Flamingo Grooming

Flamingo Grooming 6 (1/2)" x 4 watercolor on paper

I'm in love with how flamingos move their necks especially while grooming. My process with these watercolors is that I do a few sketches of gestures while observing, then I paint the silhouette of the gesture with masking fluid. After that I do the background, wait for it to dry, then I paint the flamingo based on my notes. I also like to look out and blur my eyes so I'm getting the color generally right.

Flamingos in the Sun

Flamingos in the Sun 4 (3/4)" x 7 (3/4)" watercolor on paper

In this study I was looking at what was happening with the colors when my eyes were blurred. I wanted to know what was happening generally throughout the scene, what it was saying as a whole rather than looking at tiny nuances and details. 

Chilean Flamingos

Chilean Flamingos 7 (3/4)" x 4 (3/4)" watercolor on paper

Did you know that flamingos are born white? They're pink from shrimp and apparently there's green and blue ones too! I've been working at the Woodland Park Zoo as a photographer/caricature artist. On my lunch breaks I go to the Chilean Flamingos, there's also swans and ducks in there too.

Study: Pears

Study: Pears (8" x 11") graphite on white paper

Been drawing pears, it's amazing how each one is so different from the next. It's neat how the smaller shape on the top of the pear overlaps into the bigger shape below. I am pretty rough with the paper, I mostly use 4H and then I dive into a 4B.

Window At Noon

Window At Noon (6" x 5")
oil paint with walnut oil on Oil Arches Paper

So this is my favorite that I've done lately, I'm so bedazzled by that bright, ambient green that pours in at noon. I keep thinking- gesture, gesture, gesture! I want the essential, only the necessary marks.

Four Pears

Four Pears (5" x 6")
oil paint with walnut oil on Oil Arches Paper
This painting has a deckle edge as well, I'm likin' it. I found these pears on the window sill this way, goes to show you sometimes still lifes' set up themselves! Looking out the window was one of my assignments for my drawing students, basically you know that the interior will always have your darkest darks and lightest lights. You can enforce that there is a window there by keeping the scene in the background low contrast in value.

Dusk

Dusk (6.5" x 5" on 7" x 6" paper)
oil paint with walnut oil on Oil Arches Paper

This is my view of my front window when I'm standing in the kitchen, I'm always seeing the light do crazy things to the bush out front. One minute it will be in shadow and then another it's lit up like a roman candle. The luminous green just pours out of that window, so bright compared to the interior. Also this arches paper is fabulous. I'm becoming attached to the wavy edges and I just looked it up, it's called a deckle edge in printmaking, I knew it was called something! I'll also put an image of the entire paper, this is just an image of it cropped in the composition I intended.