Birds and Animals

Last Sunday's class was depicting fur or feathers when painting birds and animals in watercolour.  Tricky stuff.  Especially if the creature is white!  I tried painting a squirrel (or chipmunk) and a cardinal.  I have always loved cardinals and my years spent out East where they don't live has made me a little more obsessed.  I will not post him because he is awful.  Husband said it looked like he had a trucker beard!
Here is the squirrel and a couple of other birds I have been practicing at home.

The halo of white light around him should be varied. 

Chickadee - quick study

I didn't tape down this study and so it is warped, causing the shadow on
the right hand side.  Oh well!

Watercolour Classes Again

A few weeks ago I started a new watercolour class at the Ottawa School of Art.   They are so different than the last class, less structured, more shoot from the hip and I have noticed that already my colours are a bit richer and more vibrant.  The first class I went to, we did poppies - which I am still not really happy with and then white flowers which are really hard!



finished class study - no reference

 





We painted daisies in class then moved onto apple blossoms which I muddied up quite a bit.  So I did another at home.  This Sunday we are working on birds and animals.  I can't wait to see what I end up with!

Daisies done in class

Apple Blossom done at home from friends reference photo.