Bald eagle

 At Lake Brighton, the best
photo I could manage
 with my cell phone :)

Post #200! I have been thinking about the bald eagle a lot recently. During my latest road trip to Burney Falls, we saw a bald eagle nest just above the falls, and then later saw the eagle circling Lake Brighton just down from the falls.  It also happens to be the mascot of the school that I work at.  The last time I drew an eagle (with pastel), it was a couple of years ago, just before I found out that I was coming to this school, and then I saw them that same summer at Lake Tahoe.  They just keep coming into my life. I'm thinking I should listen to what it is telling me:

When an eagle appears, you are on notice to be courageous and stretch your limits. Do not accept the status quo, but rather reach higher and become more than you believe you are capable of. Look at things from a new, higher perspective. 

Just turn the page and leave me alone!

This is a quick pencil sketch of an idea that came to me a while back. I used a reference photo of my cat sitting on my lap.  The foreshortening of the leg is really exaggerated to create the illusion of her reaching out to turn the page. I think I needed to do a little more shadowing but overall I think I accomplished portraying my idea.

Portrait of a Dog

Portraits have never been my forte so I keep practicing, this time with a dog. I worked from a photo of this Labrador German shepard, which is my daughter's boyfriend's dog. I don't know the dog personally, so I wish I had a better picture, or at least a couple of different reference photos to better determine his coloring. Being a mostly black dog makes it challenging. The highlights in the photo come off as white and every shade in between, similar to my experience with my drawing of Darth Vader. This time, though, I was working with watercolor and fur.  I think I did a good representation of the dog that is in my reference photo, but I'm not sure if the reference photo accurately represented who the dog is.

Quetzal watercolor

The quetzal is the national bird of Guatamala, as well as being on their flag. The more colorful one, shown here, is the male. The reason that I decided to paint this though is because my nephew's daughter is named after the bird. She is graduating in June and I thought a painting of her name-sake would be a cool present.

This painting actually took longer than most because I got "stuck" several times. It started with having to alter my reference photo because it was too long for my paper. I curled the tail feathers to accomodate it all. Feathers have always been a little intimidating, but I think that I depicted them quite well. Then the background got too muddy, but I lifted some of the paint to create a jungle backdrop. Now my challenge is to find a frame that this odd sized painting will fit into.

Autumn along the river

It is finally feeling like fall weather here in Sacramento! Yesterday was a sunny but crisp morning in the 40's and normally I would not venture out in the cold this early (8 am on a Saturday) but my daughter had an appointment to go to, so after dropping her off, a headed down to the river near the Sunrise Blvd river access along the American River. I had most of my painting supplies with me but was only inspired enough to take a few pictures with my phone due to the cold. The leaves of the trees along the river are starting to turn their many colors, and the river, although very low due to a very dry year, was peacefully reflecting those colors. An egret, which was actually sitting in another spot along the river, seemed to be enjoying the early morning calm as much as I was, so it seemed fitting to place him in the painting.

Hummingbird study in watercolor

Hummingbirds are my wife's favorite bird and with a feeder right outside our window, we see them all of the  time.  Hummingbirds symbol enjoyment of life as well as being the only bird that can fly backwards. They are facinating creatures. This particular painting was inspired by a photo posted on the G+ community Group Watercolor Painting.

You rarely see the wings of a hummingbird in focus since they move so rapidly, but, as in this photo, if you have a fast enough shutter speed, it can be done. I made the colors in the flower  reflect in the hummingbird's feathers to create a continuity between them, but for some reason I really struggled with keeping a smooth background color.

Honu - Green sea turtle watercolor

Honu is the word Hawaiians use to refer to the green sea turtles that come and hang out all around the islands. The are so graceful as they swim through the water, and since they are protected by the endangered species act, they seem to have no fear of humans. Partly inspired by my personal video while swimming with the turtles, I have tried to capture the gracefulness as it effortlessly glides through the coral reefs.
I started painting the turtle by laying down a warm background color, then I left that as the negative space as I painted in the shapes around it. The colors of the coral reflect the same colors I used for the turtle.

Going Tribal in Maui, Hawaii

Everywhere you look here in Hawaii, you see tribal drawings...logos, window decals, tattoos. I thought I would give it a try on some of the wildlife I've seen here in Maui: the honu (green sea turtle) and the gecko, specifically the gold dust day gecko. I also have hibiscus flowers. I tried to put aloha into the one, but it's not very legible. I actually started these in pencil and realized it just didn't look right so I went over them in Sharpie and erased any stray pencil marks.

Wolf, pencil sketch

My daughter has been asking me to draw or paint a wolf ever since I painted our cat, Rosie for her. This is my first attempt, with some help from google images. I just used a #2 pencil. I really like the way the eyes turned out but need to work on the proportons a little, and really need to figure out the hair...

Seagull in watercolor

This painting was inspired by a photo posted by a fellow painter in the Group Watercolor PaintingGroup Watercolor Painting community. Most of the seagull was painted with Payne's grey, which I have been using a lot for shadows. The wing on the top is foreshortened in my reference photo, but I can't help but see it as cut off in my painting.

Portrait of a pug

I recently went to a demonstration by Steve Walters and one of his tips to keep energy, passion, and spirit in a painting is to put bold colors down first as a kind of abstract under painting.  I thought I would give it a try with a photo of a pug that a fellow artist, Michael Salmon, shared. I think that the colors help keep the painting whimsical and it helped break up some of the black.

