Hummingbird At Feeder -- Oil Painting

Well, I finally finished my project last week at class; but before I discuss it I want to give a very big thank you to    MARK BURNELL
who very graciously gave me permission to use one of his photos for the basis of my painting.  Just click on Marks name to head on over to his site and have a look at his great photos.

This is the photo that I used of Marks.

I also hope that if / when you want to use someones photo or any other material for a painting or any other reason, that you DO ask for permission from the owner of the material, not only is it polite, it is a copyright infringement if you don't, or that is my understanding anyway.

Now about the painting.

This was a new technique for me to try and it went like this.  The base or "canvas" is of wood rather than canvas, it has 3 cm. (approx. 1 inch) deep edges which are also painted and is 50 X 60 cm. ( approx. 20 x 24 inches) in size.  It basically looks like a gallery wrap canvas.  It was then painted with a mixture of white Vinyl Acrylic paint and Resistol 2000 white glue, (a 50 - 50 mix more or less), then Aluminium foil was placed onto it, crinkling it a bit as we applied it.  On top of this I painted the picture in Oils.
It was an interesting technique and one that I will probably use again, as I like the effect.

Here is the finished painting.  As always clicking on the photo will bring it up full size.

The class I am in just barely finished our paintings before the Festival de las Calacas and the paintings went straight from the Casa de la Cultura to the exhibition at the Plaza de las Pistolas.  After the exhibition ended, the staff from the Casa de la Cultura transported them back and I finally brought it home after class on Tuesday.
I estimate that I spent between 30 and 40 hours working on this painting from start to finish.

I am fairly pleased with the result; although I do see all the mistakes that I made when I look at it, I suppose that it is normal to be your own toughest critic.

Update On Spaz

Well, after about another 15 hours of work, here is an update on Spaz the cat.  She is almost done, just a few finishing touches.  She still needs her whiskers and little touches here and there; but I am setting her aside for a few days.  I like to do this and then I can come back to it with fresh eyes.

Let me know what you think of her.

W I P - (Work In Progress)-- Spaz

I have started another Pastel painting and yes, it is another cat lol.  Do you see a trend here??

This one is my daughter in laws cat Spaz.  Spaz owned my daughter in law for around 19 years and as Spaz passed away this summer I am doing a picture of him as a gift for her.  She misses him a lot.

The picture I have is not the greatest for the eyes, so I am kind of winging it there and for me that is tough.  I always have trouble with the eyes, so winging it with them is not something that I am enjoying; but it is coming along.

I have probably worked on this for about 10 to 15 hrs. now and have probably that much time to go yet before it is finished.

Here is the picture of Spaz that I am working from:  As you can see the eyes are a problem and the back shadow doesn't help either..

Here is the beginning of my painting:

Lots of work and adjustments to do yet; but have a start on it anyway.

Chad Finished-- For Sure This Time

Well, I waited for a week or so and finally got up the nerve to take the pastel painting of Chad to class and show it to my teacher for his suggestions.

He suggested I lighten the background a bit more if I wanted Chad to pop out more, he also suggested that I darken some areas that I had already thought were too dark.

I brought it home and Roy resisted any changes as he liked it the way it was.  I was of two minds.  I did lighten the background and do like that better as he does seem to jump out of the page more.  I also added his whiskers which I hadn't wanted to do before I decided I was done with him.
I also darkened the areas the teacher suggested and to be honest I am not really happy with it.  I took off some of it and decided to hit the finish button in my head and be done with him.  He is after all, just for practice, so he is not perfect; but then neither am I.

Here is the now finished and sprayed Chad.  Which do you prefer?  This one or the one in the post below?

Back To The Animals

I was working on a Pastel picture of a cat before I headed to Canada and finally finished it yesterday, or maybe I finished it.  I will look at it for a few days and then decide whether it is done for sure or not.


Here is my finished ?? Pastel Painting of him.

As always I am open to any constructive comments/criticism so feel free to let me know your thoughts.

Painting In Progress Post

I have kind of been missing around this blog this month.  I have been busy going to class 4 days a week and not really accomplishing much at home either, just being lazy I guess.
Yesterday I brought home the oil painting of the Bird of Paradise flower that I have been working on in class.  I still have class today; but wanted to bring the painting home while it was kind of dry to the touch so I didn't work on it yesterday.  I took a pastel of a cat that I have been working on at home and meant to work on that; but when I arrived everyone was sitting around the table and visiting and having snacks for the end of class "party".  We snacked and chatted and I discussed my ideas for the September class with the teacher.  He had suggested that a couple of us that have now taken both his classes start working on some new to us techniques.  One he suggested was using aluminium foil,  another lady and I liked the idea of trying this so I showed the teacher some pictures I was thinking of using for this technique and he approved one of them.  So I will be trying to paint a unique flower with oil in this technique come September.  Should be interesting.
I will continue working on the oil of the Bird of Paradise painting at home and hopefully sometime this century will finish it.  Can anyone say "Toooooo many leaves"????   Some of the leaves have a base coat and 2 or 3 other green colour coats on them now and none of them are done yet.  I haven't even begun to work on the bloom part as I wanted to get all the leaves done first.
Here is the progress so far.  Comments and critiques welcome as always.

I seem to have a problem with my books eating my bookmarks or something.  They just seem to disappear into space somewhere, kind of like the clothes dryer eating 1 of each pair of your socks, not that I have this problem anymore as #1 I don't have a clothes dryer here and #2 I rarely wear socks anymore.  I guess the gods have now realized this and have moved on to my bookmarks.  I can never seem to find one so last night I decided to make a bright coloured one that maybe?? I will be able to find easier when it goes missing.  It is definitely not a work of art; but should be find-able or so I hope.  If not I can just make another and another and another.

 

Diegos' Birthday Present Framed

I finally remembered to take a picture of the Pastel Painting that I did for young Diegos birthday which is coming up in August.  I know it is early; but I also know that with the summer session class I am going to be taking, starting today that I might not be doing too much stuff at home.  The class is 4 days a week so it will keep me busy.
I got the same frame and mat colour as the one for baby Santiago just in case the mom wants to hang them both in the same room, then they will match.
I am tired of doing different fishing scenes with this bear as this is now the third one.  That is it, no more.
Click on the picture to enlarge it.