Finished fish!

Unfinished fish

whale

Fiction was invented the day Jonas arrived home and told his wife that he was three days late because he had been swallowed by a whale.
--Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Haven't touched a brush for two months and it shows. Good thing no one really reads this blog.

Owl eyes

I feel like this may be my last post for a little while. I hope you enjoy it. Comments are always welcome and appreciated, even if you hate it.

Brown fish owl

I was attracted to the photo of the brown fish owl in Owls by Marianne Taylor because it looked different than other owls normally pictured. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to retain that quality in this painting, since the body is less narrow and more squat than it should be. What sort of repulsed me about the photo was that the lines on the body looked like little worms. Fortunately, I don't have extraordinary powers of realism with watercolor.

I probably could have put more time into layering the feathers but having already invested more time than usual, I was just eager to finish.

On a side note, I think the term "talent" is often thrown around too loosely. For instance, I have no illusions of grandeur that I'm an amazing artist; talented or just normal, I am grateful that when needed, breathing life into a work of art can be a safe place to pour your emotions and yourself.

blackness

bird sits in a tree
stillness blends into night
silence fades away

Owl, undone

I just can't seem to put a body on this.

Bird in the night

Birds singing in the dark- Rainy dawn. -Kerouac

Puffin

Cardinal

bluebird

I saw some birds flitting from tree to tree this morning--another reminder that spring is coming.

A Quiet obsession

Check out Susan Cain's newest blog post on Michael Schiller's Social Introverts Facebook Fan Page. "All they may need in order to find their own peace and healing is to understand that being an introvert is not supposed to hurt, and that it is possible to be both quiet and powerful."

Not boring, not different in a negative way, not aloof or unfriendly -- OK as is. http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com/

blue whale

"All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick."

2 frogs

I found this image from the Nature Conservancy. I wanted the frogs to stand out more in color and detail than the flower (and the tip of the flower ended up looking like something unintended, so it needed to be cropped out). I put a light wash behind the frogs.

sean

My first foray into people

More owls

(The black and white was just done using iPhoto editing.)

Washes

I did my first background washes, brushing the paint and water mixture inward, especially helpful for pieces that don't have colorful focus points. The crane was more an experiment, as the bird sort of disappears within the background.

Filling with a crane

This is the largest watercolor that I have done (9"x14") and it was not without much self-doubt. The top one is the work-in-progress. One thing I like is how the watermarks make the crane look like it's glistening.

This is the more finished piece, though perhaps you might want more detail in the feathers and bolder colors.

Flower and barn owl #2

Like many creative (and life) pursuits, it is interesting that you can look at something and think of all the things you want to change or could have done better.

Fat brush

I understand what Eleanor meant by the fact that different brushes and paper will offer different comfort levels. I used her fat brush, which retained a lot of water, and it greatly watered down the color.

In the pot, I didn't leave a dividing white space between the pot and the plate and the colors ran together. In the pot with flowers, the colors weren't very vibrant. The green, in particular, felt too bright and harsh. It also felt like there should be more detail. So I left these unfinished and was working on drawing a bird for my next piece and chinese brush painting. Eleanor said both pieces looked good and that the flowers should not be all painted in.

Confidence is such a fragile thing. Maybe these were just the conclusion to a hard day.