Saturday, July 19, 2014

THE GOLDFINCH PART 2





Sweetie was right - that little bird needed to be against a darker and more intense background and it wasn't hard to add color to the All Media Artboard.







Here is the original - too pale and wishy-washy!







I wish I could show you some work I've done for the Val Webb online course, Painting Birds in Watercolor and Beyond, but will need to get her permission first (don't want to get in trouble like I did with one online class I took a year or so back from someone who will remain nameless).  I can tell you that Val has a neat technique on her webpage (see my sidebar for her link) using gouache and ink and that's what I've worked on this week.  She also shows in an older post just how to do this.  I don't know if she came up with the technique or not but it's using white gouache as a resist and then inking over the whole painting and washing it all off when it dries - kind of like watercolor batik using wax but you paint in the watercolor after all the gouache with ink is washed off, you don't wax based on values.  



7 comments:

humbird said...

Love this bird! What a contrast of the colors!

AK said...

Yesssss! It definitely looks fabulous now. Great job.

Autumn Leaves said...

Have to agree that the darker background really makes this piece a standout. I liked the original too, though.

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks somuch, humbird, Asit and Sherry - glad you like the changes. He doesn't look so wimpy now! ha ha

http://carolking.wordpress.com said...

Beautiful bird and it looks great with the darker background.

Debbie Nolan said...

Rhonda - so pretty and I do love your darker background. Thanks for sharing.

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks, Carol and Debbie :)