bird is the dead

Back to the piece I have been developing before the life drawing intensive I completed.

The main focal point of this piece is the skull head on the birds body. I used raw umber, for the outline and shadow elements. I blended titanium white to create shadow. Raw umber goes a bit grey when mixed with white so it is a perfect candidate for bone. I brought in a bit of the red as reflected light and added highlights with some yellow ochre mixed in.

The previous layer of paint is dry so I sanded it down with 80 and 120 grit sandpaper. It gives it a nice worn out feel and allows the under painting to show thru a bit for the next stage.

After the skull had been painted in I painted in the brightly coloured feathers and added some textute to the image.

I then filled in the background making it a very dark burnt umber to pop off the colours.

I drew in a branch for my "angel of death" to perch by scraping away to the under painting and brought in some white to set off the space with some light areas.

The paint is wet and shiny and hard to photograph straight on. I'll let it dry and revisit the piece on my next opportunity to work in the studio.

KALI - beginnings

For those who follow my blog, my previous work on animation was completed successfully. During the process my laptop died and is now being resuscitated at the Apple Genius Bar. So I can't update with anything on that system for a while. However I have had some photos sitting on my iPhone for about a month.

Here is my beginning process on the Kali painting.

I began by selecting which canvas I would be working on, then I did a quick jiffy marker sketch to show the model what we would be attempting to achieve. This led to this.......

I used crosshairs to centralize my image at the belly button. I gridded out some of the area to speed up the process of putting the charcoal drawing down.

Here is the full figure with all four arms drawn on the canvas in charcoal.

In the third studio visit for this piece, I locked down the image with a clear gesso and to limit the spread of charcoal in the paint.

I then blocked in a variety of dark brown tones for the background. Initially I intended on painting the character with green skin to set it off on a warm background, but then things got fun and I went a little further on the background and may be chaining my initial idea, that's what happens with inspiration in the studio.

 I rubbed in more colour, and gold and wet the surface creating a variety of drips and splashes. I am still considering how I will go about the treatment of the flesh, one idea is to paint it very dar and paint bones on top to make her even more frightening. WE will see what happens as the painting unfolds.......

Pegs law!

Stage 2


I blocked in the letters with fluorescent pink marking spray.  Last night after teaching my evening animation class at Quickdraw Animation Society I put in 2 hrs at the studio working on the 7 new pieces. I quickly sketched out some character form in charcoal. I took a white and allowed it to mix in with some of the charcoals to block in the background.

Pride

Envy

Gluttony

Sloth

Lust

Avarice

Wrath.

The cartoony characters are initially built on the sprayed capital first letter. It is interesting how the L for lust can be transformed to an erect penis. The "S" is a lazy slumped looking snaky sloth shape. A for Avarice, has the arms crossed pulling in toward himself much like a greedy person holding their wealth close to their hearts. "W"wrath is like angry arms in the air. You get the idea.

Here is the collection laid on my studio floor side by side. I gave them all a coat of fixative before leaving to ensure the charcoal doesn't spread too much in the upcoming sages of development.

I would like to get them matching frames when I display them together. Hopefully I can find an adequate venue or place to show them together.  Maybe I'll follow in Lisa Brawn's footsteps and try a store.