Painting Progression

Breakfast in the Landings

Hmmm…a blank canvas. Love adding marks to a pristine surface! I plan on painting a beautiful bird with a photo provided by a friend. I would like the foreground to be more detailed and the background free and abstract.

Here is my photo reference. A chance shot from an iPhone during a golf game and a light rain.

I completed a rough sketch in pencil already contradicting my goal to stay more abstract with the background. Hopefully I can correct this on the canvas.

This is the under painting in burnt sienna. My purpose here is to establish lights and darks and make sure of the composition. Luckily the reference photo was a great composition with only slight cropping.

I have chosen a limited color palette with variations of these colors by adding white, black or the other colors shown in the paint swatch on the right.

Started rendering the background. And reworking the background. And reworking yet again. Then I decided to take a break and work on the foreground. Hopefully I will see where to take this painting in making everything else more secondary and abstract.

As I began rendering the bird, I also started to see the abstract shapes forming in the background. There is a square of light under the bird, almost like a spotlight. There is also an arc of light perpendicular through the neck of the creature. There are also little ringlets and arcs in the water from the light rain, a repeating motif.