• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Ed's thread (3 Viewers)

bravo Ed working out very well, make sure you keep the peach bits going that's what's making the greens work so nicely and tying it together....

Can I bring your attention to one thing, the rectangle made of the branchlets....is something going there....? if not it currently is a focal point(due to crossing points) with "no point" but I forget what you had planned so it may not be an issue.


what is the woodcock made of???looks beautiful so far...
 
Very much looking forward to seeing the finished painting of this fabulous demoiselle...[i've spent much time with them down in Cornwall and searched for many hours in Leicestershire to find them...without success]...tis fun searching tho....!

ps....just thought i'd post this old piccy o mine as i'm thinking dragons....[taken down at Marazion some years ago]....hope you don't mind...!
 

Attachments

  • 003.JPG
    003.JPG
    106.4 KB · Views: 36
username said:
ps....just thought i'd post this old piccy o mine as i'm thinking dragons....[taken down at Marazion some years ago]....hope you don't mind...!
Click to expand...

hello all

nice dragpic user- one of the things I have wrestled with on this one is whether to do the wing dark and blueish (as it looked most of the time on the painted individual) or to allow some brown sheen to creep in as in your pic

Colleen is right about shape - the plan as per the original drawing was to have the warped/sheared rectangle pointing to the target beast and it all added up (to me at least) in drawing, as the beast was pretty obvious: but works less well now the beast is dark..more to be done by introducing light and colour, I think

as for the woodcock- Keeble senior works in wood (mostly lime) with brass inserts for flappy, sticky-out or dangly bits
 
ed keeble said:
hello all

nice dragpic user- one of the things I have wrestled with on this one is whether to do the wing dark and blueish (as it looked most of the time on the painted individual) or to allow some brown sheen to creep in as in your pic

Colleen is right about shape - the plan as per the original drawing was to have the warped/sheared rectangle pointing to the target beast and it all added up (to me at least) in drawing, as the beast was pretty obvious: but works less well now the beast is dark..more to be done by introducing light and colour, I think
Click to expand...

I think you've answered your own question - 'more to be done by introducing light and colour' to/near the beast. There's always something requiring wrestling isn't there? But that is part of the fun, not that it always seems like fun!!
 
solitaryVSong said:
I think you've answered your own question - 'more to be done by introducing light and colour' to/near the beast. There's always something requiring wrestling isn't there? But that is part of the fun, not that it always seems like fun!!
Click to expand...

Hello all- I've no fresh meat to offer up on this busy little forum, but just dropping in before my thread falls off the page... Took the trusty stanley knife to the demoiselle and actually whilst there's a lot less canvas now (8" x 6" remnant) there's more here to my taste now, with some metallic zing in the demoi's tail and some grit and scratch in the background.
 

Attachments

  • DSC_1481 copy.jpg
    DSC_1481 copy.jpg
    211.5 KB · Views: 57
Looks good as is Ed, even at greatly reduced size. The demoiselle stands out just fine.

But I think we need to chip in and buy you a new electronic Stanley that sets off an audio alarm whenever it senses that it's near canvas: "What! What! What! Do you really want to chop up another canvas? Please come back tomorrow after thinking this over!".
 
solitaryVSong said:
But I think we need to chip in and buy you a new electronic Stanley that sets off an audio alarm whenever it senses that it's near canvas: "What! What! What! Do you really want to chop up another canvas? Please come back tomorrow after thinking this over!".
Click to expand...
:-O:-O:-O

agreed!
 
solitaryVSong said:
Looks good as is Ed, even at greatly reduced size. The demoiselle stands out just fine.

But I think we need to chip in and buy you a new electronic Stanley that sets off an audio alarm whenever it senses that it's near canvas: "What! What! What! Do you really want to chop up another canvas? Please come back tomorrow after thinking this over!".
Click to expand...

haha: actually I had hoped that the Stanley period in my artistic development was drawing to a close, much as I do enjoy the sound of blade ripping through canvas like bear entering tent

but taking on a new challenge (more fully worked out leaves in this case) was always bound to end up like this: rather than patiently and heroically working through 100 steps to mastery like Colleen, I tend to work through about two steps and then descend through disappointment to boredom to violence...the Masked Shrike gets it next unless it is very very lucky
 
ed keeble said:
haha: actually I had hoped that the Stanley period in my artistic development was drawing to a close, much as I do enjoy the sound of blade ripping through canvas like bear entering tent

but taking on a new challenge (more fully worked out leaves in this case) was always bound to end up like this: rather than patiently and heroically working through 100 steps to mastery like Colleen, I tend to work through about two steps and then descend through disappointment to boredom to violence...the Masked Shrike gets it next unless it is very very lucky
Click to expand...

:-O

Love the drag Ed.....:t:
 
ed keeble said:
but taking on a new challenge (more fully worked out leaves in this case) was always bound to end up like this: rather than patiently and heroically working through 100 steps to mastery like Colleen, I tend to work through about two steps and then descend through disappointment to boredom to violence...
Click to expand...

