How I Paint

Just for fun, I thought I'd show the painting process for this painting:

This is a painting I did for a friend and it measures 22in X 30in and is done in watercolors (my favorite medium).
So first, I started by sketching it out and then masking of the birds and the branch with watercolor masking. This lets me paint the background without fear of getting paint on the foreground.

You can just barely see the birds masked off. The paper is also taped down to keep it from warping too much (which paper likes to do when wet from say . . .watercolors).
Next, I did my first wash of color:

Very light and basically just doing some color blocking and deciding what colors I wanted to use.
Second wash:

A little darker now, more brilliant colors used.
Third wash:

I actually did another wash after this and forgot to take a picture of it. Oh well! I let it dry completely and then removed the masking. Next came painting the birds, again, done in washes.

This is after 2 washes. You can start to see some details.

After another 2 washes. Time to paint the branch!

The finished painting again - did 2 washes for the branch and touched up the sparrows. I hope my friend likes it!

Sparrow Speed Paint

A 20 minute digital speed paint of a house sparrow. Part of A Study in Sparrows.

New Sparrow Painting

My friend asked for a sparrow painting as she apparently loves how I paint birds. This is her sparrow. The painting measures 6in X 6in, done in watercolors. He took less than an hour to complete. And she happens to love him! (though lets be honest, I hoped she didn't so I could keep it!)
Part of A Study in Sparrows.

House Sparrow

A male house sparrow painted with water colors! Part of A Study in Sparrows.

Coffee Sparrow

 I figured I'd show a WIP of a painting I did yesterday. I felt like painting using pretty much just coffee.
Yes, coffee.
And of course I painted a sparrow!!
So, here's a walk through. The finished painting is at the end.

The sketch. A little difficult to see, sorry. I start all my paintings with a pencil sketch.

 The first layer of coffee. Everything gets  a coffee wash.

 Darkening up the brown areas. This is around 5 washes of coffee.

 Another 10 or so washes of coffee, and adding the black watercolor.

More coffee, more black watercolor. Almost done!

The finished painting!! Painted exclusively with coffee and black watercolor! Yay!
Part of A Study in Sparrows.

Sparrows!

Newest photos I've added to A Study in Sparrows. These were taken at the Denver zoo by yours truly!

Happy New Year!

My sparrows would like to wish you a happy new year!!!

See that snow? That's the most snow we've had so far this year. It's quite pathetic.

Sparrow Speed Paint

Ahhhhhhh. It was so nice to take a week off from blogging.
So here - enjoy a male house sparrow.
Did this with paint tool SAI, about an hour.

Happy Thanksgiving

The sparrows in my backyard want you to have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Another Sparrow!

My third sparrow painting, and another contender as my new tattoo. Gaaaaaaa! I can't decide which one I like more!!!!

Watercolor!

BIRDS!!!!!

OMG I LOVE BIRDS!!!!

And I get tons of birds in my yard!!

We get red winged black birds, brewers black birds, house finches, house sparrows, and song sparrows!!! I wuvs them all - but especially the sparrows!!!

Sparrows are my favorite . . . .

New Artwork :)

Hooray for new artwork!!!

These are 2 concept paintings for my new tattoo. Which, obviously, will be a sparrow and cherry blossoms.

This one is colored pencils and ink.

And this one is watercolors, done in a style similar to a Chinese brush painting.

I actually LOVE them both!!!! I have another idea to try as well, but I'm not sure how I'll choose. Any preferences that you have?

Project 365 - My hubby and I rescued a sparrow!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. House sparrows are my favorite bird. EVER!!!

And we had the privilage of rescuing a male house sparrow! We kept him safe, fed him and gave him water, and kept him as stress free as we could. And he perked up and took off!!!

I wuvs him!!!!! For several hours he didn't look like he'd live. I'm so glad he did!

These pics are for Sept. 8, 9 and 10. And yep! That's me holding him!!

Project 365

ALMOST caught the shot without being blurry!

ART DUMP

This post is just what the title says - an art dump!!! Mainly my recent digital drawings.

Because gas masks are cool. This one took me around 8-10 hours, over a week.

Zan dog!!!! And a cupcake. Because I LOVE cupcakes!!

Sketch of a sparrow in flight. Sparrows are my favorite bird!!

I did this one after I found out that Amy had brain cancer. It's vent art.

Project 365

My latest digital art! A male house sparrow - my favorite bird and my main totem animal.

Done in Gimp, this took me 4 hours . . . .but well worth it! I'm very happy with how this turned out!