Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Stage 14: Having completed the seals and sprayed on the wind-blown sand in front of them I have now started working on the penguins. I've done the heads and grey backs of the three and a bit left-hand standing birds. I'll do the same to the remaining standing birds and then do their white fronts. Before painting the lying down birds I will spray on the wind-blown sand in front of the standing birds, then add more in front of the recumbant ones when I've finished painting them.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Stage 11: A detail of a finished patch of sand. Over the dark spatters I then sprayed on a lighter colour using the same technique. In theory some of these lighter spatters will overlay parts of the darker ones giving the impression of grains of sand. Had I wanted to create a pitted surface I would have put the light colour on first and overlaid with the dark, giving the appearance of tiny dimples where the dark spots partly obscure the lighter ones. I have then added a few larger 'grains' by dabbing the paint on with the tip of a painting knife, again putting dark spots on first and slightly offsetting lighter spots on top of these but just to their right, thus giving the appearance of cast shadows.
Stage 10: A detail of the bottom of the picture where I've begun adding texture by splattering on darker paint by dragging my finger across an old toothbrush loaded with well diluted paint. By holding the toothbrush at an oblique angle to the picture surface I can produce roughly oval-shaped spatters that align in a horizontal direction, mimicking shadows cast from a low sun on the sand's surface.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Stage 7; Here I have started roughly put in some colour on the penguins. I am working quite crudely at this stage as I try to work out the patterns of light and shade and to test out colours to see how they fit with the rest of the painting. There is no point in working up to a high level of finish at this stage only to step back from the picture and decide that the colours or tones are all wrong.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Finished painting; Having completed the scene it just remained to paint in the swimming king penguins, which took only half a day. One of the inspirations for this work was the shot of orange on the penguins' heads aginst the blue of the rest of the picture. Without this small accent of colour the picture would be greatly diminished. The penguins also help to give an idea of scale.