Thursday, September 29, 2011

Snowy egret oil 24 x 18

This post is for Clive.It shows my painting "Snowy egret" in the ghastly early stage. I took a couple of attempts to place the egret and then blobbed in the waves.I love drawing with a paintbrush. I wanted to get the feel and movement of the waves.Crude, but effective.I also want to do a tonal build up. I feel more comfortable if have my tonal values sorted before I start building up the paint. I like to cover the board in the beginning and develop the painting as a whole. I hate it when a part of the painting gets left behind. I know artists who are happy to begin in one corner and finish it before moving to another section.... Whatever works I suppose, but It would drive me crazy. I like to use the same colours throughout the painting. All the light and colour in the bird are in the wave and sand. The bird is a reflective surface, and It's fun to paint the lovely golds and lilacs in the plumage.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

really interesting to see and read your processes matthew.i can understand your desire to get the dark's sorted out early on,i do the same with my graphite pieces as it helps to judge the tonality for the rest of the piece.needless to say the finished egret is yet another stunner.

john said...

Is it safe to assume that you let this foundational stage dry before you refine the details?
Your painting style is great.

From The Studio Floor said...

John,
not really,I like to get stuck in. I find the thin paint dries pretty quickly, but I don't worry too much. As long as you find the colours on the pallet and do not over blend on the painting itself,(which turns the painting into dull milk... yuk!) It's not too difficult to get stuck in wet on wet. By the time I get to the dragging, dybrush-scumbling stage, the painting has pretty much dried.

glad you like the painting.I know I paint a lot of egrets, but they are my favourite birds and very. popular

Rosa Litaria said...

wow .. very interesting to watch, I like that pict !