Tag: hummingbirds

Posted in painting

Watercolor Wednesday in October

Posted on by Laura Kate

“She offered me a hummingbird” again

Finally finished this last 6 x 6 for our local art association fundraiser. This one was important for me to get right because it faithfully reproduces the layout, colors and feel of the actual event.

When the visitor offered me the bird, it was in her hand extended forward to me. The bird was in this posture – wings stretched back into a V and head slightly raised.

I used two reference photos. The hummingbird came from Unsplash, it was taken by B Hong. I rotated his image until it had the posture I remembered in the live bird.

The hand model was me again. I chose a bright sunny day and held a button in my palm to try to recreate the shadows.

It was enough for me to get the idea. When I needed help, I took the painting to Open Studio today for advice on attaining better shadows. Cheryl Bryan was there. She advised me that I should not try to match the photograph. Softening the shadows and allowing a little space between the palm and the bird made for a better painting. Then I kept darkening and tweaking everything until a good range of values was present. I finished the details with white gouache and a few colors of Micron pens.

For those interested, my pigments are raw sienna, transparent orange, Winsor green blue shade, Winsor green yellow shade, carbazole violet, Paynes gray and white gouache.

Posted in painting

Saturday six by six

Posted on by Laura Kate

My local art association is having a fundraiser. I agreed to make some artwork on six-by-six canvases that will be sold for $66 each at the event.

Because of the small size of the canvas, I decided that I would paint only small creatures. This choice allows me to make them life size. Last month I completed a butterfly and a nest full of sparrows. This weekend I am painting a hummingbird. I was inspired to paint one in a hand when a woman at our farmer’s market presented me with a hummingbird she had found on the ground. The bird was alive, but stunned. She wondered what to do with it. I suggested she find a place in the shade of a tree where the bird could recover safely.

The image of that tiny, but alive bird in her hand lingered in my memory. Today I finished a six by six painting that depicts the event.

SHE OFFERED ME A HUMMINGBIRD

The hand model was me.

I used a photo on Unsplash taken by Osvaldo Pompa for the hummingbird reference.

For my final submission to the fundraiser, I cut down a painting that I completed in 2020 and attached it to the six-by-six canvas.

LITTLE GREEN BUG

This cute beetle was crawling around on the brick planter in front of my house. I snapped some photos and did the painting. While I loved rendering the bug, the real challenge for me was painting brick, mortar and shadows. I’m pleased that after four years I still like this painting. It’s on cheap watercolor paper with student-grade paints. A few lines with an ultra-fine sharpie did well for the legs and antennae.

I’ll turn these in next week. Hopefully someone will be willing to buy them for $66.

Posted in painting

Crayola Fun

Posted on by Laura Kate

For the past week, my head has been buried in this project:

Under the Sea Quilt – applying binding

Well, today I finally finished it. The big reveal will happen on Friday. You will have to check my post then if you want to see final pictures. As a little break from all the sewing, I took inspiration from Jennell Willey, of “In the Artroom” Check out her blog about using crayons with water color paint as a form of resist.

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/104869669/posts/2887562195

Because I have been watching hummingbirds whiz back and forth in my backyard, I decided to feature one in this little warm-up exercise. She is approaching a group of tumbling down trumpet vine blossoms.

Next comes a wash of color. I chose turquoise, orange, yellow and blue, to pick up on the crayons I used in the drawing.

A little splatter won’t hurt this painting.

After it was mostly dry, I added a bit of darker green to outline the vines.

And here is the finished painting, dried and with tape removed.

It took all of twenty minutes to make and was very relaxing. If I wanted to explore this technique further, I would sharpen my crayons a bit to get a more precise line. This would be a great technique to use in making greeting cards.