Hey Happy Campers!
Showing some process photos of my brand new collection I am working on. I am calling the collection "The Birdie Bunch". It is a nod to the TV show "The Brady Bunch". I am painting birds on 8x8 canvas panels from Michaels, using Liquitex heavy body paint and my trusty and favorite palette knife from Blick Art Materials.
Goofy Thoughts
Each bird painting will have soft brushed background with a single color. Kind of like The Brady Bunch opening with each cast member in a blue background square. While I am painting I think, this little blue bird looks angry. Jan Brady pops into my mind complaining about her older sister Marsh. "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!" Would that mean this blue bird's name should be Jan Birdie (Jan Brady)? But wait, this is a boy blue bird... hmmm... who is the grumpiest of the 3 boys? Greg, Peter or Bobby? Let me know if a name comes to mind for this bird in the comments below. I am thinking thie cardinal below is Marsha :-D Click here to see The Brady Bunch TV show intro :)
Comments on my Process
With this collection, I didn't use only a palette knife to create the paintings like I have done with several collections in the past. I like the contrast of the textured birds against the fuzzy brushed background. I am scanning in just the backgrounds so that I can put the birds on any background color in Photoshop. When the painting is done I scan the whole thing in and save a version with no background. As you can see in the 4 photos at the top of this post, I painted the blue areas of the bird with a white undercoat. I probably didn't need to do that since I am using heavy body acrylic paint and a palette knife, but I wanted to be sure the blue didn't get muddy with the gold background showing through.
Another fun thing you can do with acrylics is that in the 2nd photo of the blue bird, top right, you can see he is kind of a rusty color. In the 3rd photo, bottom left, you can see I glazed over the rust areas with orange to give it more depth and color. It will really sing when I gloss varnish the painting!
This collection is really "icon" heavy. I am planning on putting the birds together in Photoshop as I create more birds. PI have to paint some bird houses down the road :)
I better get back to work, I have several more birds to paint. :) Follow me on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram to see more birds I am painting, links at bottom of the page. If your are an Art Director / Manufacturer / Retailer you can see the entire collection on ArtLicensingShow.com (you can join for free).
Looking forward to your comments below - So great to connect with you! Spread Joy Today!
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