Tuesday, January 21, 2014

30 Paintings in 30 Days: Day 22

"Pretty as a Peacock"  $145  Watercolor and acrylic  (11" x 11" image)
This was a very ambitious painting for me to attempt for this challenge, but now that I'm done, I'm glad I did it!  I will be painting many more peacocks in the future!  I love to negative paint, so that was my favorite part of this process.  (The white spots are painted with acrylic paint and are the spaces between the feathers, that I negative painted.)  I started this painting by masking out the peacock's head and neck.  Then I wet the whole paper, and laid gauze on top, and painted the feathers through the gauze.  See photo below.
(Peacock in progress)
After it dried overnight, I began to paint the peacock in a traditional manner.  Lastly, I negative painted the white spots that were the background, peeking through the feathers. I could have done more detail on the feathers, but decided that I liked them left to the imagination.  The effect of the gauze did the work for me!
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10 comments:

  1. Patti VincentJanuary 22, 2014 at 4:16 AM

    I am glad you did it too! The colors are beautiful and the subject is handled so creatively. Beautiful painting!

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  2. .GuinevereJanuary 22, 2014 at 5:04 AM

    This is lovely.love the effect using the gause has given.

    http://saundersartistblog.blogspot.co.uk/

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  3. Kellie ChasseJanuary 22, 2014 at 5:27 AM

    Very pretty...I did a peacock today too!

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  4. UnknownJanuary 22, 2014 at 6:13 AM

    Really lovely, well done

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  5. Sandy Sandy ArtJanuary 22, 2014 at 6:43 AM

    Very pretty Karen!

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  6. UnknownJanuary 22, 2014 at 1:26 PM

    This is the best one yet!! Do more peacocks!

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  7. Cindy D.January 22, 2014 at 2:16 PM

    Wow, gorgeous! And what a great process. And those whites in the negative space - genius! (I am behind for today so it may be two tomorrow!)

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  8. Joan Princing ArtJanuary 23, 2014 at 12:13 AM

    AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very much Pretty as a Peacock!

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  9. UnknownJanuary 31, 2014 at 6:52 AM

    stellar--you never cease to amaze me. I am going to own "Friends Forever" and I have the spot!! Yay!

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  10. Delores EkbergJanuary 31, 2014 at 8:55 AM

    This has been fun! I emailed your 30 poster to Kathy Foster, as she doesn't do FB. I have framed the 2 paintings I did in the workshop, and they look awesome. I so much appreciate the way you share your knowledge so freely! You are a great artist and a great teacher! Oh, and a great juror. I feel soooo fortunate to be one of your students. See you in April!

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