I joined in a challenge to paint 30 Paintings in 30 Days. The first week quickly became about painting chickadees!
I knew the challenge was coming up so between Christmas and New Years I braved the elements to attempt to get as many photographs as possible. I stood out on our deck for hours. Freezing my fingers off while waiting for the perfect photo opportunity. Interesting enough, it did not take me too long to figure out that these feathers cherubs are much faster than I. I managed to get many empty feeder shots. And a few with the snow flying as the little cuties flew off the feeder.
A Discovery
After about three days of obsessive photographing and freezing I discovered that my Canon camera with my long lens can shoot through the glass at my kitchen window. Well now. No more freezing. Interesting enough only the long lens can do it. Go figure. So about 500 photos later, I have enough reference material to keep me painting for 90 days! Loving it.
Oh Yeah
The first painting I did for the challenge was of a white husky appropriately named “Lily”.
Particulars
These painting are available on my web site. You can get there from here by clicking on AVAILABLE WORK on the top menu on this site and going to artwork portfolio.
Lessons Learned
Due to the inclement and cold temperatures, I decided to use LIquitex acrylic varnish. They recommend for best results that you first apply a thin (and they mean it) coat of gloss then apply a thin layer of matte. This is great product for work with backgrounds. Not so much for leaving the lovely white backgrounds of Gessobord or Clapboard unpainted. No mater how careful your are you get a bit of frustrating streaking.
RECOMMENDATION: If you are leaving much of the surface unpainted, you are much better off to use an archival spray varnish.