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Matt's watercolors (1 Viewer)

Thanks for the comments, here is the rest of the series....

Typically I try not to "start with dessert"... the fun of painting the detailed subject. Instead, I try to really concentrate on everything together, especially the backgrounds. I usually cover the whole paper with a few washes before working on any one area too much. Having to preserve the white of the paper for the wing and eye highlights made me hold off on putting any real color on the actual dragonfly until other elements got established.
 

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OMG Matt, how in the world did you do that so small, and how did you manage to keep the whites on the delicate wings....wow!
 
Oh yes - really lovely. You must have had a very strong sense of what you were trying to achieve with a piece such as this - and an even stronger sense of having achieved it, now you have. Terrific.
 
Thanks for the comments, here is the rest of the series....

Typically I try not to "start with dessert"... the fun of painting the detailed subject. Instead, I try to really concentrate on everything together, especially the backgrounds. I usually cover the whole paper with a few washes before working on any one area too much. Having to preserve the white of the paper for the wing and eye highlights made me hold off on putting any real color on the actual dragonfly until other elements got established.

Super painting Matt, the greens are tremendous, difficult subject handled very well. The dragonflies wings are just superb in that pressed forward pose...
 
Thanks everyone for the nice comments.

Colleen, I typically work small these days so I can get a piece finished. Between work and 2 kids I need to tackle smaller projects if I'm actually going to finish them. A big benefit is that they are easy to scan as I work on them. Preserving the white of the paper... Sometimes I use liquid fristkit, but I try to avoid it as much as possible. I hate cleaning brushes and once in a while it wants to lift up the paper when I remove it. There was none in this painting.

Tim, I did have a pretty good vision of where I wanted to go with it and a lot of references to go by from field guides and dozens of photos I took this summer. In the background I really only had 3 leaves that I planned out and let the rest kind of develop as it moved along. I knew where I basically wanted the cooler dark colors to sit so the body of the meadowhawk would pop and took it from there.

I am taking a little vacation from the birds and doing a bunch of dragonflies and damselflies... which lend themselves well to the smaller format. Strangely, I've found that the insects, frogs, toads and salamanders are selling better than the birds in my area.
 
Thanks everyone. The sora is always a fun bird to see. It was nice to finally get the chance to paint one. I'll try to get up some more WIPs at soon.
 
Hi Matty, like both pieces, though mut say the Kingfisher is the one that steals my eye, lovely rendered branches and the comp. is great. Congrats on these...
 
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