Monday, September 07, 2009

Surveyor_6x8 oil on canvas panel

"Surveyor" 6 x 8 oil study on canvas panel $150 soaking wet!
This big egret must not have seen me on the river bank, because he flew by slow and close. I liked that he seemed to be surveying the surface of the water, because sometimes he flew so low that his wing tips nearly touched the water. I painted this from the photo I took. I ALWAYS have my camera around my neck! If you have taken a workshop with me, you have seen me at my sunrise demo with the camera hanging into the paint, practically! ...The painting lesson here is a bit of a "broken rule" for oils, which is USUALLY to start with the dark colors. (The rule is "Dark to Light...Thin to Thick"). I started with THIN, but thin LIGHT colors and I put the darks over them, THIN, still....THEN I put the thick whites in at the end...then a few more darks, because I messed up an edge...then more lights...then more darks...then....SEE? it's OK to break those "rules".

4 comments:

Liza Hirst said...

Beautiful! I never think of those rules when I paint - except maybe the thin to thick one but that just seems the best way to do it.

Art with Liz said...

What a great painting despite all the 'broken' rules! How amazing it must have been to watch that great bird flying so close to you.

m collier said...

Very nice painting.

Kerri Settle said...

That bird just glows! Beautiful use of yellow accents to make that happen. Who cares about following rules when breaking them makes a painting like this!