worked well, and she had a nice painting when finnished.   I posted both of ours on the W. C. website.  Here is my work for the day.

The foreground sagebrush doesn't show to well here, but it was not supposed to be as noticable anyhow--just wanted to say there were vareigated shades of green, purple and blue in that brush.    It was a fun day and can't wait to do more. 

Also wanted to say that my art is on a blog site called  http://www.dailypaintersofnevada.blogspot.com/   as well. I hope you have time to view works there, its a nice site to be on.

Finally!---Some new thoughts to post!

Happy New year all!    I finally have both the time and the thoughts to make a posting over.  With the rush of the Holidays , all the cooking and family and friends, weather and all those animals to care for, its almost impossible to find time even just to think!  I had begun a pastel, just before Christmas, in the planning stage and was searching for a way to paint it, when this webinar thing came available, so I spent a lot of time watching, listening and thinking over that. My painting just waited, then I went ahead and did a value drawing right on the board I planned to use.  Its a 8 ply-Matt board that is archival, I really like it, but this time I may have put too much grit on it in the preparation for pastel.  Still trying to find just the right tooth and feel. I do have marble dust as well, and for some things, its a bit better to use.  This one has almost pure pumice and PVA glue, very gritty!  I wanted to paint a lot fall , just before winter scene and found one right along the West Carson River on a very sunny day.  All the brush was bare, as were the young Cotton woods, the sky reflecting in the water, and sun hitting the rocks.   So, after getting the value drawing done with a #244 Nupastel, which is purple, then washing the darks in, I began just a little each night for several weeks!   Not how I wanted to do it, but with all the company---the cooking and work, well I do feel I learned a bit over this one!   But its not what I wanted, just an idea.

I feel that the Nupastel #244 must have a lot of black in it, as that is what mainly remains after washing over it --sometimes that's good, these trees do have that, but I may go over again with lighter colors on the bark.  I tried to get a reasonable amount of depth in this----all in all, it really makes me think---and I will try again one day.

Johannes Vloothuis webinar was both interesting, fun, and very informative.  'also, yesterday he did on his Justine TV account, a demo in Pastel that all of us could watch.  It was on at 12 noon our Mt. time, and folks from all over were watching.  Even Charlie(Colorix) off of WC, who lives in Sweden!  He had it fixed so we could also chat as we watched with one another which was a load of fun.  Although our thoughts should of been on his teachings!  I do feel we paid attention, tho.   His work was on Canson Mi Tientes, and a winter snow scene that finished well.    It was very interesting.  He wants to teach this way, his site http://www.cyberartlearning.com/ is the place to go for more information.  Also, Wetcanvas has a huge thread in the landscape forum thats is well worth checking out, about the webinar and his future plans for teaching.

So now I plan to start my tiger soon, do some plein-air and more drawing in the studio.    Happy New year to all,   and make your plans Happen!!!