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.

Another Charlie Sketch-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

Charlie looks one way when he's upside down, but I sketched this with his face right-side up, and he kept looking like he was floating. So here he is again, after I played with him in Photoshop, floating over a photo taken along a trip to southern California.

 

 © Ellen Blonder

Another Charlie Sketch-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

I can't get enough of this cat. He's fond of lying on his back, but stay tuned to see what happens.

Charlie Cat Painting-Day 9 Final

© Ellen Blonder

This is in danger of getting overworked if I keep fussing, so I think I'm done. 

Charlie Cat Painting-Days 7 and 8

© Ellen Blonder

If it doesn't look like much progress since the last post, that's because there isn't. After a day and a half of work, I painted out the left side of the fabric. When something isn't working, sometimes it's best to paint things out and start over rather than fight it. Everything needs to be refined now, but I think I at least have the folds where I want them.

Charlie Cat Painting-Day 6

© Ellen Blonder

The fabric is turning out to be way more difficult to paint than I imagined. Because there are no hard edges, just subtle folds and shadows, the gradations are critical to get just so. So far, the right side is way more finished than the left.

Charlie Cat Painting-Day 5

© Ellen Blonder

Roughing in the sheets under Charlie.

Charlie Cat Painting-Days 3 and 4

© Ellen Blonder

I've been filling in Charlie's longer tummy fur, and just added his whiskers. Now for the background. I think I'll put him on rumpled sheets, which are pretty much cat heaven. 

Charlie Cat Painting-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

Charlie looks like he could float away right now.