cardinals

                                7.5x11

I painted the lady cardinal above in class with Ronna Fujisawa of SaltyWaterArt. (Look her up if you're interested in Zoom bird painting classes.)

Ronna always gets great backruns or blooms in her backgrounds. Mine are usually just a mess but i like how this background turned out. Makes me think of frost.

                             7.5x11

This one I painted on my own. She looks a little dubious!

And the last one I painted after a class with Ian de Hoog. Ian gets beautiful washes and mixes in his birds. He's got some tutorials on YouTube on topics liker color mixing.

                              7.5x11

drawing is free

In order, my drawings from today's DrawingIsFree.org session (with apologies to the sitters!). These poses were all under 4 minutes.

I lasted 45 minutes this week (only 30 last week), and only skipped two poses.

drawing is free org

There's a group, run by Chloe Briggs and based in Paris, that meets online for 1 hour on Monday; people in the group draw each other; the pose is the length of a song.

I've only been 2x. And this week i only stayed for a half hour. But though i find it challenging--or maybe because I find it challenging?--i enjoy it and seeing the other participants' work on Instagram i realize there is a lot of potential for growth in this practice.
Drawing Is Free is worth checking out. As is Chloe's Patreon group, which explores a lot of other interesting drawing projects.

some birds

American Goldfinch, 7.5x11, painted in class with SaltyWaterArt.

Cardinal, 5x7

7.5x11

I must have 5 or 6 reds on my big palette ... but i always find the cardinal's red hard to match. Maybe when it comes to bright reds, which are really just so appealing!, close is good enough!

Night heron, 10x12, painted in a Domestika class, Naturalist Watercolor with Leondro Nunes. I like Domestika course: inexpensive and the lessons are short, in case you are pressed for time.

susan abbott workshop

I have been wanting to take a class with Susan Abbott for a very long time. Finally got my chance with a two-session online workshop on Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent. What could be better?!

For our Homer homework we painted from ref photos Susan provided. In one (the house) we were supposed to mix and use the colors in a Homer painting; in the second, we were to paint thinking about warm and cool.

Below is my copy of a Homer painting, Sloop, Nassau.

I haven't done my Sargent homework yet!

spotted sandpiper

Above is a spotted sandpiper I painted in class with Ian de Hoog, who is a really wonderful bird painter.

And below is one I painted on my own after class.

I think my paintings would really benefit from some of the pre-painting prep work Ian does, like deciding on the color mixes ahead of time.

So why do I very rarely do it? Weird.

And this was my one attempt to follow along with Birdtober, #2, the campo flicker.