At Last!!

Finally!  I actually finished the crocus painting.  And I don't care for it.  Don't get me wrong, lots of things worked out really well.  But the pistils got funny at the end.  I don't like the "fuzziness" of the pistils.  There's no definition in them.  I blame this on the fact that I used a photograph and not a real flower as a model.  This would mean that I couldn't intimately understand how the pistils were shaped and that ignorance translated into the image.  I also don't like the "graininess" of the colour in the pistils.  Not sure what that's all about...but whatever.  It was an awesome exercise and I'm glad I did it!  I will likely try it again soon with summer on its' way and SOOOO many flowers to draw/paint! :)

Another thing I learned in this project was how to re-flatten the paper.  When you paint with water, the paper gets all bumpy and curled (if you don't stretch it, which I didn't, as per Birgit's instructions).  Fortunately, Birgit also showed how to flatten the painting by wetting the back and letting it smooth itself out.  What I learned was - don't let the water get to the painting side of the paper!  I watched her do it and it seemed simple enough, but when I did it and flipped the painting over I noticed that not only were there places where the water seemed to have gotten to the paint (i.e. water drops), but the excess water on the back seeped to the front (naturally) and wet the paint.  Go figure.  I mopped up the damage as best I could, but on the whole I consider this a success.  I've never done any of that before and now I know what NOT to do!!

So after doing so very little painting today, I decided it was time to put the paints away for a while.  I was VERY excited over the success of the crocus and I admit that I was getting over-ambitious considering my skills.  My thoughts were moving toward much more difficult pieces and it took a while to realize that I wasn't ready for those just yet.  Thankfully my daughter being ill helped me step away and more carefully consider my situation here.

Now I am back to the owl piece I want to do.  Unfortunately I've had absolutely no luck finding the pictures I took, so I broke down and searched the web for a likely model.  I found a few images of Great Horned Owls.  They have awesome faces!  I plan to carefully draw one out to figure out how to render feathers, etc, and also how I want to present an owl in a finished piece.  I like owls.  I don't get to interact with them ever.  But I like the way they look and what they represent as a symbol.  I think they could be a lot of fun to study.  I'm looking forward to this project!  Here's my first rough sketch: