Three More

My latest efforts mostly drawn at home and painted at AVA sessions on Thursdays. 

'My he looks fierce' 16 x 12

'

I wasn't happy with my first attempt and tried a 'rescue'. It's partially worked but not 100% You can rescue watercolour failures but it's best to avoid having to do so!

'Manuelito' Principal Chief of the Navahos late 1800s 16 x 12

Manuelito was chief for quite a long period both during hostilities with the whites and well into the reservation phase. There are many photographs of him taken when a relatively young man and into later life.

'Makah Maiden' 1915 16 x 12 

The original photograph - another by Edward Curtis - is rather an overall dull grey and the resultant painting was similarly dull. As a rescue attempt I decided to introduce arbitrary colours. I had no idea what the original colours were. It's over the top as far as colour is concerned.

I have just switched from a windows type computer [after 20+ years] to an iMac. Fabulous machine but a steep learning curve that threatens the continuance of this blog. In particular I don't as yet know how to incorporate photos into posts using Picassa 3. If I cannot solve this...........

Tiger with cub.

Looking at Gerard Hendriks way with birds and animals and  his `painting a day' series, I was prompted to try something sort of similar myself. I've already had a shot at a few birds and expect to do more but in this instance came across a photograph that appealed so off I went. I aimed to produce a kind of snapshot.

Tiger with cub. Waterford 16" x 12" 140lb Not

I first made the drawing using a mechanical pencil  05 with 3B lead. I concentrated purely on the head and cub and only extended the body so far - a sort of vignette. Colours were primarily Quinacridone Gold (Daniel Smith PO49), Quinacridone Rust (Graham PO48) and also some Quinacridone Burnt Orange (Daniel Smith PO48). Although this latter is the same pigment as the Graham Q Rust it is darker and redder. There is also Cobalt Teal Blue (Daniel Smith PG50) and Ivory Black (Mamerii PBk11), There are slight touches of Raw Sienna and either Raw or Burnt Umber. Possibly some Cadmium Orange (Maimeri). The background is Cerulean.

I was rather pleased with the result but soon realised I had not quite got the head proportions right. The head is slightly too long in relation to the width. I did try and correct  but it only worked so far. My wife spotted it straight away but I felt that some aspects of the painting worked  well so what the heck!

 I  used the Da Vinci Artissimo 44 Size 2 Kolinsky for most of the painting and a smaller Isabey 6228 for the detail bits like the eyes. Afterwards I added some white gouache in a few places.