And I thought Hungarian partridge had a lot of feathers. Pheasants win. Not only are the patterns varied, but also the colors. One striking feature is the teal/blue on the ring-neck's head. Those iridescent colors are simply beautiful and fun to paint.
This is one of the paintings in which I didn't want to economize on detail.
Generally I start a painting with the background, move onto the eyes of my animal, the rest of their bodies, and finish with the foreground and all over touches. Since I started this painting at a show, I was forced to change my strategy. Knowing that painting the grasses first would leave me with no dry spot to rest my hand for painting the pheasants, I began with the birds.
It was a wise choice. Although I had a lot of stopping and starting in talking with customers and making sales (and forgetting what color I currently had on my brush), the constant breaks made painting the feathers more exciting and less tedious. I am not sure alone in my studio I would have had the same result. And, I think people enjoyed watching the progress more than if I had been working on some dull grasses.
Stay tuned for the next stage. (now back in my studio.)
No comments:
Post a Comment