Sometimes when my plans on painting an item just don't work the way I thought, one of my ways to deal with it is to chenge the medium, for example from paintbrush to pencil or simply changing the paper. Last week I had some of these "experiences" and it's hard not to get frustrated. *LOL* Still learning, so that's part of it, right?
First there is this watercolor postcard of a Blue Tit. I bought two varieties of these postcards, one made from coarse grain paper and one from smooth grain. I already painted some motifs on the coarse grain, but was't sure, if I like how the color adds up in the "valleys". But it definitely adds something to this little painting.
Then I tried the same bird with colored pencils on rather cheap paper. Tried my best to bring out details and a feather-like structure.
Then a Long-tailed Tit, with colored pencils on watercolor paper (erm, yes, one of the blue tit attempts already made his way to the bin, because I never learn to use paper for what it was made *LOL*). But this time it worked, but you can't add to many layers to this paper with pencils or the paper gets damaged.
Then the same bird with watercolors on watercolor paper. I'm always fascinated, how tiny changes in the angles of the head of the shape of the eyemakes the whole bird look different.
And here's the watercolor Great Tit, whcih almost made it to the bin, too. This soooooooooo doesn't look like a great tit! The eye, the beak. Arrrrgh! I had such a nice reference photo of a very friendly gentlemen on Twitter and nope, just didn't work.
I tried some days later again with colored pencils and different paper and it looks much more like a Great Tit.
So far there are eleven garden birds in my collection. I'm happy with most of then and not so happy with a few others. And there will be definitely more.
And last but not least (if you read until here on my long post), there is the finished Small Tortoiseshell in colored pencils. A very nice lady on Twitter gave me helpful tips and I really like how it turned out.. Butterfly wings are really nice to practice shading and layering colors with pencils.
The gigs are all beautifully made, well done! The butterfly is fabulous, too. Happy PPF, Valerie
AntwortenLöschenFabulous bird paintings. I have to say I don't use cheap paper now as the results usually annoy me, especially if you are painting on a small scale.
AntwortenLöschenThat's true, Wendy! In this case it worked, but I'm slowly building my stash for art paper, but can't buy too much right now.
LöschenO sind die süss die Vögel, das schwarz weiss ist besonders aber ich will keins schöner und besser gezeichnet sagen von dir weil alle sind kunstvolle Bilder und mit dem Schmetterling.
AntwortenLöschenHappy PPF, Elke
Lovely work!
AntwortenLöschenI think you are being too hard on yourself. your pieces are lovely and it's all a learning curve. hugs
AntwortenLöschenYou are just an amazing artist.
AntwortenLöschenThese are all so finely detailed and just beautiful renditions of these birds! I couldn't do this on the proper paper with the proper tools let alone the experimentation you're doing. Well done!
AntwortenLöschenThey are all lovely. I think the first blue tit is my fave.
AntwortenLöschenHow lovely! And it's amazing how you can paint exactly similar birds.
AntwortenLöschenI love your watercolours Kokopelli, but the coloured pencils pieces do it for me for sure. They are beautifully done! And I know what you mean about frustration...many of my charcoal portraits look clownish at times and I try to at least salvage the paper, but lots of them end up in the bin too! :)
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