Hello love, hey birdie.

Hellosies sweet reader. :-)

Inspired by some of the blog posts by Tara Leaver, I did a painting and took progress shots of it. It's fun to look back at how the painting started and where it ended up. :) Hope you like!

detail shot :-)

Progress shot 1:

So I started off doing a sketch of a portrait, female with flowers in her hair and a bird on the left of her. I then started working on her face first. Oh, this is created on wood prepared with transparent gesso. Materials are a mix of watersoluble crayons, graphite and acrylics.

Progress shot 2:

I then added paint to the roses and hair. It's weird, I was going to try create a painting in pretty muted, mostly white and light grey/ pink tones, but couldn't help myself with the darker purple and reds. Guess colours just want me and I want them ha ha! My next challenge will be to create a painting with ONLY white and black and greys. That'd be interesting! Anyhoo, moving on.

Progress shot 3:

I then applied my first layer of background. This was sort of random although I chose colours that I liked and was mindful of choosing colours that were sort of complimentary. And often, when I like the colours, they tend to be complimentary as well.

Progress shot 4:

So, then a few days went by and I let the painting just marinate for a while. There was something off for me with the face. When I started working on it again I decided that I thought the eyes were too close together, so I wanted to adjust the eyes a bit. I made them both a little smaller and I was much happier with her face this way. I liked the shape of her eyes this way too, a bit deer-esque. :) I also worked on the birdie (which was a completely new one compared to the one I had sketched) and I added more texture to the background and started with adding words. 'Hello Love' just came to me and 'hey birdie' was written on the birdie tummy. :) I used a brayer for some of the texture effects and a graphite crayon with which I scribbled lines around randomly. Colour-wise I used titanium buff for the bird, I often underestimate titanium buff. I often just think; "eugh, such an ugly colour, it looks like a very dirty white", but the colour is actually one of those colours that is really really effective. (Also for skin tone btw!).

Progress shot 5:

I then started refining the background, adding colour, paint, extra depth with texture and 'scribbles' (ha ha, hilarious: adding depth with scribbles, sounds like such an oxymoron but it ain't no no! ;)). BTW, the writing style on the chest was also inspired by Tara Leaver and Samantha Kira, I love their swirly writing styles on their paintings. :) Wings on the shoulders are something many mixed media artists do, but I am very inspired by the amazing Misty Mawn on that one. :) Essential for me was the turquoise blue that I added around the bird at this point. I enjoy it in contrast with the black that I added in the corner too.

Progress shot 6:

I then regretted having added the white to the left of her face, I wanted to go back to a darker colour there. I also wanted some more texture in there and of course: a crown on the bird's head! I like crowns, I just do, cus all of us, including animals are kings and queens, yep yep we are. :) So I added some bookpages and collaged them in. I really liked their effect in the chest section of the lady.

Progress shot 7 (final painting):

For the final touch, I was not happy with the dark black on the left of her left shoulder, in earlier stages a lighter patch there worked better for me, so I used the magical titanium buff again and used a tissue to wipe it over the dark black, I then also used a 9b graphite pencil to do some more writing over the titanium buff for depth (more scribbles for depth, ha ha!). I also outlined the white 'love word' with some graphite and now pretty happy with the overall painting, although my favourite part of it is her chest with the words and the birdie face. :)

What do you think of this painting? :-)

Here are some details shots:





I love the wood grains!





This bit is my favourite. :)