Original pastel on artist sandpaper
Coming soon:
Limited edition giclée prints; total signed editions 2; edition size 195; substrate Innova Cold Press textured 100% acid-free paper and Fredrix digital artists' canvas Image size 13.5 x 20 in. paper $140.00 Image size 13.5 x 20 in. canvas $170.00
I have done several paintings of this beautiful bird from the photographs of others but this one is special. My family and I are hunters. The bird in this painting is a composite of a taxidermy mount of a standing bird killed by my mother when she was 75 years old and one on the wing shot by my son as a youngster while hunting with his grandfather.
As I render a pastel, the pencil sketch that almost always precedes my work will be covered up. Because I’m right-handed and pastels are essentially soft chalks that rub off, I always paint from the upper left to the lower right corner so as to not brush my hand against the powdered pigments.
As soon as the background was covered with color, I painted the bird’s head so I could get a feel for what the final piece might look like. I believe that if I can capture an animal’s eyes and have an interesting pose then I have captured its “essence,” after all the eyes are the “windows to the soul.” Because this painting was so detailed and would have layers of chalk, I wanted a photo record of its progress. Pay particular attention to the detail in the background around the animal because you’ll see in the next image that it will be considerably changed.
