Board Meeting ~ WIP 1 (more chickens)

I've had this drawing completed for 4 days but have been waiting for my new brushes to arrive before starting to paint. I ordered 4 Silver Black Velvet brushes and I'm anxious to try them out. They are a Taklon synthetic/squirrel hair combination that I've been looking at for months. Jerry's Artarama is running a sale so I took the leap and ordered a med. Jumbo round, a #8 & #10 round and a 1/4" dagger striper. I do love my synthetic sables(great spring) but they have limitations and my one squirrel quill is wonderful but sometimes too soft for my needs. I'm hoping the Black Velvets will be the best of both worlds. I'll post my review after the painting is completed.

Rooster 2 ~ 'Middle Management'

SOLD

I painted this fella 3 days ago but it's been so gloomy I couldn't get a decent photo until today. Our sun came back along with much cooler weather. This back & forth with the temps is raising hob with my sinuses and my nose is running like a tapped tree but I know it won't last and summer will come soon.

I named my last rooster 'The CEO' and in keeping with the same theme I should call this one 'Middle Management'. It's not a position I would ever hope to hold. A slam sandwich between upper management and the hourly workers, it's maximum stress. I have a very dear friend that works in middle management and although this rooster doesn't resemble her in any way(thank God for her), if her stress level ever took form I think it would look something like this.

Btw, this particular rooster is a Polish Crested and I love the wild 'do' it's sporting. I didn't exaggerate it at all...honest!

Rooster 1 ~ 'The CEO'

Sorry again to be late in posting an update. I'm refurbing and downsizing my garden beds and with my lung issues it takes the wind out of my sails in more ways than one. I wanted to get back to the watercolors for awhile and found some wonderful chicken photos on Paint My Photo that needed to be painted. Always on the lookout for a new approach to a subject, I stumbled onto Jon Lovett's blog. He's an artist I admire very much and I was taken with a few chicken paintings he posted. He managed to capture the craziness, silliness and potential danger these lowly birds possess with a limited palette and wild, expressive brush strokes.

This rooster was painted from a photo submitted by Gary Jones from PMP. I think he looks like he could be a CEO of some Fortune 500 company. Regal and in charge on the outside, ready to draw blood should competition get in his way. Painted with a palette of Quin. Gold., Quin. red and French Ultramarine with white gouache and India ink.
 

Homemade Stencils

Often I've wished I had a particular stencil for a project but couldn't find exactly what was needed online. Also I knew I may only use it once or twice so why pay a hefty price? One of my friends is an avid scrapbooker and she suggested, "why not use cardstock and coat it with Mod Podge?" Why not indeed! She has a Cricut so she cut out various shapes for me to try. For this demo I cut my own. I used 90# cardstock and cut out my pattern with an Exacto knife. Then I coated both sides with one coat of mat Mod Podge, allowing the first side to dry completely on waxed paper before covering the opposite side. This makes the stencil fairly waterproof so it can be rinsed off after use. I tried out my dragonfly stencil with Speedball silkscreen ink and a roller first with so-so results. I washed off the Speedball ink and tried again with metallic fluid acrylic and a makeshift stencil brush with slightly better results. Note to self: make sure the stencil is completely dry before reuse so the paint doesn't run under the stencil.

Note: 2nd image down>Notice how clean the stencil is after being covered with black Speedball ink. I just rinsed it under running water and voila!

Faux Batik Sunflower 2

I chose to revisit Faux Batik Sunflower using a different palette of colors. Also I used walnut ink in place of India ink during the process. The walnut ink toned the entire piece of waxed paper and gave it an antiqued look which, of course I totally obliterated with my color choices. Next time I will work with the result and not against it.

Next post: I will show you how to make stencils with 90# cardstock and Mod Podge.
  

One More Ink Painting on Copper Leaf

I'm finding that Simple Leaf is very delicate and can scratch easily. The silver leaf goes down on Yupo like a mirror (without burnishing) and is slightly resistant to the inks. Even after I allowed the ink to dry for a full day I could wipe it off with a dry finger and a little rubbing. I had used Tim Holtz blending solution on the silver leaf and that seemed to compromise the adhesion to the Yupo. When it was lightly scratched the leaf came off with the ink. I tried several (6) coats of Krylon UV gloss varnish spray in hopes of eliminating the problem. It helped but wasn't a perfect solution. At this point, I believe the blending solution is the problem. It doesn't play well with Simple Leaf on Yupo. Things fared better on the copper leaf so I was able to produce one decent painting.


FYI, these paintings are miserable to scan or photograph. The purple is actually blue.