10th Lesson - Greek Steps

We painted in that last big rock.  It is in shadow, so I made up a dark mix of Indian Red, Cadmium Red and Ultramarine Blue and scraped it on with my palette knife.  I then went over it with a lighter mix of Yellow Ochre and Red Gold, this time dabbing with the knife.  I added some pieces of broken pottery with the Ultramarine Blue and blobbed on some rocks to make it look messy.

2nd Lesson - Owl

I always start with the eyes on an animal or portrait, so that they start to look real immediately.  I used Red Gold and a bit of Cadmium Yellow Deep to brush in the bright orange first.  I then darkened the top so that it looks set in under the feathers.  I added a bit of Ultramarine Blue to the mix to achieve this.  I then highlighted by adding white to the orange mix and stroked outwards from the iris to give it that striated look.  Just around the iris, I greyed the bright orange off a bit by adding a pale purple colour.  For the blacks, I used a black - something I rarely do.  For the beak I also used the black in the darkest areas then highlighted with a nice light purple to suggest the curvature.

7th Lesson - Marylyn Mayo

Hair - Brush in the darks first with a flat No.6, then smooth the hair out with your medium tone, brushing in the direction of hair growth.  It is important to get all the darks in first for it is hard to add them later once the fine highlights are brushed in.  For a warm blonde, I used the same colours as for the skin - Scarlet, Lemon and Ultramarine Blue.  I then went over the whole area again, this time using a fine 0 brush, adding white to the mix.

6th Lesson - Marylyn Mayo

Before moving on to the ears and neck, I have gone back in to the face one last time.  I accentuated highlights and darkened shadows and generally just adjusted and fiddled around until I was happy.  The ears are slightly pinker in colour and softer as they are behind the face.  The edge of the face will be softened later when we do the hair.  The neck was done in the same manner.  Brush over the dark tones first, then soften them with the highlights before adding any lines or wrinkles.  Whilst you have the shadow colours (use the Ultramarine Blue for the shadows as opposed to the Pthalo Green as you want them to be slightly purple in colour) you can brush in the neckline where the blouse sits.  Make sure that where the neck sits against the background, it is darker and softer to give the body depth.

Eurasian Eagle Owl

Our new project for Wednesdays is a photo I recently took in Malta of a Eurasian Eagle Owl.  Falconry is an age-old tradition of Malta and I got to hold this guy on my arm and let him fly off to pick up some food in the distance.  They are a magnificent bird and up close they are awesome.

So, I wanted this to be an up-close and personal painting.  Some of my students drew him a little further back to avoid too much detail.  The colours of Malta, with their bright blue, green and yellow boats were the inspiration for the background.  I used Cerulean Blue, Cadmium Yellow Deep and Cadmium Red Light and just basically blobbed the colours all over the board.  I started with the very light colours and gradually made them darker.  I then made some shadow colours for an even darker tone e.g. blue mixed with a bit of red, green with a bit of red, and dabbed that into the dark colours on the canvas.  Whatever you do in the background, feather it off as much as you can for that out-of-focus look.

5th Lesson - Marylyn Mayo

With my 3 basic colours made up, I am starting from around the eyes again.  You will notice as you move around the face, that there are slight variations in skin tone.  I am not concentrating on the one area, as I don't want the colours to vary too much.  So, as I move out from the eyes I just adjust the colour slightly by making the mix a bit pinker, or purple as the need arises.  Then with this new colour I can pick out areas of the face with similar colour and paint that in before moving on.  Using this method, you can maintain continuity of colour and tone and speed up the painting process.

9th Lesson - Greek Steps

Well, we finished off our cats (we all had different cats to paint).  The light is so strong and has strong shadows and highlights.  Do the highlights in a light orange to yellow colour first before dabbing on a bit of pure white for those final touches.  Remember that the shadows against a strong highlight tend to have more intense colour and are darker, then gradually lighten up away from the shadow.  Therefore, in this case, you have your highlight at the edge, then strong dark orange shadow, then a lighter less intense, purple-orange as you paint away from the edge.

Mull of Kintyre by Andrea M.

A beautiful painting by Andrea.  We were all pleased with our finished paintings of this lovely place!

8th Lesson - Greek Steps

Just to finish off the bougainvillea and give the painting some cooler colours, I have painted in the greens.  Add the dark greens first then give them highlights.  Some of the leaves can be completely in shadow, especially on the right-hand side, and others in light.  I added more greens to the pots and put more highlights on the plants around the steps.