I spent the last two days painting the heron sculpture drawing. Most of it was finished yesterday but I wanted to wait overnight to add in the darkest parts. When I first started I thought I would add magenta to the teal/turquoise blue. I thought I would just leave the white paper as highlights, but after a few small strokes the purple didn’t do quite what I wanted so I stopped at that point. Later it came to me that yellow ocher might be better as a highlight . I played around with it and the teal and when I felt I had reached a stopping point, I decided to reconsider what to use for the darkest areas.
I liked the way the color had developed but it still definitely needed depth. I debated long and hard with myself how I wanted to do it. I had a thought of using a spatter technique as a mimic of the sculpture’s finish but I would have had to frisquet off all of the background before I could do that. I was also concerned if I could lay it well enough to emphasize the areas I wanted to, but not overlay in others. I ended up using a dark sepia and am fairly well satisfied with it.
Mar 10, 2013 @ 21:17:35
Really cool! Somewhere between statue and real bird. I love those colors and shadows. The yellow ochre was a great choice!
Mar 10, 2013 @ 21:40:56
Thanks, Cindy. It has been a while since I painted from a real object and not a photo. It is a good thing to do even if it is just once in a while. The mindset is quite different.
Mar 19, 2013 @ 11:58:13
I think this is my favorite of your animal studies in ink and watercolor, to date. Beautiful. You captured the grace of the herons, here, Ruth.
Mar 19, 2013 @ 16:29:48
It is one of my favorites too. Maybe it has more life because I did it from the sculpture instead of a photo. Something to think about.