Almost there...at least the shoes are red...still a WIP

Howdy Folks! Back at last...I've been away for quite a little while I know... been down on the coast, just love the sea when it's rough and the shade of geen that features in the background of the current WIP. 

Nothing to say regarding the piece...the changes speak for themselves...you'll notice straight off that the RED SHOES are, RED at long last.

Cheers for now. RWS

WIP - The Red Shoes (To be painted in...Okay?)

 

 

Howdy Folks! Yes, I know. It's been a while - been very busy. This will be the last in the Birds of a Feather project for quite some time; in fact, once this illustration is complete, it will be the end of book illustration for me for the next couple of years. No, I'm not putting away the brushes nor am I abandoning  this blog, (not that many folk seem to have visited - ?). (Enough self pity, I'll put the tissues aside now.) No, the creation of the painted image is still a part of my life, like breathing, and for the next little while the images you'll be seeing here will not be destined for the internal pages or the covers of books. They'll be firstly for ME and then for you. I hope you'll like them; they will be rather different to the subject matter that this blog has seen since it began.

I have always been fascinated and inspired by, Medieval, Northern European, (read; German) Renaissance and Fantasy art. I thought it about time that I pursued these art interests in my own work. How? I have a rough plan at present but,  the best laid plans, and all that, might mean developments or directions I hadn't anticipated. Exciting eh? I think - hope - so.

To those of you who have, from time to time, left comments - always a pleasure to read - or have become a Friend of this blog -  I give you my heart-felt thanks. To those of you who have visited and returned - with only my blog counter to register your interest - I say thanks also.

So, having made my little announcement, I shall sign off. But before I do, however, I wish to express my hope that once the current work is completed, you will all be willing to join with me in the creative journey I shall undertake in future posts.

Ciao and thank you ALL. RWS. 

Moon Dancers : WIP & Final Image

Howdy Folks! Sorry it's been so long since my last post...been building retainining walls and then rendering them, enclosing a fernery - still needs rendering! - putting a roof on a veranda - not yet finished - and planning a revamp for our front garden. Plus the usual domestic duties and work in the studio...Phew! Just writing it down has me inclined to go and have a good lie down

Right! The current picture. Again, an illustration for my personal project, Birds of a Feather. You should be able to follow the process just from the images, so I won't bore you with needless descriptions.

I probably won't post again until after Christmas so, to those of you who visit this little blog, have a great one...I'm off to the South coast for the duration, and intend to do as little as possible in regard to manual labour...reading is top of the agenda.

So...Bah! & Humbug! To one and all.

Cheers. RWS

Tango in Blue - Final

Howdy Folks! Our trotting coppers are finished - at last - I hope you like them. The bottom pic is of the paper sheets that I used to protect the illustration from paint spatters and my coffee spills as I work the image up, they also double as colour test sheets. Sometimes I think the tester sheets end up looking better as  works of art than do the traditional illustrations I finish up with...Ho hum...

I told you in the last post that these two are Australian,  Eastern curlews - I found my references for them in one of my big books on Australian birds...not sure that we can consider them as native to Australia though... they migrate to Eastern Australia in September and October, travelling from Siberia to escape the Northern Winter...Safer to think of them as Russian tourists I think...or RussoAustralian? (Let's face it, if we're honest with ourselves, we Australians tend to consider any one, or thing, to be Australian - no matter how tenuous the link - if it is thought that it adds credibility or glamour to being an Aussie. Pathetic really. The worst offendors are the news media of this country, there's always got to be an Australian link or angle to any international event otherwise it's not really news-worthy..."Train crash in Outer Mongolia! We cross live to Mongolia now, where our journalist on the spot, Kylie Muggins, interviews Australian tourist, Joe Blogs, who was almost caught up in the event...he was shopping at a Mongolian K-Mart not thee hundred miles away at the time...A close call Joe?..." " Yeah, mate....I woz in tha knitted sock section when it happened...terrible it were..." ) We are a sad lot aren't we?

And so, with that, on to the next picture. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers. RWS

Tango in Blue - A Vignette - WIP

Howdy Folks! Back at last. A decoration needs as much thought and work as a full or half page illustration I have always felt. This one of two Eastern curlews dancing is no exception. I started with the ink line drawing and then laid in a light wash of pthalo and prussian blues to establish the high-light colour and then progressively built up the mid-tones and shadows. Once I was happy with the blues I moved on to the yellows, browns and touches of red and green. The white of the trouser stripes and rank stripes I added using white body colour - someting I am usually loath to do, I prefer the white of the paper to do that job for me. However, in this case, it would have restricted the flow of brushing on all those layers of blue which took a few days to do - due to the need to allow drying time between glazes. I would normally use masking fluid to block these areas I require to remain white but if left for too long - a day is usually the limit - the fluid tends to lift the paper with it when removed. Hope you like it so far, only a little more and it's done and then I can post the final pic.

Cheers. RWS

WIP; final of diptych - Penguin Punch-up (Well....Almost)

Hey Folks! Back at last  - and finished at last...I'll still put up the progress pics but the illustration was finally done early yesterday afternoon. It doesn't normally take this long for me to complete a picture...honest...my wife, Julie, and I, have been busy painting and renovating the house, and the garden has come in for so much needed work too...so I've been a little distracted of late.   

Now, on with the images... I wasn't able to photograph the progress of our two Adele penguins at left due to the very stormy, hail wracked, skies over Gawler, ( I use natural lighting for recording my pics as it is an even lighting and gives a truer sense of colour in repro). The Macaroni penguin at right shows the basic method I have employed to get colour, tone and texture in the body and head feathers of these flightless birds. As you can see from the progess pics I managed to take between the showers of thunderous hail and pounding rains, I start with a very light wash of the colour that is to be the mid-tones of the bird - in this case, prussian with a touch of pthalo blue. Over this base wash I build up the colours with successive hatching of stronger and stronger mixes of prussian, pthalo and then some french blue and finally some burnt umber added to the mix for the deepest tones in the shadows. (With the Adele penguins it was a mix of burnt umber and burnt sienna as the first wash and then on and on, as with the Macaroni, in building up the forms, texture and deep shadows.) For the white chests and torsos of all the penguins I used a combination of French blue, a very little of paynes grey and a little prussian blue. (You can see the first wash colours and how they were mixed and pre-tested on the protective paper I left showing in the first pic.)
 

The other two birds in this pic are, on the left (black faced), a Noisy Friar bird and on the right (Red faced...excuse the pun), an Australian Brush turkey. Both these birds - in real life - have no feathers on their on their heads but are, another pun, bare faced. Although, the turkey does have very very fine, black, hair-like feathers that are sparse and randomly dispersed.  (Wasn't going to put them in but...he looked too bald without.)

The final image is of the diptych in its entirety...it may be that the two images will appear separately in the book they are to inhabit...it depends on the pacing of the text...editorial control of these decisions is not always left up to the creator...and a good thing too sometimes...you can be too close or too precious about your creations. These important aspects of book making need an objective and critical eye in the design stage.  

Well Folks, that's it for this post. Hope you like what you see...hope I made sense too...

Cheers. RWS                                         

Vulture Culture; Finis!

Hey Folks. Well, here they are, finished at last. I had intended to post these the day the illustration was done and dusted but time got away from me...still looking for it in the studio but I fear it may have escaped out the door. I'm back to the penguins in the top panel of the diptych now, so shall post the progress when enough of it has changed to be worth your viewing. Cheers for now. RWS