Hawk WIP3 and Halloween Photos

Happy Monday! I am not at all a fan of this turning the clocks back thing but I'm trying really hard to be a big girl about it. Having said that, only four months to go before Spring Forward happens and I rejoice again! Let the countdown begin!

I worked on the hawk a little more over the weekend and here's how the painting stands this morning.

I also have to share that I got myself one of the Princeton Catalyst Blades and one of the Wedges! I like the blade very much and haven't tried the wedge yet but how can I not love it! I opted for shape #1 (gray) for each since they have two different sized edges which I figure would offer more flexiblity. They work well for painting but I've also been using the blade as a palette knife to mix paint.

My family visited a couple weeks ago and we went to the pumpkin patch then carved pumpkins. We had a great time and I saw white pumpkins for the first time! I had no idea pumpkins could have albinism!

The Stalking Shadow.

Squash Stand

Raindrops on Pumpkins

One of many photos I took while we were lost in the corn maze

Margaritas and pumpkin carving!

The Morning After

The puppies all dressed up for halloween!

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Hawk WIP 2

I've been doing portrait work for the holidays and since that stuff can't be shared until after gifts are given, I thought I'd share a photo of the hawk. I haven't had a chance to work on him a lot but I did make a little bit of progress on the background and his head. Notice the big splotch of paint above his left leg where it seems I was doing a bit of sponge painting with my sleeve—oops! There's lot left to do yet but here he is!

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White Horse WIP

The last of the under-paintings which I started this week is this white horse. I had hoped to get another horse started as well but I have company coming and I've run out of time. Here's a very poor photo taken in low-light with my phone.

I planted some lettuce in containers on the deck a few weeks back and something kept digging in the pots. I finally decided to move them up to the area directly outside the french doors in the family room where I was hoping the dogs would keep the animals at bay. Well...not so much...

Brave little guy getting a drink with a foot in one of the pots of lettuce sprouts.
The dogs were completely unaware on the other side of the window. Hmmmm...

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Hawk WIP

Yesterday morning while i was peacefully eating my breakfast and getting ready to start my day there was a big BOOM and the street went dark! With the computer out and no way to work I had a cleaning day! All of the normal cleaning was done so it was time for the nooks and crannies, those things you don't always do like baseboards, windows, etc. I made a list and started marking things off, at the bottom of my list, I had "PAINT"!

Here are some photos of the first two stages of a hawk I'm painting. A couple weeks ago I stumbled across a photo I'd taken of this guy and knew I just had to paint him! I had hoped to work on him some more yesterday but as luck would have it the power came back on right as I was about to head for the easel.

Hawk WIP—Sketch

Hawk WIP—Underpainting

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Baby Girl Underpainting

Here is the first of a few under-paintings which I did over the past few days and are drying right now.

This sweet little girl is calling me, I can't wait for the underpainting to dry so I can work on her some more! In the meantime I have three more masonite panels to gesso so I can get my other ideas sketched out and started.

I'm planning on going to Dick Blick to pick up some clay later this week. I have had the urge to dig my hands into clay lately and I have a few ideas I'd like to try out! I wasn't sure about it at first as I don't have, or know anyone else who does have, a kiln. I thought about going the Sculpey route but clay is so much less expensive that it just doesn't make sense to get Sculpey unless I was only doing one or two small items. It turns out that there are places around which allow you to rent a shelf of a kiln so that's what I'm going to do! Crossing my fingers that I can remember enough about clay from high school and college that my items don't explode!

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Riley Staring Off into the Wild Blue Yonder - Final

About a year and a half ago I did a sketch of my Riley (here) and turned started working on a painted version (here). I finally pulled it back out last week and finished it up. Here's the final scan:

Riley, Summoning the World

10x8

Oil on Canvas Panel

Sumi - Work in Progress 3

Of all of the paintings I've photographed the WIPs for this I'm having the absolute worst time with this one and the one of Abby, in all of the stages. I take several shots and they all come out a bit blurry with intense hot spots and reflections. Hopefully the final scan will be better. In the mean time, here's another shiny shot of Sumi.

Jigsaw - Work in Progress 2-4

Above are are some more stages of the painting of Jigsaw. OK...so I did this backwards. I know you're supposed to paint the background first but sometimes I just can't help myself and I jump right into the foreground subject matter before I realize what I've done. Sometimes you just don't have any control over these things ;).

Duke - Work in Progress 2

I currently have 6 paintings in the works and that's working out quite nicely. It's allowing me to paint a stage of each while allowing some drying time for the rest.

Abby - Work in Progress 3

This photo is kinda fuzzy but here's the third WIP posting for Abby.

Kiti - Work in Progress 2

The second stage of Kiti.

Sumi - Work in Progress 2

I'm back home from the holidays and back to painting! Here's the next stage of Sumi. I've also been day dreaming about the upcoming spring and doing some plein air painting. I've never really done it before unless you count the couple of times in high school and college classes but I've been feeling a pull to try it lately. So, my new obsession is checking out pochade boxes. I currently have a French Easel which I love for around the house but is quite heavy and cumbersome to take out and about. I may try it a bit with my current easel just to see if I like it first though...in the mean time I'm sure I'll be hanging out quite a bit on http://www.guerrillapainter.com! :)

Hollister Final

Hollister

12x12

Oil on Wood Panel

Here is the finished painting of Hollister. I was so excited when I received his photo, I couldn't wait to paint this guy! He has such fun hair! I really worked the texture on this one and am pleased with how he turned out.

Detail of nose.

Here's a shot of the painting hanging on the wall. This is painted on a self hanging wood panel and I've painted the edges with black acrylic paint.

Certificate of Authenticity on the back of the painting.

Hollister - Work in Progress 1

Hollister, Ogden's brother, is an adorable golden doodle who looks like he must have loads of personality! This is the under painting stage of his portrait.

Ogden - Final

Ogden

12x12

Oil on Wood Panel

Here's a completed portrait I did of a lovely golden retriever.

Detail of nose and mouth.

Ogden - Work in Progress 3

The crazy colorful stage. This will get toned down, I just wanted to get a base of colors down.

Ogden - Work in Progress 2

This is a pretty bad photo but here's the next step of the painting of Ogden.

Ogden - Work in Progress 1

The initial sketch of a golden retriever named Ogden.

Duke - Work in Progress 1

Here's yet another sketch for a painting. This is Duke, a great dane, he and his brother Jigsaw are very big guys whom I'm going to have lots of fun painting!

Jigsaw - Work in Progress 1

Pencil sketch for a portrait of a great dane named Jigsaw. What a great name!