Updating the Progress Since the Last Post!

 The painting process varies from painting to painting - much depends upon the type of watercolor paper being used - and I used 3 different types of paper in the 15 drawings that I'd prepared.

The beginnings: the backgrounds for proposed paintings

It also depends upon the way I want the completed painting to be - super realistic, impressionistic, somewhat realistic, and more. And the techniques required for those choices vary in approach from very wet to very dry, depending upon the level of realism desired. 

As you can guess from the above photo, I usually prefer the wildlife to be quite realistic, perhaps with a bit of a flare on occasion. But I want the background to be just that - background! A vague background that compliments the bird or animal in color either with similar or opposing colors.

Here are a few images of works still in process - #2. Lynx and 5. Bobcat above. 

And here are a few completed: #1. Great Blue Heron

#3. Kingfisher and #4. Fox

And finally, the two loons #8. & 9: 

#8. Loon among the Rocks and #9. Loon in Grassy Water

And lastly, the finished smaller pieces on my studio wall prior to framing.

Hope you enjoyed seeing the process!

Back to Spring and Art!

Spring has finally arrived for more than a couple of hours and all is well at long last! While out and about, I've caught a few springtime photos to share with you. After this rather long, drawn out winter, spring is especially welcome everywhere!

The Chipping Sparrows and Bluebirds come by daily to my feeders and our lovely, little weeping cherry tree has bloomed in between the cold snaps.

The farmlands are greening up and the young animals are starting to appear. I wish my resident baby bunny didn't eat the tops off all the crocus and other spring bulbs, however, I wish him/her well!

And I'm painting again - my PT for the shoulder replacement has been completed. I still have some strength training to do to regain the abilities of heavier lifting and higher reaching, but all is well.

Today it was time to get to working on a portrait promised to The Memory Project that must be completed and mailed back in a week or two. The Memory Project is, to quote their website: "The Memory Project is a charitable nonprofit organization that invites art teachers and their students to create and donate portraits to youth around the world who have faced substantial challenges, such as violence, disasters, extreme poverty, neglect, and loss of parents."

So I have the photo of a delightful young Polish orphan boy, who I've been praying for ever since the packet arrived. We will never meet or correspond, but somehow I feel connected to this little boy. He will become a wonderful man, despite his sad early life, of that I am sure. Here are a couple of photos of the process. I cannot share his photo - for privacy reasons. But I can share the process!

If you are a teacher or a member of an art group, you might consider offering to paint a portrait of a child so that he or she might better see how he/she can be seen by others - full of hope and promise. Just click on the link about to learn more about The Memory Project.

Painting Bluebirds

Looking Up - Pat Dolan - watercolor - 7"x10" - 2018

Above: a couple of bluebird drawings awaiting the paint and brush...

Below: Chosen watercolors for the Bluebird paintings

Looking Up - early - before adding background and other details. Completed painting is at the top of post.

It's been nearly 3 months since I've done any watercolor paintings... thus I'm practicing doing a few small pieces just to get back into the swing of mixing paints, handling the various brushes, using lots of water, and yet adding enough detail to create a representative piece. These few paintings are nothing remarkable and are obviously practice pieces. But I'm happy to be back in the studio doing what I truly enjoy! I'm rusty today, but will get up to speed with more practice!

Above: three more drawing ready to go

Bluebird #1 - without background

Bluebird #1 - Pat Dolan - watercolor - 5.5"x8" - 2018

Painting Process for a Red-Bellied Woodpecker

I begin with a light pencil drawing directly on the canvas. I lay in a few colors, just to get a feel for the bird, the colors, the mood, and as a simple place to start.

Colors are added in layers - hoping to achieve the wide variety of feathers as they are affected by their colors and the lighting. Starting with the darker colors allows me to place lighter colors on the surface, overlapping the darker colors, as would occur in life.

It's time to add some detail so that I can better relate with the bird I'm working on. Adding the highlights in the eye and beginning to add some color to the beak, both of which enliven the woodpecker for me.

I work on gallery-wrapped canvas - and this requires that I paint around the edges in case the buyer does not wish to frame the completed piece. The woodpecker is on a young tree, so that required painting the top, middle, and bottom edges to some degree.

Or course, the bird itself must also be painted around the bottom edge of the canvas. I turn the painting on it's side so that the paint will dry without sticking to my easel and then running the risk of losing some paint to the easel!

It's time to add the bright reds - which really set this bird apart from others (as do the black and white wings, added later). Generally speaking, the colors are pretty intense when added - they can be easily muted and toned down or up to the proper degree as work progresses.

Here some of those reds are, indeed toned down a bit, giving more of a feathery appearance than just paint brush lines! Also, some lighter areas are added to the breast area as depth and dimension are beginning to appear.

Also, the eye is being developed at this stage, which helps me better related to the bird and create harmony between the feathers and the areas that stand out like the beak, the eyes, and the bright red on the back of his head.

More muting of the reds, softening of the feathered strokes.

Now it's time to begin detailing the wings, which I've totally ignored until this point. Looking at it tonight, I realize that the wing on the left side by the tree seems to protrude too much away from the bird's body. It also appears to be too high on that side, making the bird look off balance, to say the least.

That's work for tomorrow. It's always good to have time to get away from a work in progress so that when coming back to it, the awkward parts stick out, the colors that don't work appear off key, and it's time to rework whatever needs to be done to create a solid piece of art work.


And a bonus photo! The porch is just outside my studio door and I can hear when the flocks of birds arrive. At this time of year, our year-round Bluebirds come for meal worms and a variety of finches come for thistle seed.

It snowed last night, so the birds were on our porch this morning for food. Here is a Bluebird with a dried meal worm in his beak taken from the feeder.