Mealtime for a monarch

This painting was inspired from a photo posted by a fellow painter in the Group Watercolor Painting community. It is not something I would normally choose to paint, but in order to grow, I have to be willing to step out of my comfort zone. The layout of the photo was very similar to the one I had created in my sketch of Skull Moth Flower, but I never challenged myself to paint it.
I loved working on the butterfly, as it had lots of geometric shapes and lines. The flower on the other hand was where I felt I was struggling. I could probably go in and work the flower some more, but the butterfly is where the focus should fall, and so I call it finished.

Watercolor of a Goldfish

I challenged myself with painting a goldfish. It has been a while since I painted any animals so I found a pic on Google images and started painting... 

As I added in the shading with blues and black on the fish, I couldn't help but ask if this fish is gold and white or is it really blue and black!?

Pheasant in watercolor

I seem to do well with a challenge someone gives me, or a competition. I never seem to win but it gets me motivated. So here is a challenge that some fellow watercolorists in the Google+ community Group Watercolor Painting gave me: a photo of a pheasant. 

It took me a while to figure out where to start, but I decided to trace the outline of the bird right off the computer with pencil first, then traced it from there onto watercolor paper.  I decided not to worry about the background shown in the photo, so I threw down some background color around the outline. Not sure if my choices were too close to the color of the pheasant...

After that dried, I put in the main colors of the pheasant onto the body, while leaving the neck, beak, feet, tail feathers and some of the back white. I tried to blend the colors together so it transitions smoothly from one color to the next. Then I added in some black detail. It seemed like it needed some "grounding" so I added a shadow underneath. I went back in and reworked a few areas, like the wing which does not seem to be placed quite right.

Skull-moth-flower pencil drawing

I came across this art competition on Instagram called skull-moth-flower. The rules were simple...the art has to include a skull, a moth, and a flower. There are three categories: color, black and white, and sketch. I figured I would start with a sketch and then maybe I  would do a watercolor as well.  The concept behind my drawing is that the skull is part of the wings of the moth. I thought that the eye sockets would appear to be "spots". The moth turn out a little cartoony and the "wings" don't really fit the body.

So here is the sketch. It took about 45 minutes to do, maybe a little bit longer with shading the background. I used a mechanical pencil, but it seemed like all of the leads were broken. It was really frustrating because every time I would get on a roll, the lead wouldn't feed right.

Pastel spirit animals

Just playing around with some pastels...the ones I had felt more like chalk. A new medium to experiment with, and on 6"x6" black paper. Just some 15 minute sketches of and eagle and owl.
I'm not sure why they are both birds, but I was focused on totems, or my spirit animals and this is what came to me...maybe this explains my dreams of flying!?

Watercolor Dragonfly

My wife loves dragonflies and now that it is spring, they are all over the place! So a couple of weeks ago, partly inspired by fellow water colorist Kandi Thompson and her piece "Dragon Fly", I decided to paint a dragonfly. I started with a pencil sketch, and added in some background color, and then it sat on my art table for about 2 weeks...I'm not sure why I was stuck. Was it the translucent wings? Deciding the colors?
I finally sat down this morning and just whipped it out. Once I had the brush in my hand, the paint just flowed out of it...literally! Looking back, maybe it needed that time to process it, but once I put my mind to it, it happened. I think I just had a bad case of procrastination.

Leopard with coffee

In anticipation of entering a piece of work in the Rancho Cordova City Hall mixed media exibit, I decided to try something new. Of course since the deadline was today at 6:00 pm, I started it this morning...I'm such a procrastinator! Earlier this week I was painting and accidentally rinsed my brush in my coffee cup. It got me thinking, maybe I could paint with coffee.
After I did a simple pencil sketch from a photo of a leopard, I drew in the black spots and lines with a black oil pastel. I also put in white whiskers with oil pastel...they didn't resists the water as well as I had hoped. Then I took some old coffee ( that usually goes to water the plants) and used it as a wash over my pencil sketch. This is the lightest wash on the nose. I needed to get it darker so I boiled the coffee to get it more concentrated. As I continued to test for darkness, and then boil some more, it slowly got to almost where I wanted the color. It definitely is more difficult to work with coffee than watercolor. The darker spots in the shadows needed some black watercolor mixed in.  All of the other color in the painting is watercolor. Sorry the picture didn't come out very well. I try to take photos before I put them under glass, but I was on a deadline!

Watercolor of an owl

After taking the "what animal are you" personality test that was on Facebook last week, I decided to continue my series of animal paintings. My animal was the owl. What does that say about me? I am wise?...I stay up late?...I hang out by myself?... I don't know. Anyways, with some help from Google Images, I created this owl. It started out a little "cartoony" but I think I was able to bring it to a point somewhere between cartoony and realistic that I will call artistic! I tried several different techniques to get a sense of texture for the feathers, and at some point I just splattered some paint on for the fun of it. And so I present to you " Mr. Personality"!

Watercolor of a zebra

This painting was inspired by Paul Jackson's "Zebra Bust".  It's definitely a test of a steady hand with each of the stripes. The ear is the only area I had trouble figuring out. I'm glad I chose just to do the head. I can't imagine taking on a whole body of stripes!