Thursday 17 January 2013

Cockerel

Avon Valley Artists subject this week was 'Animals'  We were free to chose what creature we liked (Sometimes we are given a photo unseen and we all paint the same image....a very interesting exercise!)
My piano teacher keeps chickens and has had an amazing calendar of prize chickens on her wall all year, which she promised to save for me, and as she gave it to me last week, I thought I would attempt to paint this proud and gloriously coloured cockerel.



I decided to work on my biggest block of Fabriano Artistico Extra White 300g paper, but discovered that on the block in use, there were only 2 pieces left and they had become detached from the cardboard backing. As I intended to use some fair quantities of water and wet-in-wet, for the background which I was going to paint first, I separated the two sheets and stretched one of them in the traditional way onto a piece of MDF board. I did not want the paper to buckle and result in the washes filling the undulations to leave the background streaky. Even with stretching, the paper sometimes buckles whilst very wet, so I needed to keep a close eye on the paint, but at least it becomes taut again on drying.

I then mixed up a background wash, keeping it fairly pale so that the strong colours of the cockerel would be contrasted against it, and let it dry. I then drew the cockerel together with a bit of imaginative background, and had a go at painting him. Not easy to paint feathers without getting in to too much detail, but I did my best and was able to use some of the lovely orange and brown that Peter talked about in his recent blog (www.watercolourfanatic.blogspot.com) He was once again generous to give me a blob of the Translucent Brown which he has recently acquired. It gave some lovely granulated under-belly tones.


The blue tail feathers used the darkest of blues....Anthraquinone Blue by Graham and Paynes Grey, and the turquoise bits in the middle are Cobalt Teal Blue from Daniel Smith.

12 comments:

  1. What an absolutely stunning painting. Love it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Ann for the lovely comment. I only wish I had remembered to take my camera so that I could have posted each of the stages!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cleverly done with that background and foreground. Congrats!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Sean. Glad you enjoy looking, and that the combination works for you!

      Delete
  4. First rate representation of the plumage. You've made a fine job of this and your colour selection is exactly right. A great example of your versatility.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the comment Mick. I am quite pleased with the result, and so glad it works for you as well.

      Delete
  5. Love the bird and also the background you have chosen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you enjoyed the painting, Lorraine. Thank you for taking the time to comment.

      Delete
  6. Thank you Peter, for your lovely comment

    ReplyDelete
  7. Really lovely colour combinations and the gentle background works well.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for the comment Jan.Glad you think it works well.

    ReplyDelete