Leaves and Feathers

After a couple of false starts, I've zeroed in on the palette of colours best suited to the rendering of the sunlit fig leaves and it's full-steam ahead, one laborious leaf after another. Thankfully, when I tire of leaves, I can always return to the egret's feathers for some light relief!

While I've always been drawn to the loose brushwork of the impressionists, my chosen subject just doesn't lend itself to such an approach, so there's a slow progression as I carefully define the leaves and branches.

Cheers

Pete

Launch - Eastern Reef Egret

I feel a little guilty beginning a new painting when I already have one sitting around partly finished. However, I'm able to justify it in my own mind by considering how much I feel I'm learning from each painting project and how much better prepared I'll be when I eventually return to those in the queue!

Having advanced this far with the new painting, I'm feeling much more comfortable where my handling of the acrylic paint is concerned and, as a result, more confident of successfully completing the painting featured in my previous post.

A neat trick I picked up from one of Terry Isaac's books is to draw the subject - in this case a grey-phase Eastern Reef Egret - onto tracing paper. Having pretty much completed the painting of the background rocks, I've then positioned the drawing to best effect based on my earlier thumbnail sketches, and taped it into place. Slipping some white graphite paper under the tracing paper allowed me to transfer the drawing to the painting surface - you can still see some of the residual graphite where the egret's feet will appear.

As I write this, I can't predict with certainty whether I'll stick with this one or go back to the previous piece. I guess this makes me either undisciplined, indecisive or - an artist! Stay tuned for updates.

Cheers

Pete