Working on Flamingo's head and eye

Here is the progression I've made on the flamingo's head.

It looked like this with its initial layer of paint.  

See the difference?  More to go but it's a good start.  

I had to move the pupil, so there is a little shadow where it used to be, which I am slowly covering with paint.  It will take a few layers.  

I truly am enjoying painting this flamingo but it comes with it difficulties!  Here I thought when I took the photo, it was difficult to get him all in the viewfinder, and how I was on a bridge backing up to get all of him in, but that was the easy part.  

The nice thing is the original photo is blurry in feet area, but the beauty of painting is you can paint it to look clear and I have, it's such an advantage us painters have over photographers!  

The deadline to have this entered is December 4th, 2013. 

If I make it into the show, it will be on display February 1st to March 9th, 2014.  I want this so bad I can taste it.  Best of show is $2,000, and the total show prize money is over $6000. 

I could care less about the money or prizes, my goal is to just make it into the show.

PRAY for me!  

Working on Flamingo's legs and feet for National Show

I hope this isn't too hard to see but I'm working on the flamingo painting for the National Show.  

I completed (for now), the webbed feet (with the sand pushed up around them), and the legs as well.  

So happy the legs didn't come out looking like sticks.  

Now on to the head and feathers!  The fun parts!  

"Harvest of Art"

Here are my two paintings (on the bottom) in the art show.

Funny thing is, the painting above was what I loved to paint when I lived up north.  All I loved to paint were old barns.  Now living in Florida since 1985, all I want to paint are palm trees and seascapes....although I do paint other things.  

This is my friend Wanda Carter.  She won a special portraiture award for this portrait she did.  Her work in pastel is amazing.  Well deserved for a talented, nice lady!

This is the brochure for Harvest of Art.  

The Harvest of Art is Charlotte County's oldest and most prestigious annual juried exhibit...and I got juried into it!  

If you look close you can see I'm number 9 & 10.  I was located in the main hallway. 

This has inspired me to keep going!  

By the way...the painting below titled "Halogen"?  

Halogen didn't make it into the juried show, so I decided to post it on "Daily Paintworks" where I have my artwork online to sell.  That website chose it for their "Pick of the day", proving one man's trash is another man's treasure.  

And that is why I don't let judges get to me personally, it just proves everyone has their own taste!  

What a great week!  

Back to painting! THREE choices for "Harvest of Art" show.

It's hard to be away from something you truly love, so I knew my lack of painting desires wouldn't last long.  Today was art class and last night I realized in order to get two of my paintings in Friday's show, I had to finish one and paint the sides of another!  UT OH!  WORK TO DO!!!

So today I finished my girl on the beach and painted the sides to the painting below.  If they don't make it into the juried show (which they probably won't since they are small paintings), I will put them up for sale on Daily Paintworks.

I finished the umbrella , put in the back cross straps on her bathing suit, and made the one mountain in the distance a different height than the other.  

Oil painting, 6" X 6" Gallery Wrap

$125

"Last Look"

Didn't touch one thing on the front of this canvas, but on the sides, I completed the painting to wrap all the way around.  

Oil Painting

10" X 10"

$400

"Coco Point Beach, Antigua/Barbuda"

The third and final painting I plan on entering in the "Harvest of Art Show" is 

"Halogen"

Acrylic

10" X 8"

Gallery Wrap

$200

Ready to go!  

Haven't felt like painting...

You just have to be in the mood and for the last four days I haven't had the urge to pick up the paint brush or piece of pastel.  Nothing else urgent is going on in my life, I just needed a few days rest from it all.  Doesn't matter what kind of talent you have, without the urge, it just doesn't happen.  

Maybe tomorrow I'll break that non-painting streak. 

Thank goodness it doesn't happen often.  

Keep on painting...

FINISHED!  

12" X 12"

Oils

$40

Painted along the sides on a 1/2" gallery wrap canvas!

Title: "Take in the moment"

Not finished but nearly done.

6" X 6"

Oils

To be priced.

I still need to work on getting that horizon straight and I

need to add in some yellow straps for her bathing suit as well as some

shadows on the suit.  The umbrella needs some work too.  

Don't know what to title this!

See the way it is painted around the sides too?  

Ready to be hung once it's finished!

Working on the flamingo's webbed feet!

Here is the progression of the flamingo's webbed feet.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

More was defined on the left and I started to complete the right one.

A closer look.  

BEFORE:

and...

AFTER:

As I look at the dark tips of the webbed feet, I don't like them that much and may make them lighter.

To me, the one on the left looks more real and the one on the right looks like plastic...so I will have to work on it a bit more.  Also I have to make the foot on the right larger.  I like the sand on the left foot more than what it looks like on the right, but that's an easy fix.  Painting is making mistakes and knowing how to correct them.  But most of all SEEING the mistakes!  Sometimes you don't see the mistakes or things you want to change until you take a photos!   Sometimes it takes until you post it online and look at it by how it will appear online!  Live and learn.