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Flash Bird Paintings for All (2 Viewers)

some of your strongest work Ken - you're one of those "fellow overworkers" like myself, the time limit forces freshness that can so easily be lost.


I'm dreading going to look what I actually did to that wryneck I was doing this afternoon!
 
For me part of the pleasure of the 15-minute painting is to try out paintings, to get some idea if they'd work, or maybe not work, as more finished works. So they're learning experiences.

yes this is one of the great reasons to do them, besides the fun and freedom, better to find that there are pitfalls ahead in 15 min than 2 hours into a big work...theres a lot of freedom in that baldie..
 
my second contribution on here, a quick two Choughs done while watching Borat on TV. hence I wasn't concentrating too much on the painting, just how I like it!!

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growing by leaps and bounds, they are really dancing in the wind...


don't forget grasshopper one of the things going on here in the flash is working direct with the brush, with no predrawing....when you are ready give it a try:t:

this part was not explained outright, just got assumed, a few location marks are ok, what happens is you begin to use the brush to make the shapes, and get a little away from drawing into pure painting.
 
These are really very good indeed, Liam. Just look at how you are shaping the wings and introducing subtle perspective through the drawings.
 
Just back off a couple of weeks at a wedding in southern sweden and I come back to a whole new wonderful thread. A superb idea this Colleen, will try and pitch in at some stage...
 
Ken - you're one of those "fellow overworkers" like myself, the time limit forces freshness that can so easily be lost.


I'm dreading going to look what I actually did to that wryneck I was doing this afternoon!

Thanks all. Nick I think you're right that for 'overworkers' this type of painting is a great relief. I find that a bit with the felt-tips too. I know I really can't do a finished work with them so I don't tend to press as much. AND I think that wryneck turned out just fine. You never know when overwork will be the problem and when it will be the solution.

Liam, it is really exciting so see your continuing progress.
 
Thanks all. Nick I think you're right that for 'overworkers' this type of painting is a great relief. I find that a bit with the felt-tips too. I know I really can't do a finished work with them so I don't tend to press as much. AND I think that wryneck turned out just fine. You never know when overwork will be the problem and when it will be the solution.

Liam, it is really exciting so see your continuing progress.

Or more, my technique developed to hide overworking - I do too much on the same piece of paper in w/c, then 'clean' it up by covering the dirty passages with opaque acrylic or glue paper onto it. I'd say my technique is making the best of a bad situation, though I did used to be able to do watercolour before, don't know why I can't now.
 
Or more, my technique developed to hide overworking - I do too much on the same piece of paper in w/c, then 'clean' it up by covering the dirty passages with opaque acrylic or glue paper onto it. I'd say my technique is making the best of a bad situation, though I did used to be able to do watercolour before, don't know why I can't now.

Yes, this does sound right in a way. Once I overwork something then I need to find a way out of it and make the best of a bad situation. John Singer Sargent said something about watercolor as 'making the best of an emergency'. I tend to think he's right. Some very talented people might be able to proceed calmly and collectedly with it. But for others like me it's more like being thrown into an emergency where you just have to start swimming before you sink. Sometimes it works and often it doesn't.

Still when I look at yours, like the wryneck, I think well maybe it's not the best example of watercolor technique, but it sure is an example of wonderful and creative painting! And for me that's more important.

Still if you feel you lack something now in watercolor that you used to be able to do I'm sure that's bothersome.
 
Much in awe of the work already posted here, I thought I'd have a shot.
The first is an acrylic sketch from a sketcbok drawing - very sludgy and lacking in depth and light. The eider is a slap, bang, wallop with a 1/2" brush from a pic I took from the pier. Both were a struggle to fit in to the 15 minutes (but I did) and I just realise how fast the rest of you are working - and ow well organised you must be to get the designs worked out and the palette so right.
I'll post the last sheets of doodling simply because I think they may be more along the lines of what Colleen had in mind; they are just what came to me as I sploshed around with some watercolour.
 

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so much good stuff here Tim - I'd be tempted to just cheat a little and preserve most of what's there - but just have a little tweak. The wheatear isn't flat at all -ok the background might want something changing, but the bird itself is a corker - love it!
 
Oh that eider is an eye-slamming bunch of yin-yang energy....really stunning, and that active brush work is part of the painting, necessary for the whole experience, each stroke giving meaning to the surface image, something I've not thought of before of how and why the flashes are so strong. the free flight watercolor takes my breath away.....I've tried that but made mostly unrecognizable blobs.
 
So much good stuff going on, not just on this thread, that I just don't have time to look properly at the moment. Just thought I'd finish the day with a flasher. For some reason I was having difficulty getting the paint to stick to the canvas board properly, still, I'd started so I finished!

Night all!

Mike
 

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