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| W.I.P. Prairie falcon paper cut-out |
In my last post I had nearly finished the landscape portion of my painting and was planning on using an airbrush to add a slight haze in the background to mute the colors and create more depth. It was a good idea, but I nearly ruined all my hard work in the attempt. Actually, the airbrushing worked out pretty well and did what I had anticipated it would. It was when I brushed on a sealer coat over the top of it that things went south on me. Either I had not let it dry long enough or the acrylic ink I used was thinned too much or maybe something else, but when I started to brush on the gloss medium to seal it the layer of haze lifted and started to smear all over my painting. In a panic I grabbed a tissue and tried to quickly wipe it off, but the tissue started leaving lint all over and it was drying rapidly. Next I grabbed a large brush and started flooding the whole thing with water and finally was able to remove the whole mess. Thank goodness, I had sealed the landscape with gloss medium prior to airbrushing because it protected my previous painting and left the surface just slick enough to give me time to remove it before it dried completely. (***Note to self....next time I airbrush in an atmospheric haze, airbrush the sealer over the top instead of brushing it on.) Geesh!
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| Transferring the drawing |
After I regained my composure from my near catastrophe I worked on my sketch for the falcon. Using a paper cut-out for placement and size I transferred my drawing to the painting by rubbing chalk on the back and tracing over it. Next I used some thinned down paint to outline the tracing on the painting so it wouldn't rub off.
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| First washes on the falcon |
The falcon is painted using thin washes to begin with just to get the bird down. Over the next few days I will add increasingly opaque layers, adjusting for value and warmth as I go. My hope is that it will look like the sun is glowing through the feathers when it's done. We'll see how well I do.
