Seraphim WIP, Part 1

For a while now I have wanted to do a painting or a series of paintings on angels, angels with the proper gravitas, awe, and terror that a supernatural being would inspire.  There are angels described as appearing human-like; this is not my primary intention here.  It is the mystery and unease of facing an utterly unearthly being I want to bring to the viewer's mind.

This painting is a trial run for this angel idea.  It is 12x16 inches, the largest gouache painting I've worked on so far.  The scene is not anyone specific in particular, an angel appearing to someone, maybe a shepherd, maybe Joseph.  The angel itself is a seraphim, the highest order of angels, described as appearing with six wings and many eyes.

I sketched a very simple underdrawing (mostly to get going so I didn't chicken out and quit), and started with a semi-transparent layer to get a feel for the colors.  I adjusted my colors and put the second layer down, which covers most of the painting except for the yellow light.  I'm going to rework that as well and make it less glaring and saturated.

Spectacled Eider Finished

That's the Eider painting finished.  I touched up the brown ducks and defined their stripes a little more, added a few highlights to the water, and put in the slightest bit of shadow between where the ducks meet the water.

Spectacled Eider WIP

The Spectacled Eider is a relatively lesser-known eider that lives in and around the Bering Sea, near the Arctic.  It also has its unique goggle-eyed patterning that makes it stand out in the waterfowl crowd.  This is an in-progress shot of my current gouache painting; the two birds in the foreground are mostly done, I only need to detail the bird in the background and touch up the water a little.

Blooming Crocosmia & Update

This is the flower of the Crocosmia "Lucifer", which I mistook for a Bird of Paradise at first.  (A botanist, I am not.)  The painting is watercolor, what I believe are the anthers are picked out in white gouache.

I am going to be updating this blog every other Monday from here on.  I haven't been satisfied with the quality of my art recently, or my blog posts; both the art and the posts are too rushed for my taste.  I want to put a little more time into these paintings and make them better, and also put more time into these posts.  Regardless of what comes up, I hope you have enjoyed my art so far.  I intend to keep making good and worthy art that other people can appreciate.

Goliath Beetle

Needed a change of pace from gouache.  I went back to my love of insects and drew the goliath beetle, the most well-known largest and heaviest beetle in the world.

Eyjafjallajökull Eruption

This is done from a photo of Iceland's volcano Eyjafjallajökull (I know, it's a mouthful) erupting.

Sketch 2/15/16: Weekend Evening

I have a shot of semidark evening clouds against the underlit front of a grocery store.  I wanted to try something different, something new, so I sketched an ink drawing and painted over it in gouache.

I'm tired.  Not sure what I want to draw, what to paint, scared of failing, but more scared of not doing anything for fear of failing.  Looking forward to tomorrow and another day, another chance.

Reflected Moonrise

Trust me, it's a moon.  If it was the Sun, I'd have painted a giant blinding glare cresting the mountains.  Done from photo reference.

Lady in Red and Black

The photo reference for this turned up in the Google Image search results for "Eastern European traditional folk dress".  I don't know what culture or country it comes from, sadly.  I do know it's a lovely dress, though.  I'm not satisfied with the face at all, but if I added anything more I'd screw it up even worse.  And it means I'm going to paint people again, and again, and again until I get them right.

Crimson Clouds Sunset

I'm lucky enough to have a park nearby where I can go and watch the sun set.  I've taken a lot of pictures there; this is a painting based off one of them.  I like the colors, the shapes not so much, they feel clunky and clumsy, compared to the real clouds.  It is, however, one more step on the road to accurately portraying the ephemeral, frail, subtle beauty of the clouds and the sky.