Final Owl for Anna

Wow, I can hardly believe it has been 2 months since I've posted anything. I've not heard any howls of protest at my lack of posting, so I'm not in trouble I suppose! :-)

Recall my rejected barn owl by Anna; I decided to do a more whimsical piece for her; it is an owl practicing ballet. I gave it to her this week and she said that she liked it, so that means it is a huge success.

I have promised myself to be more diligent ( i.e at least one per day) in doing some sketching/painting during the summer.

Here is the dancing owl:

PS: I was smart enough to do a quick preliminary sketch to show her before I started the final; she said it was OK but I needed to put more jewels on the tiara! 

Anna and the Owl

Recall from a previous post that I gave a "practice" rabbit I painted to Adrian when he asked if he could have it. I didn't want to leave Anna out and asked what she would like: "...an owl". [ at this point is where I went off the rails...]

I decided to do a simple barn owl; did one and didn't like it so I did another. I've posted photos of the painting at various stages. Then when she was over today, I asked her which one she liked best and would want me to put into the frame I had.

She furrowed her brow and stuck out her arms with each hand made into a fist. I had to get Adrian to translate: "she means none of them". I asked her what she didn't like about the painting "..I don't want so much white, I want brown".

I then did what I should have done at the start: we sat with a bird book to look at the section on owls, and it turns out she would like a great horned owl.

I respect Anna for sticking to her guns and wish I had been sensitive enough to ask her at the start what she wanted.

So, it is literally back to the drawing board - stay tuned for Owl #3!

 Above is the initial pencil sketch [darkened so I can trace onto watercolour paper].

I apologize for the shadows on these, but rather than putting damp paper into the scanner, I stood and photographed these; shadow is from my desk lamp.

Last Painting Class in Canmore

Today was my last class in Canmore; each time I learn something and also learn how much more I need to learn!

Here are the results from last 4 classes ( 2 classes per painting).

At the end of each class we all put up our paintings on a wall and stand back...if you stand far enough back they don't look too bad. Unfortunately, scanning them is like putting your eyeball on the painting... so give me a break and stand up and back away from your monitor...trust me - they will look better!

Now I need to find an owl to paint for Anna to go along with the rabbit for Adrian.

Accidental "art"?

I have been trying to put in as much time as I can on exercises,etc recognizing that I'm not going to get any better by reading about painting!

On of the exercises I did was a rabbit in a field using "non traditional" colours; most(all) are just that, exercises. However the other day Adrian was over and we were in my office looking at some lego stuff and he saw the rabbit. He said it was good and could he have it?

I was going to re-do it - since it was a quick exercise there are many areas for improvement; but Robin pointed out that it was this one that he liked.

Now I need to plan to do something similar for Anna... perhaps an owl?