Windblown Rooster - Final

© Ellen Blonder

I've added details to the plants and thrown some leaves to the wind. Finished.

Windblown Rooster 4

© Ellen Blonder

The chest and wing feathers are filled in now. Time to get back to the plants.

Windblown Rooster 3

© Ellen Blonder

© Ellen Blonder

Over the last week, I've been adding color to the plants, then filling in the rooster's tail.

Windblown Rooster 2

© Ellen Blonder

I wanted to build up from the background first, but I always seem to want to paint the rooster's face early on. 

Windblown Rooster 1

© Ellen Blonder

While I was waiting in a parking lot in Lihue, this rooster wandered by my car window. The wind picked up and fluffed out his neck feathers. I've been wanting to paint him ever since. Here's the sketch on a 16 x 20 canvas board.

Cycad Painting - Final

© Ellen Blonder

I think this is done. I added some red leaves behind the bromeliad, darkened, then lightened the sky a bit, spending hours touching it up behind the cycad and refining the cycad leaves afterward. I've also darkened the underside and beard of the goat, added contrast in the horns and fixed its face so those weird far-apart eyes read better. 

In retrospect, this was a crazy way to paint, without even a foggy idea of where I was headed, finishing out the key elements and then having to paint around them. What's funny is that in the end, it doesn't look so different from my other paintings that are more planned ahead. I don't know how others manage to have a layout all planned out ahead. I needed time out to let this sit between painting sessions so I could figure out what else it required.

Cycad Painting 8

© Ellen Blonder

This is both the fun and tedious part, adding details with the finest brushes. There are now additional goats in the background, and patterns on the bromeliad leaves. I've also added strappy leaves behind and under the bromeliad and blades of grass in the foreground. The goat still feels a bit pasted in, though. While he looked very dark against the beige background when I first painted him, he now looks too flatly white against the dark path.

Cycad Painting 7

© Ellen Blonder

Here's the bromeliad shaping up. 

© Ellen Blonder

And here it is with the colorful flower bracts. It needed something on the right for balance, so I've added some fan palm leaves.

Cycad Painting 6

© Ellen Blonder

I've got to add some color. I can't let this just be a goat by himself in green grass. There's a bromeliad I've been wanting to paint, and I now have it sketched into the lower left corner. I'll decide what else to add after I work on that.

Cycad Painting 5

© Ellen Blonder

This is a backward way to paint, using a size 0 brush to add background behind the finished cycad fronds and around the goat's fur. It feels like it's going to take forever, but at least I can feel space in the picture now. 

Cycad Painting 4

© Ellen Blonder

I should know my own tendencies better than I do. As soon as I washed in some background, the painting feels anchored. I'm still not sure where this is headed, but giving the elements some solid ground suddenly makes this feel better.

Cycad Painting 3

©Ellen Blonder

I've been letting this marinate, not sure how to proceed, but the cycad looked lost alone on the canvas. I decided to add a goat, based on my photo of this character I saw near Kilauea, Kauai. He was not wild, but in a grassy area behind a fence. Did he know how magnificent he looked, so different from the other goats in the same pasture? The way he posed, I suspect he did.

Of course, I still don't know where this painting is headed. Do I add an egret above? Add some torn sketchbook pages to make a collage?

Cycad Painting 2

© Ellen Blonder

Cycads intrigue me, with their primitiveness, as if a dinosaur could appear behind it at any moment. My reference for this was a handsome specimen from the Mcbride Garden in Kauai.

I didn't photograph this in progress, but here's the pretty finished painting of it against the prepared background. I have an idea to surround it with other bits of Hawaiian flora and fauna, so it looks like a big page torn out of a sketchbook, without more of a background than this.

Cycad Painting - Beginning

 I inherited this 40 x 50-inch canvas from my mother-in-law, and while the painting was in bad shape, it was on heavy linen, mounted on a sturdy frame, something worth saving. When the paint began peeling off, I thought I'd try stripping it.

Much of the paint peeled off in strips, but the rest had to be scraped with a palette knife.

The rest of the paint was stuck fast, so I could only cover it with gesso. I thought I could make the underlying texture work for me, although I had no idea what I was going to paint.

Cycad Painting - Beginning

 I inherited this 40 x 50-inch canvas from my mother-in-law, and while the painting was in bad shape, it was on heavy linen, mounted on a sturdy frame. When the paint began peeling off, I thought I'd try stripping it.

Much of the paint peeled off in strips, but the rest had to be scraped with a palette knife.

The rest of the paint was stuck fast, so I could only cover it with gesso. I thought I could make the underlying texture work for me, although I had no idea what I was going to paint.

Dark Rooster - Final

© Ellen Blonder

I've added grass details to the middle ground and details to the background. I knew this painting would take a while, and I'm happy to finally be done. 

Dark Rooster - 9

© Ellen Blonder

I like the ferns, but now I realize the sky is too dull and I don't like the background tree trunks. It's time to paint them out. 

Dark Rooster - 8

© Ellen Blonder

The Hawaiian morning glory on in the left foreground wasn't working, so I'm going to try ferns instead. 

Dark Rooster - 7

© Ellen Blonder

I'm back on the mainland, eager to add details to the blue jade vine. It's a complicated plant, but more so in the drawing than the painting. 

Dark Rooster - 6

© Ellen Blonder

It's time to work on the background plants. I'm sorry I will also be returning to the mainland before I can finish this.

Dark Rooster - 5

© Ellen Blonder

What was I thinking? Croton leaves have intricate color patterns that feel impossible to capture, and it feels like it's taking forever to paint.

Dark Rooster - 4

© Ellen Blonder

The next thing I want to work on is the yellow croton in the foreground.

Dark Rooster - 3

© Ellen Blonder

I'm working on the rooster first to anchor the painting. It's just too messy overall otherwise to see what's happening.

Dark Rooster - 2

© Ellen Blonder

I needed to add rough color all around to get a better idea of where I'm headed. There's some beautiful croton growing here, and I want to use it in the foreground. I think I'll use some Hawaiian morning glory around the rooster's feet. It grows abundantly along the coast.

Dark Rooster - 1

© Ellen Blonder

I keep seeing this dark-headed rooster on my walks on the bike path here in Kauai. He's a handsome guy, with no visible white feathers, and his red comb has a dusting of black. 

I have also been wanting to include blue jade vine in a painting for some time. It's a rare plant, with beautiful turquoise green flowers that make exquisite leis. Although I'm not sure what else to put on this painting, here's the first color I've added to this 16 x 20-inch canvas board. 

Shell Ginger

© Ellen Blonder

Shell ginger is one of my favorite flowers in Hawaii. I rescued this one from the gardener's trash pile. 

Red Heliconia

© Ellen Blonder

Another heliconia from the same sunshine market bouquet in Kauai. 

Orange Heliconia

© Ellen Blonder

My first watercolor sketch in Kauai this year is of an orange heliconia from a sunshine market bouquet.