Speckled Rooster 1

© Ellen Blonder

It's time to paint another rooster. I saw this guy in a parking lot last year in Kapa'a, Kauai, and was impressed by his speckles and white striped tail. I'm working on a 16 x 20-inch canvas.

Black and White Rooster-Final

© Ellen Blonder

Finally, done!

Black and White Rooster-Day 18

 

© Ellen Blonder

I'm slowly continuing to work on details of the foliage, mostly on the upper right today.

Black and White Rooster-Days 16 and 17

© Ellen Blonder

I'm adding details to the plants on the left side of the painting.

 

Black and White Rooster-Days 13, 14, 15

© Ellen Blonder

I've been working short periods on this all week, and some of the time has been spent overpainting details I didn't like. The painting still has a long way to go.

Black and White Rooster-Day 12

© Ellen Blonder

 All I know is the pink's way too bright here, and it looks all wrong with the rooster's red comb. I have to tone these way down. I've also added grass under the rooster's feet.

Black and White Rooster-Days 10 and 11

© Ellen Blonder

I'm almost done with the feathers--finally! Now that the rooster is nearly finished, it'll be fun to move on to the flora.

Black and White Rooster-Days 8 and 9

© Ellen Blonder

Ok, I have to confess it has been a distracting week moving myself back into my studio from a temporary set-up in my house. I've barely had time to paint all week, but I scanned a detail of the rooster's feathers that I've been working on. The lighter feathers are only half finished, and the darker feathers will be detailed more, too.

Black and White Rooster-Day 7

© Ellen Blonder

I painted out the foliage above the rooster's back, and will add something later. Meanwhile, I'm moving on to feathers before tightening up flora.

Black and White Rooster-Day 6

© Ellen Blonder

Still refining shapes and colors, with nothing really finished yet.

Black and White Rooster-Day 5

© Ellen Blonder

Back to work after nursing a cold all week. I'm slowly building each color to see relative values; it's too hard to guess them correctly if I go straight to finish against a white background.

Black and White Rooster-Day 4

© Ellen Blonder

 After transferring the foliage layout to the board, I laid down some rough color as a sort of road map. It really helps to paint when the background isn't a deceptive white.

Black and White Rooster-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

I'm working on tracing paper before transferring the plant shapes onto the board and refining them further.

Black and White Rooster-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

I worked over a photo of the rooster painting in Photoshop, layering rough color and shapes of the plants I might want to use.

Black and White Rooster-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

I've been trying to get to start painting this rooster for a while, ever since he posed for many photographs earlier this year in Kauai. While most of the roosters have coppery feathers, this guy is all stylish ivory, black and red. I'm painting on an 18 x 18-inch masonite board.

Colored Pencil Rooster-Day 5 Final

© Ellen Blonder

All done. I'll only overwork him if I continue. 

Colored Pencil Rooster-Day 4

© Ellen Blonder

Slowly filling in the feathers on the rooster's body.

Colored Pencil Rooster-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

Working out those great tail feathers, all attitude and, well, cockiness.

Colored Pencil Rooster-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

Rather than filling in the shape head to tail, I want to see relative values as I go--or is it that I'm too impatient to see the rooster develop in such an orderly way?

Colored Pencil Rooster-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

I've been playing with colored pencil, but not sketched anything very colorful. I thought I'd try a rooster. This handsome guy posed for a photo along a walk in Kauai, where they're everywhere. I darkened the scan of this to show the basic shape; the lines are actually much lighter.