Sunday, May 22, 2011

WHAT???




He looks like he's in your face asking, "What???"  Hence, the title.


I started this one by brushing white gesso on the watercolor paper and then drizzling on black gesso and spritzing it and rolling over it with a foam roller.  I liked how the shapes became loose feathers in places so it had to be another crow painting. 


Of course, he has to be much darker to really stand out and that will be the next stage.

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.  We actually had a sunny day Friday and another Saturday - 2 in a row is pretty good for us right now - and now we're supposed to go back to rain and thunderstorms. 

12 comments:

Ann Buckner said...

Love the calligraphy in this.

Suzanne McDermott said...

I love this!!!

Carol Blackburn said...

Very different, Rhonda. I like the crow muted like that; it looks like you are looking out at him through a very dirty window.

Dee Doyle said...

Love this! Funny, for the current series of classes I am teaching, we are doing a series of crows, horses and flowers and "mark making" [a term that I learned from Myrna Wacknov]! I am discovering more and more artists are expanding their toolkits to incorporate more ways of making marks in their work than in traditional watercolors. Is that because I am more sensitized to mixed media than I had been ... You know, like when you buy a red car, all you see are red cars?

I am rambling, but wanted you to know, I love what you have done here, and I feel as if I, and my students, are in good company! :-)

JANE MINTER said...

like the way his eye glance meets the
black ... i like the contrast between of the black and the tone of the bird

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks so much, Ann :)

Suzanne, I'm so glad you enjoy this one!

Carol, thanks, but I will make the crow a bit darker and fill in those eyes - they look a bit creepy all white like that!

Dee, I think once you've been painting with watercolor for a while you realize you don't have to just do pale washes and things but can incorporate so much more - it's fun and experimentation gets you there quicker, I think. I bet your class is fun - and Myrna is an expert at mark-making of all kinds.

Thanks so much, Jane. I will finish the eyes and darken him a bit more but maybe keep him lighter than I normally do with the crows.

Jane said...

Your crows are just fantastic, looking very good already.
I am glad you finally had some sun, must have been such a vitamin injection after all that bad weather.

irinapictures said...

He looks annoyed. I like the painting very much.

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

You've been working on so many interesting pieces of late Rhonda and each technique so varied. Love this latest crow method of working. For a moment when you said 'rolled over...' I thought you were doing a nudy personal roll on the floor over the wet paint!!! Now thats going too far!!

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks, Jane. The two days of sunshine did help!

Thanks, Irina :)

Joan, you made me laugh with your comment about rolling over the gesso in the nude! ha ha Made me remember when Farrah Fawcett was making a comeback years after her red swimsuit poster and they showed her drenched in gold paint (and nothing else), rolling over a large canvas - it was some celebrity show and I thought "How is she going to get all that gold paint off?" ha ha

Sadami said...

Dear Rhonda,
Very charming work! I admire your challenging spirit and great sense of humour.
Cheers, Sadami

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks, Sadami. Glad you enjoy this one.