Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Ruffled feathers detail of pastel drawing


In this sitting, I reworked the wing feathers on the top bird...I felt satisfied with it and regardless, I have so many layers of pastel that I'm afraid if I add more, it will turn muddy. I moved on to the bottom bird, continuing adding detail to the feathers.

I find the ruffled feathers easiest to do while the wing feathers are trickier. They have to look just right otherwise it ruins the look of the bird.

You will notice I added the bright pink wing patch characteristic of mature roseate spoonbills (bottom bird).
I'll be re-touching the head area of the bottom spoonbill a bit later but still need lots to do on the feathers.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Progress on Gorilla portrait


Pencil work is easily transported so I have decided to resume working on this piece once a week (or until my bird pastel painting is done) while my daughter attends her classes in the city.

I'm undecided on how much of the drawing area I will be cropping so I rather draw more of the gorilla now rather than later.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Bird Pastel Painting back on the easel

I'm hoping to finish this pastel painting of roseate spoonbills before the end of the month. At this point, I went back to the top bird to refine the feathers more. I will be working a bit more on the tail feathers before I move to complete the second bird.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

US Pentagon police k-9 dog logo/design/artwork drawing

Custom artwork commission completed!

After many weeks, this commission is now pending client approval! I'm so very happy with the design and how it turned out. Final size of this colored pencil drawing is about 13" x 17" with some room for cropping should the artwork be adorned with a smaller mat opening.

My sincere thank you to all who have followed the many updates to this post and for those who took the time to comment and share your thoughts on my blog!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Drawing the Peace Tower (Canadian Parliament in Ottawa)

Size 11" x 15", graphite pencil

In getting ready for my fall exhibition, I was able to finish one more piece of artwork today. While it is true that this creation is not what I traditionally paint or draw, I still did manage to add a little bit of wildlife in the drawing. I just could not resist!
Now to the task of framing and then finding a suitable title.
For those of you who are wondering, the reference photo was taken through the arches of the East Block.