We all do have our own ways Ed. I think I'm halfway between you and Colleen. It's your audience I think that has the hardest time when we hear about the Stanley coming out again since we already like things as they are. But only you know what's best!!;)
 
We each destroy in our own way Ed, tho my way is more gentle it is even more destructive. I just paint over the whole thing, good and bad and reuse the surface.

A couple of exercises with leaves.....paint a broken color surface of greens purples and some warm tones at random cover the whole thing lightly loosely.
now take a more shadow tone and make leaves of it with ONLY negative spaces, ie paint only the spaces between the leaves, which turns out is the key to the whole thing.....Conversely paint a thin shadowy color across the whole thing and lightly brush in only "leaf forms" just generic.....

this is a current commission where I did just that in pastel
 

Attachments

  • Tuddy portrait wip 1 bf_2447.jpg
    Tuddy portrait wip 1 bf_2447.jpg
    77.1 KB · Views: 45
colleenc said:
A couple of exercises with leaves.....paint a broken color surface of greens purples and some warm tones at random cover the whole thing lightly loosely.
now take a more shadow tone and make leaves of it with ONLY negative spaces, ie paint only the spaces between the leaves, which turns out is the key to the whole thing.....
Click to expand...

tis good advice- the thing I am grappling with is how far in step #2 (the shadows) to take time to draw some leaf shapes and so to position and shape the negative spaces- or how far to take more of a run at it and build up a random lattice of dark shapes, from which I hope the leaves will emerge

working on it...currently keeping an eye on a book by one David Curtis (not a crazy name and very much not a crazy guy I suspect) which includes some very decent gunneria leaves painted exactly as you describe
 
last year I got a leaves baptism in a commission and had to work out a lot, as I didn't know how to do them either...and didn't need to til then:-O

Thousands of leaves...so I did as I explained, mostly you won't need this level of detail, but notice in the closeup there is not as much detail, it's mostly brushwork and a few edges...the brown leaves are several layers...the first ones in acrylic, and gesso and the top ones in oil

This is not a good photo in color for the dog, but the leaves are about right, it was an overcast day, in the shade of big trees. so things were subdued.

hope this helps, it's mostly psychological, the leaves thing...
 

Attachments

  • brinkley wc.jpg
    brinkley wc.jpg
    182.5 KB · Views: 42
  • brinkley leaves.jpg
    brinkley leaves.jpg
    79.1 KB · Views: 46
ed keeble said:
Hello all- I've no fresh meat to offer up on this busy little forum, but just dropping in before my thread falls off the page... Took the trusty stanley knife to the demoiselle and actually whilst there's a lot less canvas now (8" x 6" remnant) there's more here to my taste now, with some metallic zing in the demoi's tail and some grit and scratch in the background.
Click to expand...

God Ed!

I absolutely have to sit down for a while when I see impressions, such as these!

So beautiful!
 
ed keeble said:
....the Masked Shrike gets it next unless it is very very lucky
Click to expand...

back on the Maskeroo this weekend

decided as first step to get the bird done and settle the level of contrast and detail I wanted there

then next step is to go back into the leaves and skyholes around the bird and see how far to raise the contrast in them up to the levels in the bird, define the leaf shapes a bit more with some more carefully placed edges and negative space

might even go mad and get a real oak leaf to look at
 

Attachments

  • masked shrikeDSC_1356.JPG
    masked shrikeDSC_1356.JPG
    163.1 KB · Views: 46
  • 550DSC_1516.jpg
    550DSC_1516.jpg
    167.1 KB · Views: 50
OMG! Always exciting seeing your stuff appear and at this stage the whole painting has leapt into life. What a corker.

Mike
 
Woody said:
OMG! Always exciting seeing your stuff appear and at this stage the whole painting has leapt into life. What a corker.

Mike
Click to expand...

'Corker' is right...blimey....shrike a light!!!.....superb stuff Ed....:t:

ps...what a treat to see this stuff on a dismal pissy day in the shires...[glad i ain't at the birdfair today...mank weather]....

pps...some poor buger passed out with the humidity in art tent yesterday....:eek!:
 
bird is stupendous...leaves and the negative spaces are a pattern of lighter and darker, then a few correct shaped edges, the viewer fills in the rest, if they can ever take their eye off that bird.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 10 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

Troubador
Fond Memories: 17 Years with a Zeiss Dialyt 10x40B GAT*
2
Replies
22
Views
6K
GrampaTom
G
wolfbirder
Bialowieza, NE Poland - Woodpecker jaunt 7-11 May 2015
Replies
17
Views
9K
Surreybirder
Surreybirder
P
Two 'non birding' trips to Peninsula Malaysia 2014
Replies
9
Views
4K
andyb39
A
Tri-Counties Birder
Scottish Highlands and beyond...
Replies
7
Views
3K
Tri-Counties Birder
Tri-Counties Birder
Isurus
Sierra Andujar, jan 13 - Iberian lynx, chameleon, etc
Replies
6
Views
3K
Ian Loyd
I

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 4 (members: 0, guests: 4)
Back
Top