30 Paintings in 30 Days- Day 17

"I'm starting to see Circles!"   $125   Watercolor, Acrylic, and Collage  (11" x 11" image)

I've been planning to paint an owl from the beginning of this challenge, and got special permission from Sarah Rosedahl to use her photo as my reference.  She is a fantastic photographer and artist.  Click on her name to see her work.  I knew that I wanted to have circles in the background, to kind of accentuate the eyes of the owl.  But as I was halfway into the painting, I thought, what can I do to make this go faster and simpler?  See photo below.

Half finished painting

So, I took one of my paint jar lids and dipped it in the paint, and wallah.... doing stencils made it lots easier.  I also used caran d'ache crayons and a permanent black marker to add finishing touches.  The branch is made from a circular patterned collage paper, and then I painted back into it, so that the paper would be incorporated into the piece a little better.  I only used 4 colors to paint the background on this painting. (2 main colors, plus white and black)   I learned how to make swatches of harmonious papers from Carrie Burns Brown.  Check out her video if you get a chance.  It's one of my favorites!Tomorrow's post will also be an owl, so keep posted!  Thank you for following my blog.  It really means a lot to me to hear your comments!