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Right now am thinking that I have taken on more than I can deliver with this bird.  I just don't have a clue right now how to do the feather work.  Am trying a couple of things but am getting no where fast and not having it turn out at all what I want or what the reference shows.  Right now I wish I was working in a non-transparent media where I could just lay it in and then put opaque on top, but unfortunately I am not.  Know there has to be a way.  I am having to layer in dark underneath and then come back with white gel pen and put in the feather work and then layer with color pencil and highlight with a bit of pastel.  Think it is time to go watch the games and/or sit on the porch and think about how to possibly make this happen.  Definitely not giving up yet, but just stumped. Hope all had a wonderful Easter Sunday and hope that you have a great week to come. Paint well and joyfully all.  Thanks for stopping by.

While it may not look like a lot of progress here is today's work.  Trying to figure out how to do the darned feathers.   White on white is a challenge and also the delicate feather work on the beak area has given me fits.  Made a lot of small adjustments too to try to get the right look and am sure that I will need to do a lot more as I go along.  More tomorrow I think, but was optimistic to think I would get this completed by tomorrow.  No way. Hey my boys are in the final 8 tomorrow, DUKE, and we are darn lucky to get there, but what the heck, we are, so it will be a short workday tomorrow and then alas on Monday, back to work.  Boooo. Thanks for stopping by and let me know what you think, good or bad, suggestions and critique is always appreciated. HAPPY EASTER TO ALL.

Well here is my progress for today on this fierce boy.  Think when I get done I'll put it in the garden and maybe get rid of my rabbits!!  Anyway he is coming along, but have more work to do on the upper beak.  Always see things I don't like, and am going to have to pull more feathers down closer to above the eye portion and think that will make him look even fiercer like he is going into the dive and coming for you.  Feels good to be doing another picture and as you can see I am procrastinating and leaving the feather work for the end as I haven't gotten that figured out yet. Gotten nice, finally, outside so Paul is yelling to go do some porch time.  Am lucky as I have another couple of days to work on this and hope to get it pretty near completion and not have this one hang around forever like I usually do.  Any comments/critiques are always welcome. Thanks for stopping by and hope your painting is going well.

Weather was way too cold so have been indoors during this trip and thought I'd start something - took me a while to get my juices together again after completing the leopard and getting Mom situated and doing well again. Well this is being done from a beautiful and quite dramatic eagle picture from Gary Jones of PMP, he does the most exquisite shots of animals and a large selection of birds. This however caught my attention and has been talking to me now for weeks, so have to try to get it down.  Think the feather work with be kind of smoke and mirrors. Did the background in a different manner, alcohol indigo blue marker as first two layers, with black color pencil on top, then that is melted with turp and then more black, and probably will have another go at it as well to get the deep background I want.  Now it really has the deep blue look and with another layer of black think that will look less stark and flat than just black.  Saw some folks did this on PMP and th...

Ok here are my next efforts at Zentangle.  Like the modern feel of these and have a whole more textures I want to try out.  Am sure that it will benefit me down the way to have more strokes in my arsenal.

New toy, didn't get a lot done this weekend art wise but am trying something new, Zentangle.  Of course it's been hot for many years now, but in my typical way I have just come across it and think I'd like to keep playing with it, keeps the eye hand coordination going.  Usually done in just black and white thought I'd add color using the pens that I had on hand and silver and gold Shaprie.  Did it randomly and then cropped and turned it to this view.  Am still working on creating motion and yes it is a lot for the eye, but do feel like I have some dimensionality.  I don't think that anyone in modern art needs to be concerned, but it was fun and quick. Hope everyone has a good painting week, and thanks for stopping by.

Think this is going to be it for today.  Been fiddling now as I was posting this for the last half hour.  Since we lost our hour last night it is already late and I still need to go out and kill weeds in the yard so I don't get yelled at by the association.  Then it is supposed to be nice enough to have a glass of wine on the porch.  Yes, life is back more to normal and it is good!! As you can see around the middle koi, here is a perfect example of how you can pull color off this canvas.  You just can't do that, or I can't, on paper without ruining the surface.  Of course it would have to be the orange red over the white fish - just how does that always happen?  But I should be able to cover it with water color.  Did the adjustment as I wanted to bend the fish body to be a more obvious curve and not make it look like the white koi, the star of the show, is in a complete straight line with the mid one.  Have only tw...

Too much working and not enough playing time as it's been really long days at work.  Had to do a small presentation and then go through longer ones with some one else so has taken my energy.   But got to paint a little today.  Was supposed to be warm here and should have been porch time, but ... not exactly.   But at least got some outside time this morning and some of the garden in shape for Spring.  Set ahead our clocks tonight and I always miss that hour they take away from me but do enjoy it's light longer at night when I get home. So got a few more of my koi in.  Always get impatient with water colors, and especially working on this canvas, as the dry time is a lot longer than I am used to and I want to get on with it and end up either blurring colors together or pulling color up.  Am waiting now for the top koi to dry to I can better define the dark coloration.  Am going to have to work on this canvas some more to...

What a difference a week can make, am hoping that things will settle down, and they did enough to get started on another painting.  You all overwhelmed me in really liking the picture of koi fish that I posted last week, the most viewing of anything I have ever posted.  Seems the color and the movement did what the author of the article I read said it would and it really communicated with the viewer.  So I am at it again and trying to see if I can pull together an original watercolor composition that will have as much punch in it for color, movement and action.  Doing this again on the watercolor canvas, you can see how much color it sucks up, but it lifts easily and allows you to add multiple layers and layers seems to be my thing no matter what the media.  This will not only have the fish moving (I hope - actually the star is a beautiful white koi) but will also have reflections that make a diagonal across the picture itself. ...