"The Year Of The Snowy Owl"

This umbrella I just finished today, is based off one or two Snowy Owls being sighted here in Michigan, due to shortening of Lemmings in the arctic. Lemmings take up most of the stomach in a Snowy Owl, so the Snowy's came down South to search for food! The quote "The Year Of The Snowy Owl" on the umbrella is based off of that.

This umbrella will be auctioned off in Harbert Michigan the 18th of August, here is a link for information:http://www.harborcountry.org/umbrellasofharbert/

 Well anyway, I had a blast painting this umbrella! It was only tricky to start the whole thing, but once I got "in" it, I had a lot of fun!

The beautiful "trained dog"

This portrait is of a good friend's dog, Dovekie. With some mix of a Golden Retriever and a Wire Haired Pointing Griffon. Look them up and you will find them stunning! This one was a little harder because I put him in a laying down position, which can be hard to get the legs in the right position, and make sure it does not look abnormal! The background was a good choice to pop Dovekie out, not too exciting, but just  right. Doing him was very fun, he has great hair and the double brush was awesome! The lighting was fun to ad, and he has wavy hair, which gives a great affect. The little blue spots gave it a little perk because just green gave it a bla feeling.

Some of you may be wondering why the title is "trained dog". This is because the first animal I drew for this business was Dovekie's buddie, Fern. Also our great friend's dog. They had all of their animals done, including their cat's, except for Dovekie. And in about a week, Dovekie was going to go thru big time training with a trainer a few hours away. Who I met myself! She is great, and she trained him perfectly. We said we would paint the picture of the trained Dovekie, after he came back from his training!

Roosters

Finally! I have the rooster pictures, I am sure many of you were waiting. Now that Summer has come, hopefully I can update all the time! The first rooster, the red/orange color is the first rooster I did on canvas. It was a gift to my mom for her birthday, and since I had no present until three days before her birthday, I got the rooster done in two days, and I am surprised it came out the way it did! After hearing that Joe Hindley, the great artist in Sawyer MI, was having a rooster show for the Art Attack he invited me to bring my rooster in, to sell. But mom said "no, I'm not going to sell my rooster". I painted another to sell at Joe's studio (right). In my opinion the "blue" rooster has more character, appose from the "orange" rooster. The orange rooster is more of a still portrait, the blue is more of an active portrait. A rooster looking at you can be a little scary, thats why it bought my eye to do so. The blue/white skin below the eyes might mix you up. It is just another the weird addition to the funky rooster's head. It is wrinkled skin, with little spots of red. The white part below the mouth is almost an addition to the waddle (the large red things hanging from below the beak). These roosters are not of any particular rooster, I am hoping to do my rooster at home soon.

The orange rooster shows how beautiful a rooster can be. That one was a little easier because I did it off of a picture, but it was hard because of all of the fur looking whisky feathering on the neck and below. The blue rooster I did off of no actual rooster. I did look at a picture for the head, but the tail and coloration I did out of my imaginary self!

These roosters are still hanging at Joe's studio, and STILL for sale!



                                                                     




                                           

Duoble-in-one

I am kicking on the double-in-one portraits lately! It was a new thing for me when I painted my first double-in-one portrait of the "briard dogs". Then came the little Scottie's and then this one! It can be hard to do these portraits becuase you need to make sure not only one, but both of the animals stand out to your eye. That BOTH are at their best! You also need to make sure that the background fits two dogs, if they are totally different or not. That usually takes a couple nights in bed for me to think it out. Brain storming in bed is the best time to think, it brings me to sleep, and you may even come up with a good idea! Bed time is my thinking time! These two were hard becuase they are two totally different colors, the background was a good pick I think. This portrait was done on a 12x12. The best size to do double-in-one portraits. Of course doing a big potraits is also good for two animals on one canvas.

More updates coming soon!

Briard dogs

Oh how I loved doing these Briard dogs! These have been one of the funnest portraits I have done. I think it is becuase of their whispy shaded hair. With the horse I just did, it also has whispy hair. Another thing is, they usually have light shining on them. So when I do the hair, I do a double brush. So, lets say it's a blue/ black color like Ulani, on the right. I first squirt some black out, then squirt some blue out. I get some of the black from the first squirt, and mix the color of blue I like. I tend to make the right color of each color before mixing together. Instead of just mixing the blue from the bottle into the black, I mix in some black into the blue before I mix them together. I am really not sure if it has any impact anyways. Sometimes I put a little purple in with my right color of blue, this makes it a little deeper, and maybe a little more rich. Once I get the best color I can get. I squirt some white out, not into my blue/ black mixture though. If I did just mix the white in with my blue/ black misture, then it would become a washed out white color, almost like a baby blue. It might be nice in some cases, but not in this case. So this is the double brush part I was telling you about. I get a full, but thin brush, and dip into my blue/ black mixture, then I brush it over the white, enough that it got a nice thick streek on the bottom of the brush. Then I do what I do on the canvas. Brush it in the way of the hair. And once you look back at it, it will be a perfect shading mark. White smoothly brushed over the base color. Perfect! Another good way of doing the light shading is to do your base color, and wait until is dries. Then brush the white over it, this is not the double brush technique though. It make more of an over the top kind of shading. The double brush is more of mixed in white, but still making the shading affect!