Bird Squares: Spring Birds

Update:

Much happier with some final touches, texture to the Finch painting. Also thinking the name should actually be Goldfinch. 

 What do you think?

Goldfinch
3.5" squared Water Soluble Oil on Canvas
©BEDeuel Bronson Hill Arts

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Bluebird3.5"x 3.5" Water Soluble Oils on Canvas
©BEDeuel Bronson Hill Arts 2014 

Three of 4 squares completed; one more to go. Maybe...

I'm not entirely happy with Finch: it just doesn't look complete. It needs more work. 

So, for now, we'll consider it 3 1/2 done, one and a half left to go!

Finch
3.5 x 3.5" Water Soluble Oils on Canvas
©BEDeuel Bronson Hill Arts 2014

Bird Squares Continued

Progress, so far:

Sketch on Paper Copy of Painted Background

Tracing the Sketch

Applying Charcoal to the Back of the Tracing

Transferred Sketches to the Canvases

The Painting!

One down; 3 to go!

Bird Squares Part II

It's been a few weeks of typical day-to-day busyness. As such there has not been much in the way of art production of late.

But here are the next steps in developing the Bird Squares:

Each square was traced and "sized" for the canvas-

Next, charcoal was applied to the back of the tracing-

Lastly, the image is traced directly to the canvasses-

Simple as an elementary school exercise, but effective in order to comfortably design such a small composition!

With some luck, I hope to have the chance to take them to the next level some time this week!

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This past week, I was fortunate enough to be able to contribute to a new blog, Paper, Paint, Pencils & Pens, hosted by Lynn Cohen. Check it out some time; it's a very diverse, themed collection of artwork, across the boards! 

There are quite a  lot of fun challenges and showcases out in Blogger Land. And there is a lot of work that goes into so many of them. Thank you to all of our wonderful hosts!

Poppies A-Startin'

While the beginning process for this painting is not as involved as the process needed for the Bird Squares, I thought it would still be fun to document the start of Poppies!

This is being done on an 8x8" stretched canvas so laying down a charcoal sketch is much easier than on 3x3" squares.

The first image is the base: a mix of titanium white and sap green water soluble oils, blended and criss-crossed for texture. 

The second photograph is the laying-in of the basic reds and greens of the poppies, stems and leaves, over the charcoal sketch. You can still see some "extra" lines under the paint.

Will be jumping between the Bird Squares and Poppies, between everything else, of course! Stay tuned!

Bird Squares

It's time to try a little something different!

Through the last couple of years, I've collected various sized canvases along the way. I've puzzled over what I could do with a package of 4-3" square canvases. After doing "Cece's Window", there was no longer any mystery.

I've started by painting a basic set of colors in a simple pattern for the background. But, I've been trying more pragmatic ways to design my compositions.

Background Paint

In this instance, I made a colored print of the squares and, then, sketched the birds. Once the background paint is dry enough to work over, I'll transfer the images to the actual canvases.

Sketched Birds on Print

The painting of the birds will be in a looser style, but I like having the images detailed enough with which to really work. For this small a canvas, willow charcoal would be fairly useless.

I'll keep posting the steps as I go along...

Keep growing and flying, my friends!