April 23, 2010

Trusted Wings - pastel on Wallis (WIP)

"I Choose Flight" is the name of one of the paintings I am currently working on and that prompted me to review some of my earlier bird paintings. I thought I would share this one since I have a couple of photos of the piece in progress and I always enjoy seeing others' WIPs. This little bird was just outside my office window and I felt compelled to capture him on Wallis paper.



Using a turp wash for a smooth, gradiated surface in the background ended up as a nice touch though it takes a bit of nerve since there was no way for me to fix anything without completely redoing the entire background. I skated out of that one with a large brush and by holding my breath (whew).

I added more texture with the build-up of pastels as I added the foreground rocks (ala big bird).

I left the little baby bird whispy and soft so it felt, to me, like you could reach down and pick him up, ever-so-gently.

Well, back to the easel. Thanks for stopping by!

6 comments:

  1. Wow! No, really... WOW! This is spectacular! Thanks for showing us your progression. I'm totally blown away. You're right, you have captured the fragility of this young life perfectly. BTW,In case I hadn't mentioned it yet, WOW!

    -Don

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  2. Thanks for stopping by, Don, and for all the nice WOWs. They are going straight to my head ;).

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  3. What Don said. Looks like this bird is ready for it's first flight. Nice pastel. Feathery!

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  4. Thank you, Chris!I really enjoyed your White House in the Snow painitng and was hoping to see a painting of your home-schooled kitty :).

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  5. WOW, you are stunningly GOOD. what don said.over and over and over again. you are a gem i'm glad to have found. your work is beyond words! this is the most amazing painting of a bird i've ever seen!

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  6. Oh my, Suzanne. How do I even begin to thank you for that compliment? How very kind and special. *Thank you* so very much.

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