Summer Bird Mask - Progress

I will be posting the progress of two masks, as requested by a client. The two masks I am making are the Summer Bird Mask, and the Wind Spirit Mask (the Wind Spirit Mask will be in the colors of the Starling Mask).

Here is the Summer Bird mask, at the stage where I cut in the lines with a swivel knife. Despite its name, the swivel knife is not a true knife, but rather a very sharp 'chisel' that digs a smooth line into wet leather.



Once the lines are in, I use beveling tools. The whole procedure up to this point is called "tooling," in which leather tools are used to shape the surface of the leather dimensionally. This is what gives feathers and leaves their depth. When working with leather, you can go to either extreme with tooling. I try to keep my tooling medium, as the painting stage also gives the illusion of depth.

Once I'm done with tooling, I cut out the edges, eyes, and in this case, the hole where the stone will be. In this photo, the mask is also partially shaped, and ready to go in the oven for final shaping and drying:


Shaping the mask is tricky, and I usually open the oven about 4 to 5 times to remove the mask and reshape it, as it can 'sag' as it dries. Here is the shaped mask, ready for dyeing, and then painting:

A Glimpse of Sky

At times the binds of the world are too strong. They pull and cut and hold your wings to the earth. But just as you feel ready to surrender to those biting vines, a sliver of blue pierces through the tangle above. And you find just a little strength left to pull and reach, and try to find the freedom you were certain you would never have.

Here is the finished painting, 8 X 10 inches on hot-press Fabriano. I ended up using a bit of colored pencil at the end, to really push the contrast. Since watercolor dries matte, it's difficult to get a truly dark black. Colored pencil leaves a bit of a sheen, and ends up allowing you to push your darks darker.

I took a new direction with this piece in terms of contrast and color. Looking at my previous paintings, I always used a lot of saturated colors, and very rarely actual black. I've always had it in my head that black is never to be used in watercolor, and that's simply not an accurate 'rule' to follow! Black dulls and deadens color when used in watercolor, but sometimes that's exactly what you want to achieve. Here, there's a lot of grayed color, which lends to the dark and helpless feeling. This piece would not have worked with my regular saturated palette.

In terms of contrast, I think I'm starting to get a bit more comfortable and confident with pushing values. Using the 'desaturation test,' I found the piece reads well in graytones as well as color. This is not usually the case with my work, as it often turns to a midtone mess when desaturated. I suppose what I learned with this piece is - don't be afraid to use black!

A Glimpse of Sky - Progress 2

Here is further progress on "A Glimpse of Sky." At this point, I have painted the midtones for the vines, and started putting in detail in the feathers. I am using a mixture of payne's gray and sepia as a nice neutral tone for the shadows.



More contrast for the vines, including some texture. I use a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen in places I want to lighten. The Gelly Roll pens are excellent for watercolor as they are water soluble, and can be moved around much like paint with a wet brush. They also tend to resist darkening as they dry, as white gouache does.

Here, I've started laying down layers for the falcon's coloring. Peregrines have a beautiful slate-blue coloration for their plumage. However, since only using shades of blue would keep the overall color scheme too analogous (greens and blues), I decided to introduce some purples. The wings closest to the sky are tinted with cerulean blue, blending closer to purple as the wings get darker at the bottom.

You can see where I have started detailing the markings on the feathers, using a mixture of payne's gray and indigo. The tricky part here is darkening the markings on the wings without darkening the overall wing! If I'm not careful, I'll end up losing all my contrast with the detail.

A Glimpse of Sky - Progress

As requested by a few people, I will be posting progress scans of a painting I am working on. The finished pencil drawing:



I wanted to capture a dark feeling of constriction. I decided on a muted color scheme, with the only source of vibrant color being the sky above.



I started by filling in the background with a wash of payne's gray. The midtone of the vines is a mixture of davy's gray and just a little payne's gray.

Next, I pushed the background even darker, with a layer of ivory black, and then a very concentrated mixture of payne's gray and sepia.



Once that was dry, I went over with a glaze of davy's gray mixed with just a touch of raw umber. The background will have faint vines crossing over and tangling, so I wanted the background closest to the sky to have the color of the vines. For the falcon, I created a gradated wash of payne's gray and sepia from the bottom to the top to capture the contrast of bright light and extreme dark within the vine 'cave'. As seen on three of the vines, they will be a mixture of chromium oxide green and raw sienna.

Share One Planet Sketches

I was recommended by a friend to send an invitation request to the Share One Planet competition. It is an invitation-only digital art competition featuring a number of animals of concern. I am happy to say that I was accepted and given an invitation, and I decided this would be an excellent reason to try more digital art.



There are 5 categories (technically 10, but each category has a digital painting and digital sculpture category within it). The one I chose after doing a few sketches was "Mother's Love." The first set of sketches show ideas in other categories, such as 'portrait' and 'predator and prey.'

Thinking about what a 'mother's love' is in the animal kingdom truly is about protection. Most humans have the luxury of protection by the law and society's standards, but in nature, the only law is that of survival.

The peregrine falcon is truly a remarkable creature. It is the fastest creature on the planet, yet is relatively small compared to other raptors. Young falcons are especially at risk of predation by larger raptors, particularly by golden eagles. Despite the size difference, parent falcons have been known to attack and kill golden eagles in defense of their young.



In this drawing I am trying to capture the fierce protection of the mother. Leaving the chicks to fly is risky, but the falcon's strength is in the sky...and all she needs is a bit of height and the advantage is hers.

Owl Women of Vaethiniel

In the deep forests of Vaethiniel there live three women - one very young, one very old, and one between the valleys of age.

Once twenty winters have passed, the greatest and brightest moon rises over the sleeping trees. In this night, the old magic is at its most powerful. It is said the three women, with their ancient gifts, gather around a cauldron that mirrors the sky. In this, the secrets of the next twenty winters are stirred, and the three women peer forth with the wise faces of owls, for only owls can read the words of the moon.

The story was in part inspired by the Perigee Moon we had on March 19th. The moon truly was blindingly bright, and we had the good fortune in Connecticut of having a cloudless night, so the true brilliance of this rare moon was at its peak. I couldn't help but wonder what ancient cultures thought when the moon suddenly appeared bigger and brighter every 18 years.

Owl Women - Progress 2

This painting is taking me much longer than I imagined, which is good! I'm spending more time thinking about color choices before jumping in. Although I have a color comp, I still need to decide how to create the colors I want, and what shadow combinations will be suitable.



Here I have put in another layer of shadow in the foreground wings, and put the first layer down for color. The great horned owl's hood is going to be a rich brown, so I used a layer of yellow ochre as a base layer. Since the barred owl's cloak will be a rich green, I used cadmium yellow. I find layering watercolor creates a tone that blends better than putting down one simple layer of thick mixed color.



Again, I found myself in such concentration I went a long stretch without scanning! Lots of detail in the feathers at this point. For the great horned owl's wing, I created a mask with tracing paper around the entire painting except that wing, then used a toothbrush to splatter white gouache and payne's gray watercolor to get the speckled appearance that great horned owls have on their wings and back.

For the sky, I mixed color with white gouache to make the color more opaque. I find this works well when I want a very rich, smooth color. At this point, I also removed the masking fluid from the moon, and painted in the branches.