Chicken dancer

When I was young I lived in France. They put roosters on many of their kitchen things and on china. It is usually in this pose, or something very similar. I liked that she has one foot up in a chicken dance. This will be a companion piece to the chicken painting I have already started.

Why do a charcoal drawing? To see how it looks and what I want to change! I think I will lift her leg a little more to emphasize it. And maybe make her tail feathers a little larger.

But today I worked on Ms. Fluff - the other chicken too. I have decided to make her tail feathers yellows and greens to make them the focus of the painting. Look for the progress on her soon!

chicken dance drawing

I think I will do two chicken paintings. One is this one - the Chicken Dance. I love the French chicken pose. (What I mean by that is that the French often has a painting of a chicken in this pose on their china and kitchen things.) I like the fan of feathers at her tail.

The second chicken painting is one step further along. I did the charcoal drawing on the prepared canvas today. This shows her fluff of a tail from another angle. THe feathers are really beautiful so I want to play with their form and texture.

elfunket

When my son was little, he couldn't pronouce elephant. He always said it as "elfunket". So, I decided to go back to my really bright colors and do a happy baby elephant. I did the drawing and some of the background today and hope to do the underpainting in blue tomorrow so it can dry for a day or two while I work on the lupins.

Oil paints are wonderful for blending colors and having the time to fuse parts. It takes patience to let the paint really dry before adding another layer. Having a few happening at the same time helps me be patient. I touched my background for the lupins today and they are still too WET to paint! Maybe tomorrow.

butterfly on lily

I found a prepared canvas! It is small so I decided to draw one blue butterfly on a white lily. I think it will be a lovely little painting for a hallway or bathroom. And I get to paint again. While I love drawing and draw often, I LOVE painting!

I couldn't wait to get started on this one. I woke up early and practially ran down to my studio to start. I did the charcoal drawing and began the underpainting, which I am doing in greens. I think it will be all greens and whites, except for the beautiful blue butterfly. This is exciting!

Okay - I was going to wait to show you the underpainting until tomorrow, or when I got it all done; but here is a peek! Isn't it cool?

charcoal as a medium

I love the use of charcoal. It gives me the ability to make the important details a crisp, solid black. Yet it can be soft to add just a hint of a form, like on the lamb's curls. Sometimes when I am doing a charcoal drawing on the canvas for a painting, I get a little carried away. I was enjoying doing my dog so much that there is a lot of charcoal on the canvas! I will have to wipe most of it off before I begin the underpainting. I think I will do the underpainting in blue to enhance her blackness for later.

Meanwhile, I am working on my amur leopard. He is coming along. Today I finished his face and began the curls down his chest. Very macho!